New Resource for Teaching Kids About Money

New Resource for Teaching Kids About Money - Parenting Like HannahRarely do I recommend a resource after I have given its initial review. A new resource is released tomorrow I believe is so important, I am going to break my unwritten rule. One of the biggest sources of confusion for many Christians and of conflict in many marriages is the subject of money. Oh, God gives us pretty clear guidelines, but knowing how to put them into practice can be tough if not almost impossible for many.

Whether you constantly struggle with debt and finances or feel you have a good, godly grasp on the subject, you may wonder how to pass on skills for handling money, that will not only prevent your children from the stress of debt, but teach them how to use their money in godly ways. Smart Money Smart Kids is written by Dave Ramsey and his adult daughter Rachel Cruze. The book does one of the best jobs I have seen of not only explaining what money skills you need to teach your children, but exactly how to do it.

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Resources for Teaching Kids Godly Money Concepts

Resources for Teaching Kids Godly Money Concepts - Parenting Like Hannah
Smart Money, Smart Kids by Dave Ramsey and Rachel Cruze

My husband and I were blessed to be raised in families where we were taught godly values about money. We were trained to spend less than we earned, keep debt to a minimum, save money for unexpected expenses (and expected large ones) and give a good bit of our money away to Church and charity.

As single people, we continued these careful ways. When we married, it was easy to pay down the little debt we had and become debt free. Once our daughter entered the picture, we quickly introduced her to the concepts of work, saving and giving.

So, when we found Dave Ramsey, it wasn’t because we needed to change anything we were doing, but we wanted some fun, informative materials on financial topics to use while homeschooling our daughter. We stumbled upon him through his radio show and purchased his teen video series. As I have mentioned before, our daughter absolutely loved it. She was probably in middle school at the time and would jump out of bed every morning and race to put his dvd in and watch it.

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Tips for Teaching Kids About God and Money

Tips for Teaching Kids About God and Money - Parenting Like HannahRaising kids to have godly values about money is tough. Not only are parents battling an extremely materialistic society, but godly principles about money require a delicate balance. Everything we have belongs to God and is a blessing from Him. (James 1:17) We need to take good care of our blessings and give generously back to God through helping others and direct donations to God’s work. (II Corinthians 9:7) We need to work hard in our jobs. (Colossians 3:23) We shouldn’t be obsessed with money, especially to the point where it replaces God. (I Timothy 6:10)

There are some practical things you can do to help your children begin to find this godly balance about money.

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Kids and Work

Kids and Work - Parenting Like HannahLast Sunday as I was almost finished getting ready for church, I was hit by the kind of pain that doubles you over. It quickly became apparent that a run to the emergency room was in my near future. I probably should have panicked.

This summer I am running our children’s Bible class program – Missionary Journeys. This usually means quite a bit of last minute set-up on Sunday mornings as well as co-ordinating volunteers and teaching one of the centers. None of that was going to be done by me that day.

We ran by the church building on the way to the hospital and basically kicked our fifteen year old daughter and all of the stuff needed for Bible class out of our car. As we drove off towards the hospital, she was left to do everything I normally did on Sunday mornings for set-up and co-ordination as well as the photography and filming that she normally does for me.

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Teaching Stewardship

Teaching Stewardship - Parenting Like Hannah
Photo by Tax Credits
When our daughter was about to turn four, she begin to notice you could buy things if you had money. We decided having an allowance was a great way to teach lessons on stewardship and giving. (There are a lot of different theories on allowances. Our personal take was that since we are a single income household, everyone shares the money “daddy” brings home.)

At the time banks were not popular, so I had to search high and low for three banks and a “church coin purse” that looked very different. On her birthday, we explained that since she was now a big girl she would begin receiving a weekly allowance. To make the math easier on everyone, we gave her four dimes a week. Each of the banks was labeled with how the money in that bank could be spent. She had one for church, one to buy presents for family, one to save for college and one she could spend as she pleased. One dime each week was to go in to each bank.

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