3 Principles for Teaching Your Kids Finances

As the hot California sun streamed down, I huffed and puffed on my knees along the rock-walled flower garden. Weeding those rocks was a chore I hated. Not only was it grubby and uncomfortable, but sometimes big scary spiders were lurking in the weeds – anathema to a little 7 year old like me. (Actually, big scary spiders are still anathema to me!)

So why was I sticking with it? Because Mom and Dad promised my sister and I weekly allowances if we completed certain chores – one of them being the weeding of the rock wall.

It was so exciting when we got our allowance on Saturday (assuming the chores were satisfactorily completed). My sister and I each had a piggy bank on our dresser. Hers was a little fat pink pig and mine was a lovely green pig. The CHINK of the coins dropping in was such a satisfying sound.

Each Sunday, we felt excessively generous as we plinked our little coins into the offering plate. I can still remember the sudden grins of the deacons as they watched us importantly drop in our nickels and pennies. The story of the widow’s mite in the Bible always made me feel that God would probably do something amazing with my little ten cents – maybe save an entire continent or fund a new Bible translation or something.

And the part of our savings that we got to spend was fun too! After several weeks of savings, Mom would take us to the store to buy a toy or a candy bar with our very own money! Oh, how we agonized over those choices. After all, once our $2-$3 was gone, it would take several more weeks of chores to build up the savings again. I still have some of the little dolls and doll clothes I bought with that money. (I don’t have the candy bars any more though.)

Why do I share this story? Because learning how to manage money wisely seems to be a lost art in our culture. Parents themselves often are confused about how to properly save, spend and give. So they find it difficult to come up with a good way to teach their children these things.

While I certainly wouldn’t say that running a household’s finances is easy and simple, I am here to say that teaching good financial habits to your children can be simple. There are lots of good curricula, ideas, printables and internet blogs about how to do this. But the basic principles are free and you can easily adapt them to your own family.

Principle 1: All hard work brings a profit. 

That’s not my idea, it’s actually in the Bible. (Proverbs 14:23) Starting when they are just out of toddlerhood, all children can be taught this principle. Though contributing to the family through chores should never be completely on a mercenary basis, it is appropriate to designate certain extra chores or tasks as money-makers for your children. Since you want to teach them that shirking this work leads to no profit, it’s best to pick out some tasks that don’t absolutely have to be done every week.

Children need to learn (as do adults, and our government) that true profit only follows hard work. Get rich quick schemes rarely work long-term, as we who are older and wiser know. But the person who puts in elbow grease, who is willing to learn, who wants to improve their skills, who can take orders from a boss, who can properly complete an assigned task – that person will nearly always find a way to make money. Teach this principle with age-appropriate tasks you are willing to pay for.

Principle 2: Delayed gratification now means more satisfying gratification later on. 

Or in other words, saving money today means you can buy something really cool tomorrow. Helping your children learn to save up for things they want is an excellent way to counteract our instant "microwave" culture. Children today are so used to having everything NOW that parents often have to actively find ways to teach this principle.

Help your children choose age-appropriate goals to save for. Little kids may find it hard to save for a long time, so choose less expensive items for them. Older children and teens, however, should learn to be able to save for months (or even years) for something they really want. Mom and Dad can offer to match their savings, but Mom and Dad shouldn’t always be stepping in to make up the difference if Johnny isn’t disciplined enough to save.

Principle 3: God loves – and blesses – a cheerful giver. Help your children choose an amount to save for tithing and a place to give their tithe. Obviously the Bible instructs us to support the pastors and teachers who feed us at church each week. But you can also help your child look for other opportunities to give. Maybe they can fund their own shoebox for Operation Christmas Child, or perhaps they can purchase a toy to donate to a Toys for Tots drive. Help them learn the joy of giving, and remind them that God is blessing them by making them able to earn money.

The awesome thing about these three principles is that they don’t just apply to money. 

They apply to all of life. For instance, do you want a good relationship with another person? Put in some hard work, be willing to delay gratification, and give cheerfully – and see if that doesn’t improve any relationship out there! These are actually fundamental principles of living that bring peace, wisdom and dignity to everyone who applies them.

Make it practical: As your children learn and grow, continue to apply these principles in a practical manner. It doesn’t necessarily take a super-duper curriculum or intricate plan to teach basic finances to your kids. Simply introduce them in an age appropriate way to things like bank accounts, writing checks, making (and following!) a budget, running a small business, and generally keeping track of income and expenses. Let them see you doing these things on a regular basis as well.

 People who complain about how decadent our government or culture is often forget that “the government” and “the culture” are simply made up of people like us. We the people need to recover biblical basics like hard work, delayed gratification and cheerful giving. When we do, our culture and our government will change for the better. But it all starts with one family at a time!

Written by Heather Sheen

Curriculum: Tool or Tyrant?

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. The end of another perfect homeschool day. This morning—like all mornings—all of the children jumped joyfully out of bed at the crack of dawn to meet the day. The hour of family worship set the tone for all—and it was so satisfying to hear the children reciting the Pentateuch. All of the chores were cheerfully accomplished, making the house a spotless and inviting center of learning. Each child applied himself to his assignments with alacrity and intensity of purpose. Now, dinner is simmering aromatically, awaiting the arrival of a happy Daddy from work.

What do you mean this doesn’t describe your homeschool?

Oh. I see. Instead, you are thinking: The end of another long homeschooling day has arrived. You are brain-dead. Your children are cranky. The house is a wreck. What in the world will you fix for dinner? Your long-suffering husband is getting tired of coming home to leftovers. In fact, you haven’t spent much time with your husband for weeks—you have been too busy homeschooling the children!

Wasn’t homeschooling supposed to be fun…or at least satisfying?

Didn’t people tell you that your children would enjoy learning? What could be wrong?

You stack up all of the school books. Look at all of those books! Why, you have diligently made sure that your children have read all of the chapters in the book, and have answered all of the questions at the end of those chapters.  They have completed a good stack of worksheets every day. You have given them every quiz in the test booklet. You had them write book reports for all of the books they have been reading. According to your record book, you are right on schedule—your almighty schedule!!

Still, nothing else is going right. Maybe you are giving them too much school work…but…on the other hand, those books were written by education experts. If they didn’t expect you to teach everything in the book, they would not have put those lessons in there. Right?

If you could only get your children to understand that! They keep complaining that they are bored and already know the material, but lots of repetition is a good thing, after all....isn’t it? If the children weren’t so grouchy and uncooperative, you could finish all of those books!

Maybe...maybe you just were not cut out to homeschool. (sniffle)

The Tyrant Attacks!
Guess what has happened to you?! (Sinister music builds in the background.)

You have been ensnared by.......The Curriculum Tyrant! (Dum da dump dum daaaa!)

Yes. The Curriculum Tyrant! The Curriculum Tyrant sneaks into your home under the guise of  “Good Books.” He begins to whisper to you that these books are the answer to all of your children’s needs. He then quietly, but persistently, begins to insist that you must not waste any of these Good Books, but must do all contained therein.

He virtuously points out, just for good measure, that you spent a fortune on these Good Books too. Certainly, you would not want to waste hard-earned money by not getting the most out of these Good Books. Before long you are feeling guilty and anxious for not having your children spend more and more of their time slaving away in the Good Books. It’s for their own good, after all!

You might be in the grip of The Curriculum Tyrant, but, hark! There is hope! To rescue you from the domain of The Curriculum Tyrant, we must step back to the beginning. First you must take the following pop quiz:

1. Who owns your children?
2. Who has God deputized to raise His children?
3. Does anyone on this earth know your children better than you?

Answers:
1. God does. Of course He does. The magnificent Creator of the universe owns all things, including your precious children. You knew that, remember?
2. You. Yes, God has graciously allowed you, as a parent, to be a steward over the dear blessings He has given you. Imagine the influence God is allowing you to wield—influence with eternal consequences. Wow!
3. No! God has placed you in the unique position of having special knowledge about your children that no one else can ever completely have. No one will ever know them the way you do.

Now, an essay question. What is an “expert”? 

Dictionary definition: “a person who has special skill or knowledge in some particular field.” So, in the “particular field” of your children, the “expert” is you! Not The Curriculum Tyrant. You! Do the authors of Good Books really know more about your children than you do? Does Scripture exhort authors of Good Books concerning how to raise children, or does it exhort parents? God has given the job of “resident expert” to you, and not to a stack of Good Books.

More Dangers From the Tyrant
Now that we have established who the real experts are, let’s take another look at the ways of The Curriculum Tyrant. The Curriculum Tyrant is unbalanced and relentless. He wants to take over your entire family life. Should your children slog through school work just because it’s in the book? If your daughter readily knows her multiplication tables, why are you wasting time with endless drills? If your son excitedly rushes into give you a blow-by-blow description of the book he is reading, why are you saddling him with a laborious book report? If Mary is bored with a textbook-dictated writing assignment, why not let her write about something she likes? If the chemistry text is covering the same math as the math textbook, does Johnny really need to do the same material again?

Anxiety and chaos are the price you pay for obeying The Curriculum Tyrant. By contrast, God is always balanced, and He is the God of order. Obeying Him brings peace and orderliness as we allow Him to tame The Curriculum Tyrant.

Fighting the Tyrant
So, you have reviewed all of the symptoms and have decided that, indeed, you have been seduced by The Curriculum Tyrant. Now what?

Stop what you are doing. Put the Good Books back on the shelf. Pray for wisdom. James 1:5 says: “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” (NIV)

Take some time and look at the skills each of your children has been demonstrating. Pay attention to what they are truly able to do, not just what the Good Books have been dictating. After you have taken an in-depth look at your children’s abilities, and have prayed for God’s leading, then you can pull the Good Books back off the shelf.

You are now ready for.....(happy music builds in the background) Curriculum Tools! (Tee de TEEEEEEEE!) That’s right. Curriculum Tools. Curriculum Tools are gifts God has given us to help raise our children properly. Good Books are wonderful Tools to be used, at your discretion, in teaching your children, but they need to be used wisely. Tools are used by the expert to create, build, and fix. The expert masters his tools and is not intimidated by them.

You do not necessarily need to throw out your curriculum and begin something new. I like the statement, “Any curriculum will work if the teacher does.” In other words, if you—and remember, you are the real expert!—take charge of what you have on hand, and regularly assess your children’s schoolwork and attitudes, you might not need to spend more money on new material. After evaluating what you have on the bookshelf, decide where your children should “plug in” to a book or a plan of study. What can they skip—yes, skip!—either because it is twaddle, or because they have already mastered it? What areas need more practice? Your answer will vary from subject to subject. New curriculum might be necessary, but be certain you make an informed decision and not a snap decision based on frustration.

Freedom!!
You have made the transition! You are now using Curriculum Tools to meet the needs of your children, rather than following the demands of the despotic Curriculum Tyrant. Such freedom! Life returns to normal as you fit curriculum into its proper place along with housekeeping, family time, devotions, and other important responsibilities. The frazzled, brain-dead mother disappears, replaced by a calm, smiling mother. The neglected daddy and perpetually cranky children disappear too. Is life perfect? Well, no, but home should now be a more pleasant place and the daily routine should flow more smoothly. Learning can now be interesting instead of the draining drudgery it once was. Hurrah for homeschooling!

Just a word of caution, though. The Curriculum Tyrant is never defeated. He will try to return, and he is very sneaky. But you will know when he returns if you pay attention. Recall the anxiety? The chaos? You will know. Trust me. I’m an expert!

Written by Holly Sheen