Money Minds

Many kids receive pocket money, but do they know how to manage it? 🤔

Giving children money without teaching them financial skills is like handing them a car without showing them how to drive! 🚗💨

💡 Instead of just giving them money, teach them to:
✔️ Budget and track spending
✔️ Save for future goals
✔️ Understand the value of money

💬 How do you teach your child about money? Let us know below!

Tutors and teachers of Instagram, we applaud you. 👏
The past year or so can't have been easy for you. You've had to turn things around and change the way you teach to educate the children of our country.
On behalf of parents everywhere: thank you.

Why not use our online course to make teaching financial literacy that much easier? With a super simple 'pause and play' format, every child you teach will have the ability to fully digest the information.

With questions and activities to work on, using this lesson gives you a whole session of PPA, allowing you more time to continue being the superheroes you are. 🦸‍♀️

The best thing about this course is that it hits so many different subject areas. From Maths to PSHE, financial literacy is a key skill that every child needs to learn.

Now that SATs have been cancelled, we can focus our attention on educating children to handle their money properly.

Our session focuses on earning, saving, spending and giving.

Kids can understand that different jobs make different amounts of money. The concept of tax, saving accounts, how to spend wisely and charity work are the main topics of our session.

Teachers + tutors, use our resource today, educate your students and grab yourself the time you need. 🦸‍♀️

Welcome to Word Problem Wednesday!

The Incredibles family order a Chinese takeaway for dinner. The spring rolls cost £5.70 and the chow mein came in at £4.20 per portion. If they ordered 4 portions of chow mein and 2 of the spring rolls, how much did they spend in total on their dinner?

If they paid with a £50 note, how much change would they have been given?

Encourage your child to have a go at working out the answer and let us know what you think!

I took my daughter shopping on Saturday. She had a tiny purse for Christmas and got given £25 in Christmas money.
We walked around EVERY toy shop in town.
And there was nothing that took her fancy.
I explained to her that she didn't NEED to spend her money. She could save it for when something that she really wanted came along.
But, the pressure got to her.

We had to walk through John Lewis to get back to the car park.
I could see it in her face. She was panicked because she hadn't bought anything.
And the amount of adverts we've seen promoting the January sales piled even MORE pressure onto her tiny shoulders.

So, she started dragging my sleeve.
I turned to her and she was there with a pack of screwdrivers in her hand.
"I want this, mummy."
"No, sweetie. You really don't."
"Y-Y-YES. I D-D-D-DO."

So, it got me thinking.
And if your kids can't cope with the pressure just like my little one, I have a solution for you:
Day trip vouchers.

This is a great way to use positive reinforcement and improve your children's financial literacy whilst avoiding them begging for a pack of screwdrivers just so they can spend their money.
Start off by listing all the things you love doing as a family + make sure you include your child.

Then, cut up some squared card with a value printed on the front. EG: 1, 2, 5, 10 etc.
With your child, price up every activity on your list and give them the card rather than the money. Allow them to exchange the cards for the activity when they've collected enough.
You can do this with their Christmas money, birthday money and pocket money.

Your teaching them to earn, save and spend money on things they genuinely enjoy rather than allowing the spending pressure to take advantage of them.
Plus, you'll get some quality family time, too.

Do you have Monopoly at home? If so, which kind?
The original? Disney? Stranger Things? Friends? Mario Cart?

With so many editions of Monopoly flying off shelves every year, it's no great surprise that more Monopoly money is printed annually in America than actual REAL cash.

The US Mint, (the place where money is printed), prints an estimated $974 million annually.
That's £775 million here in the UK.

But, Hasbro - the company that produces the Monopoly games - churns out a HUMUNGOUS $30 billion in Monopoly money every single year.
That's £24 billion here in the UK.

Before 2008, each game came with a grand total of $15,140.
After 2008, though, the lucky bank of Monopoly starts the game with $20,580.

That's a whole lot of cash.
Which proves to us at Money Minds that money is FUN.
As long as you learn about it and gain financial literacy through play and engagement.

Do you have Monopoly at home? Which edition do you have?
Let us know in the comments.

We're spilling the tea ☕ and helping you take back some uninterrupted time as parents to BREATHE during Lockdown 3.0.

Because we get it. This lockdown has been harder than the others.
It's trickier to get your kids to focus on their home learning while you're trying to juggle making dinner, cleaning up, working full time and surviving as parents.

Schools have adapted as best as they can by educating our children in a virtual world.
But, they have to check answers with you, discuss ideas and they need your help with certain tasks.

Here at Money Minds, we're a team of mums and teachers ourselves.
So, we put our heads together after struggling to home-school our own kids whilst juggling everything else we need to do.
And we realised that we can help.

So, we're launching an online lesson where they can pause and play as many times as they want.
The class is best for kids aged 7-12 and tie beautifully into their PSHE/Maths lessons.
We'll be focusing on what it means to:
🏫 Earn
🏫 Spend
🏫 Save
🏫 Give

Our lessons are created by the members of our team, which means your child will be taught by fellow mums and teachers. We have the perfect balance of knowing how to deliver lessons that sink in and acted upon as well as teaching the material that you, as parents, need your kids to learn.

You'll gain around about an hour to breathe with no interruptions. Our virtual lesson has got you covered.
Get your kids learning how to be financially literate, (and have a break from homeschooling), by clicking on the booking link in our bio.

Can't wait to see your child there! 🏫

Date : Friday 25th January 2021
Time : 4pm
Location : Online
Price : £5
Link to book : https://www.eventbrite.com/e/introduction-to-money-and-finance-tickets-137443109039

Welcome to Word Problem Wednesday!

In Disney's Ratatouille, Remy prepares Linguini his version of the perfect omlette. In doing so, he goes through alot of eggs! Which of these should Remy buy to get the best value for money?

💰6 eggs for £2.20
💰12 eggs for £3.80
💰9 eggs for £2.70

Encourage your child to have a go at working out the answer and let us know what they think

Pocket money is so yesterday! It's all about 'Work for Hire' boards now.
(Okay. Pocket money is still very 'in'. But, these boards will become all the more appealing once you know how they work.)

This is a perfect method for older kids to learn about how work leads to payment. It also teaches them that, the more work you do and the harder you work, the more money you earn.
It's a fantastic tool to guide them from childhood to adolescence and the lessons they learn through this strategy will stick with them throughout adulthood.

All you need is a pin-board, some coins (or notes) and some envelopes.
Write the tasks on the front of the envelopes. For example:
📌 Make your bed.
📌 Feed the dog.
📌 Wash the car.
📌 Put your laundry away.
📌 Tidy your bedroom.

Each task will be worth a certain amount of money. Place that figure on the front of the envelope.
For example:
📌 Make your bed - £0.50
📌 Tidy your bedroom - £5.20
Then, simply pin the sealed envelope onto the pin-board.

Sure, it's a little risky as they may choose not to do any of the tasks.
BUT, they will then have to live out the consequences of not gaining any pocket money for that week.

This gives your child the opportunity to decide their workload.

Teachers can swap the money inside the envelopes for raffle tickets, house points or Dojo points.

What do you think? Regular pocket money or 'Work for Hire' boards?

CAPTION:

I BET YOU DIDN'T KNOW THIS:
On the island of Niue, there are coins that are designed with images from Star Wars, Pokemon and Frozen.
And NO, they're not children's trading coins.
They are a totally legal form of payment!

They are super rare, but they work the same way our pennies do.
The Star Wars collection features Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Yoda.
The Frozen collection features Elsa, Anna, Kristoff and Sven.
The Pokemon collection features the classic Pikachu, Baulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle and Meowth.

And, to make things even MORE magical: that's not where it ends.
The Island of Niue trades with coins designed with other Walt Disney classic characters like Cinderella and Pocahontas, not to mention the cast of Scooby Doo and Doctor Who!

This island sits in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, around 2400km away from New Zealand. And, the most famous thing about this 240 square foot island is its currency.

Each of the coins are worth between $1 and $2, meaning they are far more of a collector's item. That said, if someone saves their creative-coins, they are legally allowed to use them when purchasing.

But, if you get your hands on them, it's worth considering this: they have sold online for as much as $1000! And we do NOT blame anyone for splashing out their cash for some cartoon-themed money.

Which cartoon character would YOU put on a coin?
Let us know in the comments!

We've got something in works and we're spilling the tea NEXT WEEK.
Here at Money Minds, we know how tricky Lockdown 3.0 is.

For a lot of us, it's hit us harder than the first 2.
Why? Because it's happening AGAIN.
And school closures have had parents simultaneously on Zoom meetings, logging into their children's school systems, talking through their answers, making breakfast, lunch and dinner with NO break.

We applaud our key workers. The teachers of this country have rallied round and found a way to educate our kids. And for that, we're incredibly grateful.

But, what we're releasing will take the pressure off you as parents.
It'll give you some breathing time.
If you choose to use that time to get some work done, clean up or just have a glass of wine or 2, we've got your back.

So, keep an eye on our profile in the coming week.
Because you're gonna want to get a bite of the action!

Welcome to Word Problem Wednesday!

Dalmations Pongo and Perdy have 15 pups. Cruella De Vil offers Roger and Anita £7,500 to take them all for herself. According to Cruella, what is each pup worth?

Encourage your child to have a go at working out the answer and let us know what they think.

Have WE got the best educational but FUN game for you?! ⛵
(Yes. Yes we have.)

All you need is some coins, some tin foil, a bucket and some water.
Fill up the bucket with water.
Then, mould your tin foil into little boats.

If you want to get artistic, let yourself.
If not, as long as it can hold some coins, it's fine.

Get your child to make one, too.
Stress that it needs to be the same size for it to be a fair test.
This is a great lesson for Science experiments, too.

Place your foil boats in your bucket to make sure they float.
Then, explain the rules of the game:

The aim is to make the most amount of money with the coins in front of you, place them in the boat and have it float.
If it sinks, you have to start again. ⛵

This teaches your child that having more coins doesn't necessarily mean more money. So, before you start playing, explain the value of each of the coins.

Use your timer on your phone and give your child the amount of time you think matches their current knowledge.
Whether that's 30 seconds or 5 minutes, allow them the time to process the task.

This game costs next to nothing, has all the excitement and risk of Buckeroo and teaches your child about value.

Share this post so other parents can play, too!
And we'd LOVE to see your game. Film it and DM us your clip.