Curriculum, Lesson Plans, and Learning Activities
The following websites provide a wide range of information, programs and activities designed to educate young people about managing their money.
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This is an online parent’s guide to kids and money. It will help parents teach children and set them on the road to handling money responsibly. This site includes money lessons on the basics as well as buying a home, controlling debt, planning for retirement, hiring financial help, buying a car, taxes, estate planning, etc. Each lesson has top things to know, a glossary of terms, worksheets and quizzes.
FFFL is a comprehensive personal finance curriculum for K-12 students that teaches students how to make thoughtful, well-informed decisions about important aspects of personal finance, such as earning income, spending, saving, borrowing, investing, and managing money. They also have lesson plans and materials on topics like globalization, choices and changes, entrepreneurship, economic systems, financial crisis, etc.
This is a great resource for investment education, personal finance, market analysis and free trading simulators. With a comprehensive financial dictionary, exam preparation materials, and active trading strategies, it is a leading destination for investors. Investopedia began as a financial dictionary, separating itself from other dictionaries by offering the “Investopedia Definitions” featuring a plain English interpretation of hard to understand terms and concepts.
This membership website is appropriate for young adults and provides budgeting tools, newsletters, courses, and boot camps to educate and support adults in reaching their financial goals.
Money Management Lessons and Resources for Kids: Grades K-12
Providing children with a thorough understanding of financial literacy at an early age is vital to ensure proper money management skills later in life. Setting a realistic budget, responsibly managing credit and debt, saving for unexpected expenses, and learning how to invest will all be important life skills for every young adult to master. This is an online resource that provides parents and guardians with the money management lessons and resources for kids from Grades K-12.
Money as You Grow, developed by the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability, provides 20 essential, age appropriate financial lessons–with corresponding activities–that kids need to know as they grow. Written in down-toearth language for children and their families, Money as You Grow will help equip kids with the knowledge they need to live fiscally fit lives. The lessons in Money as You Grow are based on more than a year of research, and drawn from dozens of standards, curricula, and academic studies.
This website has great resources for parents and children. Here you can meet the piggy bank for the 21st century. It is a unique, patented four-slot piggy bank with separate chambers for save, spend, donate and invest. This interactive tool for children ages 4-11 teaches them sound money management techniques. There is a fun app called Savings Spree; it teaches kids how the daily lifestyle choices that they make can add up to big savings or big expenses, depending on how they choose to spend (or not spend) their money. Also, there are books, organizers and curriculum available.
Through a partnership with Vanguard and a fourth grade school teacher, My Classroom Economy enables any educator to teach children financial responsibility through fun, experiential learning. The site has free instructor guides and materials to teach children from K-12 about banking, employment, fines and tickets, rent and deeds, and auctions.
Practical Money Skills is a free, financial literacy website for parents and children. Created by Visa, the program offers money management resources including calculators, games, and lesson plans tailored for use by Canadian families and educators.
The Secret Millionaires Club with Warren Buffett is an innovative way to teach sound financial and entrepreneurial practices through an animated cartoon series. The “Learn & Earn” Promotion shows you how to use animated cartoons to teach your kids good financial habits and entrepreneurial skills through important life lessons from Warren Buffett.
This is a stock simulator that allows users to play various stock market games to learn about different asset classes and strategies, how the market works and practice investment theories and strategies.
This investment newsletter type of website is focused on teens. It was created by teens and still operated by teens.
Spend Grow Give is an online financial environment designed to engage and educate the next generation of high networth individuals on the benefits and responsibilities of wealth. Young people in the TILE community learn first-hand how to manage their money, invest for the future and give back through charitable donations. In partnership with financial institutions, trusted experts and parents, Spend Grow Give is the path to a thoughtful and independent financial identity.
Online stock market simulator where kids can trade stocks in real time with their virtual portfolio. The site offers a learning center with instructor guide, course material and handout that can be used with a class or a group of cousins.
This online resource provides kids, teens, parents and teachers with access to interactive financial games, puzzles and quizzes. The financial insights and techniques are scaled to accommodate all age groups, thus making it the perfect instructional tool for parents and teachers.