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GoStudent Expert Evelyn's Guide to Teaching Your Children About Money
Although mortgages, savings and interest rates may seem like ‘adult’ topics your children should not be concerned about yet, teaching your children financial literacy now will benefit them for the rest of their lives. In the list below, we’ll recommend resources to help you educate your children about finances.
Resources for primary school students
You should try this online interactive which lets your child practise using an ATM, changing currency, paying in coins, and more. You and your child can complete tasks based on the bank’s services, or just explore and see what you can do. You can download a guide to using the Virtual Bank here.
We recommend Natwest again because they always have the best interactive games! In Super Savers, your child will learn how to earn their pocket money and save their income to buy their desired item. This is a great resource for teaching your child how to save money from an early age.
We recommend this to your child to introduce them to different ways of keeping track of their money and to help them understand why it is important to keep track of their spending and saving.
Debit and credit cards – meet Alex
You should try this with your children to teach them about the implications of using a debit or credit card and the most appropriate scenarios to use them in. In this interactive activity, pupils work through three sections: a pre-assessment quiz to establish their initial level of knowledge, an interactive case study, and a post-assessment quiz to consolidate what they have learned. The case study introduces Alex, who wants to buy a new tablet and needs to decide how to pay for it.
We recommend this to help your children recognise different notes and coins as well as understand the value of different notes and coins.This is suitable for 5+ year olds.
Another interactive game for children 5+ years old. You should play this game with your child to help them recognise how different choices might affect the safety of money and be able to recall different places to keep money safe.
We recommend this game to teach your children where people get their money from and to understand the different ways people earn their money.
If you want your child to start learning about saving and spending (but with parental control), Gohenry is the app for you! With this app you get a parent account, which allows you to top up your child’s allowance and apply rules on how they can spend that money. Plus, they will be able to use their card in shops, online and to withdraw cash. But don’t worry, you will get an instant notification whenever they use the card and can set weekly spending limits.
Gimi is designed to help you and your child keep track of their allowance and chores, but also to provide financial education along the way. A virtual piggy bank fills with the weekly allowance you set, and you can define rewards for specific tasks. What’s most special about this app is that there are three sets of lessons to learn, which you and your child can work through together. The lessons are currently themed around earning, saving and spending and are accompanied by bright animated videos.
Rooster Money will let you keep track of the total owed for things like pocket money or completed chores. One nice feature of this app is the ability to add pictures of items that kids are saving up for and set a savings target, which is great for helping your child to visualise the end goal. Children will also be able to see how much money they have saved and how they’ve spent it in an easy to read statement.
Resources for secondary school students 🏫
You can get your older children to play this game if you want them to learn about the meaning of credit and debt, the difference between planned and unplanned borrowing, the importance budgeting plays in managing money and how to use mathematical skills to calculate spending and budgeting.
In this interactive activity, players go through the process of checking receipts against a bank statement to decide if the transactions are real or if they are fraudulent. Players work through three sections: a pre-assessment quiz to establish their initial level of knowledge, an interactive activity, and a post-assessment quiz to consolidate what they have learned.
We recommend this game if you want your children to understand the importance of checking financial information such as bank statements, till slips and bills and recognising certain frauds and scams.
We recommend this interactive activity to help your older children explore the concept of insurance, in particular, the different types of car and holiday insurance. They are required to take a quiz before and after to consolidate learning.
Get your children to try this game if you want them to learn about the different ways of planning for retirement. This interactive activity allows students to work through three sections: a short quiz to test existing knowledge, an information video, and a further quiz to consolidate learning.
You should try this quiz to help your children learn about their rights and responsibilities as consumers. They will learn about the Consumer Rights Act and work through a short video.
We recommend this interactive if your child wants to learn about the persuasive techniques advertisements use, how our spending choices affect others and how to evaluate a good deal. This is a brilliant resource to help children spend their money more wisely. 🤑
We recommend this game to help your children familiarise themselves with payslips. By being given the scenario that they have started their own business and need to complete the payslips of two employees, your child will learn more about payslips.
You should try this interactive if your children have entrepreneurial spirit or a keen interest in app building. This interactive offers insights into the process of creating apps, especially regarding the start-up and running costs typically involved.
For young adults, we recommend this clear and insightful interactive to help players identify financial risks and rewards, make informed decisions, and manage the consequences of risks.
This interactive activity provides information about three characters, including their qualifications, job, hours they work and salary. We recommend this game if you want your children to learn about the common and realistic ways people not much older than them make and spend their money, including their university choices. In the game, they will choose how to spread the characters’ disposable income so they can reach their goals.
Whilst your children’s academic progress is very important, learning how to manage their money is also a vital life skill that unfortunately does not get as much time or attention in the classroom. We hope that the recommendations above will start an engaging and effective conversation with your children about the power of money.
