Saving more money and making smarter financial decisions is always one of the top resolutions for the New Year, but for financial planner and dad of two Anthony Delauney, it should extend to all family members, including children – there are some key financial lessons parents can impart to their children and no better time to start then at the beginning of a new year.
And one of the ways Anthony is helping to teach children important financial lesson is through is new book, Dash and Nikki and the Jellybean Game, the first in a series of financial literacy books to serve as financial foundations for growing families.
Dash and Nikki and the Jellybean Game is a rhyming book that teaches children about the value of saving for the future. This book describes a simple game that any family can play and gives parents a tool to discuss the importance of patience and sharing. With a rhyming format that is easy for children to read and remember, it’s easy to follow along as Dash and Nikki play the Jellybean Game, learning to be patient in their decisions and to always help one another. Sometimes a simple game can teach a lifelong lesson!
I recently had the chance to interview Anthony, author of Dash and Nikki and the Jellybean Game about starting financial literacy early.
Why did you write Dash and and Nikki and the Jellybean Game?
I have worked in the financial planning industry for about nineteen years. My focus has always been helping families. One common concern I hear from families with children is "How do I start teaching my kids about money? I wish that I had learned about this stuff (money) when I was younger." I've realized as both an advisor and as a parent that telling our children what to do does not always yield the results we desire. Instead, children tend to learn from stories and examples. They constantly observe and then do their best to interpret how someone else is feeling and how that person might react in a given situation.
One study that I have shared with parents in the past regarding children's behavior is the Marshmallow Study. The study involved giving a child a marshmallow and then telling them not to eat it until the adult returns back to the room. The adult then leaves and monitors the child's behavior. It's a great study to share with adults, but not very easy to explain to children. I wanted to come up with a way to explain the study in a way that my daughter Abbie (age 12) and son Jason (age 10) would both understand and enjoy. We all love playing games, so I knew that I would need to create some type of game. We also all love desserts, and jellybeans are a favorite. I knew given their ages that the game needed to be short and simple with rules that they could understand. I came up with the idea of giving them each ten jellybeans to start off the day and telling them that every hour that they could resist the ten jellybeans I would give them five more up until the end of the day (dinnertime).
Given what I knew about my children's personalities, I was fairly confident that my son Jason would hoard all of his jellybeans to create a huge pile by the end of the day. My daughter Abbie, on the other hand, would potentially eat all her jellybeans within the first hour. I imagined how Abbie might feel later in the day as Jason's pile grew and her plate stayed empty, so I wanted to incorporate a way in the game that if one person decided to eat all of their jellybeans, the sibling could potentially help out by giving or loaning some of their jellybeans. Jason and Abbie often tend to look out for one another, so I was fairly confident that they would help the other if the need arose.
As the game developed more in my head, I realized that this would be a game that all families could use to help teach their children about the value of savings and delayed gratification. Abbie, Jason and I all love to write, so I came up with the idea of turning the game into a children's rhyming picture book that parents could share with their children to introduce the game and the concepts. Abbie and Jason played a major role in helping me to develop the plot of the story, and readers will quickly discover that the two main characters Dash and Nikki have a very strong resemblance to Jason and Abbie.
We wanted to create a book that kids of all ages would enjoy, and I wanted the book to serve as a tool to help parents start a conversation about money with their children and also help teachers start a conversation with their students. Dash and Nikki and the Jellybean Game became the first children's picture book in the Owning the Dash Kids series. More books will follow that share entertaining stories that parents and teachers will be able to use to help introduce basic financial concepts and equip children to enter adulthood.
How can imagery in books be useful for teaching kids about financial literacy?
Children learn through stories. Especially at a young age, it is challenging to teach them about money because they don’t have any direct connection to money. They can’t earn it. They can’t spend it unless it is gifted to them and their parents give them permission to use it. They don’t have any ownership of it. Imagery allows us to apply adult lessons to topics and circumstances that children can better understand.
For example, if you tell a story about trick-or-treating on Halloween and coming home with a giant bag of candy, many children can relate. They have the personal experience of going to collect candy, sorting and trading it at home, and feeling the pressure to give some of it up for the sake of their health. Candy is a currency, treat-or-treating is the “work” to earn that currency, eating candy is spending, storing some candy for later is saving, and giving some candy away is being taxed! They might not use those words, but the lessons are there.
Likewise, I’ve used jellybeans as the central image in Dash and Nikki because it’s a well-known, easily accessible “currency” for children and allows them to build a connection to the story. I never mention the word “money,” but through Nikki, readers can see the pitfalls of excessive spending, and through Dash, they learn the value of saving and sharing. Even compound interest is represented by the jellybean piles increasing by five each hour! Jellybean imagery builds the connection that allows parents to start having important conversations with their children about fiscal responsibility, charitable giving, and other topics related to money.
Why is it important for parents and caregivers to start conversations with their children early around financial topics?
Conversations around financial topics are critical to start at an early age because parents need to help mold a child’s mindset and habits as they relate to money. The same is true for how children relate to food, caring for their bodies, treating others, their work ethic, and even building study habits with school. We develop habits very early in life, and the longer that we persist with those habits, the more engrained they become in us. Teaching children to have an open, respectful and comfortable relationship with money at an early age, before they start earning it, allows them to be better prepared when cash starts flowing into their bank accounts.
It’s also important to start educating children at home and in school because there are so many outside influences that will steer them toward poor financial decisions. The world is not built to ensure that individuals and families experience financial success. Instead, the focus is immediate gratification and consumerism. Companies spend significant amounts of money to determine the best way to convince you that you cannot live without their product or service. That is how they make money. Educating children about responsible earning, spending, and saving and helping to mold their mindset early in life gives them a major step up as they take their journey into adulthood.
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