With many schools shut down to protect against coronavirus exposure, many parents have found themselves in a new role: teacher.
So why not add some personal finance to your lesson plans?
“This is the most amazing opportunity for doing things with your kids that you wanted to do, that are meaningful long term,” said Thomas Henske, a certified financial planner with New York-based Lenox Advisors.
“People have never been in an environment where they are not rushing to go to the next thing,” he added.
At least 55.1 million students have been affected by school closures so far, according to Education Week. Parents are now guiding them through lessons provided by their teachers and tapping into online resources to help out.
Diana David Joseph understands the importance of weaving money lessons into her day. She once worked on Wall Street, but now lives in Cincinnati with her husband and four children.
She’s been playing games with coins for her kindergartner triplets and tapping into her third-grader’s inner entrepreneur. She also spends her time running a Facebook group called Parent Vault, which she started just a few weeks ago as a community for parents now home-schooling. It has close to 20,000 members. She’s also since created a Parent Vault website.
“There is definitely a trend: We are doing a lot of academic stuff with our kids, but let’s go back to our roots — the things we are always wanting to do with our kids but don’t have the time,” Joseph said.
“Let’s teach our kids how to fix a car, how to garden,” she added. “Let’s teach our kids how to balance a checkbook.”
Here are ways you can incorporate financial lessons throughout the day for your kids, no matter their age.
by Michelle Fox for cnbc.com
Photo by Alexander Mils from Pexels