Developing Financial Literacy In Elementary School: Fun And Effective Strategies
Have you noticed that elementary students tend to have low numeracy skills when it comes to basic math facts and mental math?
Students rely heavily on the use of a number line and/or hundreds chart to calculate.
There can be many reasons for this:
Too much screen time
Not enough hands-on learning
Overcrowded classrooms with multiple struggling learner needs
Busy family lives that leave little time for numeracy practice at home
As a child, I remember my Dad sitting with me at the kitchen table with bills and coins and teaching me how to skip count, group like values, and count out and back change. I am forever grateful for this investment of his time.
When it came time for me to move out on my own, I knew how to manage a monthly budget, knew what I was to receive in change on my purchases, and was able to calculate the amount of tax charged mentally.
It was ingrained that if I did not have the cash on hand, I did not need whatever shiny object was currently being dangled in front of me through the television and later social media. I applied for my very first credit card in my early thirties. Now, over twenty years later, I still have it paid off every month.
In my experience, financial literacy is a life skill we cannot afford to live without.
Financial literacy was instilled at a young age from spending time with my Dad and working with him at his businesses. This type of real life financial literacy experience is drastically missing from both school and home environments. But we can get it back.
Child development research supports the need to develop financial literacy at early ages as it is a key determinant of a purposeful, well-balanced, and enjoyable life.
If you are wondering how you can help your child or students develop these skills, we have some great resources to get you started in our K-6 Learning Library. Each resource includes engaging instructional videos, audio functions, and high-definition images of Canadian currencies. These resources can be used both digitally and non-digitally at home or at school.
To help get you started, here are some of our most popular money lessons:
Thank you for reading this blog post on fun and effective strategies for developing financial literacy in elementary school.
The lesson plans in our K-6 Learning Library will help you and your child or students right now and for years to come. The best part is you can edit these resources so that your child or students can focus on what they can do right now and build on it rather than internalize that they are not performing at grade level.