As parents, it is our job to facilitate financial learning for our kids. This doesn’t mean we have to have all of the answers. It means that we can direct our children toward useful resources and financial materials that can help them to develop their financial capabilities.
Financial videos can be a great way to teach kids about money management. This is because most children are intimately familiar with this medium from watching YouTube and other social media videos. For kiddos who are too young to read, financial literacy videos can be used as an early introduction to money management concepts. For elementary-aged children or teenagers, videos can often be more engaging than some of the alternatives.
Best Online Videos to Teach Your Kids About Financial Literacy
YouTube has an amazing and broad selection of financial literacy videos available to children of all ages. All you have to do is search “financial literacy for kids,” and you will be met with a wide selection of useful videos. I’ve specifically used some of the videos created by “Learning Mole” to introduce financial topics to my children.
The Learning Mole allows you to search the videos you want to see based on the age of your child. Topics covered include credit cards, financial literacy, and bank accounts. The content is European so when they discuss currency it is not in American dollars. While this could be confusing for some kiddos it’s also a great opportunity to have conversations about other cultures and currencies.
Finance in the Classroom is another resource you can check out for financial literacy videos for kids in the K to six or seven to 12 age range. You can find general financial literacy lessons as well as additional resources for financial learning including books, music, and PowerPoint presentations.
Here’s a list of other videos you can check out to expose your kids to different money lessons.
The first three on this list are geared at younger kids, preschool to grade two or three. These are fund videos that teach kids about money and how to count different coins.
- Learn About Money For Kids (USA Money and Currency)
- Counting Coins for Kids (US Coins)
- Money and Making Change (Rock and Learn)
These next videos are geared towards middle school-aged children and high schoolers. These videos focus on essential financial topics such as budgeting, savings, investing, credit scores, and paying for college with student loans.
- Making Cents: Financial Literacy Videos For Young Learners (PBS)
- Financial Literacy
- Financial Habits to Live By
This last video is a TED Talk that gives parents some tips for how to teach their kids about money.
Video Courses for Purchase to Teach Your Kids About Money Management
In addition to financial literacy YouTube videos, there are a number of websites that provide great money videos along with other helpful reference materials. Generation Genius provides a variety of videos and lessons for kids on the topics of money, math, and science. It provides an outline of exactly what your child can learn from the video and also gives example questions, relevant vocabulary terms, additional reading materials, practice problems and answers and even a teacher guide which you can use to assist your child in learning.
While you can try Generation Genius for free, you will need to purchase the plan in order to provide long-term access. Home-based programs start at $145 per year.
Outschool is another resource you can use to introduce your teens to financial concepts. It offers a Highschool Financial FLEX course that provides an introduction to money management using video lessons. Videos are posted weekly and your teen can watch at their convenience. In addition to the videos, there are class discussion questions that are posted along with a weekly quiz to help your teen review what they learned that week. Concepts covered include credit cards, budgeting, investing, and bank accounts. The four-week course only costs $34.
Tips for Talking to Your Kids About Money in Conjunction With Videos
While videos that teach money concepts are a great way to engage your children on the topic of financial literacy, they should be used in combination with other strategies. To keep your kids interested and talking about money, you will need to set the stage.
Also see: Tips and strategies to save money for kids.
Keep the money conversations going
Talk about money regularly. Sit down and watch a financial video with your young child and then engage them in a conversation. Ask them questions about what they just learned. Provide opportunities to put their learnings into practice. For instance, if your preschooler is learning about coins and bills, then pull out some real coins and bills and let them count them.
Incorporate money based games
You can also keep the money conversations going by playing fun money games on family game night. Pull out a money board game like Monopoly and use this as another opportunity to discuss topics like debt, taxes, and real estate.
Expose them to real-world money situations
If you want to raise financially literate children it’s all about exposure. The more they hear about money, talk about money, and have real-life experiences with money, the more they will start to understand. While children are capable of digesting money concepts at a young age, creating a financially literate child will not happen in a few days or a week. This is a process that will take years. So, don’t try to overload your preschooler or middle schooler with a series of financial videos and content all at once. This can overwhelm them and turn them off. Instead, take it slow and be consistent.
Pay attention to how they learn
Pay attention to the medium your child enjoys the most. Maybe videos aren’t their thing and they’d prefer to listen to a podcast or read a book about personal finance. Keep it light, fun, encourage them to ask questions, and remind them that part of learning involves making mistakes.
— By Jessica Martel