site.btaNew Project Helps Schools, Parents Teach Young Children about Money
NW 16:50:01 29-05-2018
LN1648NW.124
124 - ECONOMY - EDUCATION - PERSONAL FINANCES
New Project Helps Schools,
Parents Teach
Young Children about Money
Sofia, May 29 (Ekaterina Toteva and Valeria Dimitrova of BTA) - Teaching children to handle real money at an early age is the best way to counter the rising indebtedness among youth people, say the experts of the Association for Active Education. The Association has developed an educational package, Financiology, aimed to help parents and teachers in teaching children key concepts from the world of money.
Official statistics shows that the levels of indebtedness in Bulgaria are highest in the 18-25 age brackets.
Over a year now, the Association for Active Education has been working with primary-school students in Sofia to create its package of resources for financial education at home and at school.
Pepi Dimitrova, the leader of the Financiology project, told BTA their goal was to create additional resources and channels of acquiring financial knowledge for children aged 6 to 12.
A study they did at the beginning found that the issue of money is a taboo in child communication at an early stage. This has predictable consequences as children grow up to become young people incapable of handling their own finances.
The solution is to teach children about money from an early age: money as a means to better life and not as a goal in itself, says Dimitrova.
The Financiology package includes a variety of resources such as tips for parents, games, short films and various activities. They tell children how to distinguish between needs and wishes when it comes to money, and teach them about saving, budget and achieving financial goals.
In one example, the tips to parents tells them it is best to start giving their children pocket money from the age of seven or when they start school; that this money should be given on a weekly basis so the child has the freedom to decide whether to spend all of the money or only some of it and save the rest, or save all of it.
"Parents are very careful not to leave their children to make mistakes," Dimitrova says. They either give their child money every day or give extra money when the child fails with the distribution of the weekly budget. "This gives the child the false idea that this model will continue to exist for the rest of his or her life. The truth is that everybody makes financial mistakes and the sooner the child becomes aware of this, the smaller the damage," she says.
Financiology is a joint project of the Association for Active Education, a Sofia school and the Sofia City Hall under Europe 2018 Programme.
It also teaches children about the single european currency, about its role in the EU, and about exchange rates.
The Association experts have observed that a growing number of young children know the euro and its role in the EU due to families' more frequent travels abroad. LN/
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LN1648NW.124
124 - ECONOMY - EDUCATION - PERSONAL FINANCES
New Project Helps Schools,
Parents Teach
Young Children about Money
Sofia, May 29 (Ekaterina Toteva and Valeria Dimitrova of BTA) - Teaching children to handle real money at an early age is the best way to counter the rising indebtedness among youth people, say the experts of the Association for Active Education. The Association has developed an educational package, Financiology, aimed to help parents and teachers in teaching children key concepts from the world of money.
Official statistics shows that the levels of indebtedness in Bulgaria are highest in the 18-25 age brackets.
Over a year now, the Association for Active Education has been working with primary-school students in Sofia to create its package of resources for financial education at home and at school.
Pepi Dimitrova, the leader of the Financiology project, told BTA their goal was to create additional resources and channels of acquiring financial knowledge for children aged 6 to 12.
A study they did at the beginning found that the issue of money is a taboo in child communication at an early stage. This has predictable consequences as children grow up to become young people incapable of handling their own finances.
The solution is to teach children about money from an early age: money as a means to better life and not as a goal in itself, says Dimitrova.
The Financiology package includes a variety of resources such as tips for parents, games, short films and various activities. They tell children how to distinguish between needs and wishes when it comes to money, and teach them about saving, budget and achieving financial goals.
In one example, the tips to parents tells them it is best to start giving their children pocket money from the age of seven or when they start school; that this money should be given on a weekly basis so the child has the freedom to decide whether to spend all of the money or only some of it and save the rest, or save all of it.
"Parents are very careful not to leave their children to make mistakes," Dimitrova says. They either give their child money every day or give extra money when the child fails with the distribution of the weekly budget. "This gives the child the false idea that this model will continue to exist for the rest of his or her life. The truth is that everybody makes financial mistakes and the sooner the child becomes aware of this, the smaller the damage," she says.
Financiology is a joint project of the Association for Active Education, a Sofia school and the Sofia City Hall under Europe 2018 Programme.
It also teaches children about the single european currency, about its role in the EU, and about exchange rates.
The Association experts have observed that a growing number of young children know the euro and its role in the EU due to families' more frequent travels abroad. LN/
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