Preschool kids learn how money works

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#1
Good to start young! But personal finance skills should start at home, not in school though.....

The Straits Times
May 2, 2012
Preschool kids learn how money works

3 friends start Kindernomics to teach four- to six-year-olds economics in bite-sized chunks

By Joyce Teo

PARENTS who struggle with economics and the basics of how money works will be able to turn to their children for help, thanks to a new business that mixes fun and finance for preschoolers.

Kindernomics, as the programme is called, was started about two months ago by three young, single and ambitious friends to help children make sense of the world around them by teaching them essential economic concepts in simple bite-sized chunks.

'We want to transform the preschool landscape and early childhood education. It's very important for kids to make independent choices,' said co-founder Chan Yun Cheong, 34, who has an MBA from Cornell University and has worked in London and New York.

At an office space in the Forum shopping mall on Orchard Road, four- to six-year-olds can attend weekly classes that cost $550 for a 10-lesson term, with each lesson lasting about 90 minutes with up to 12 children at a time.

There are also one-off camps at $280 each for four-year-olds to seven-year olds. At a recent camp, for instance, children learnt about natural resources, how important they are and how they can be conserved. The classes and camps have attracted about 70 children.

Kindernomics uses interactive e-books and has even designed its own automated teller machine for the children called the 'Kinderbank' to teach them about money.

Mr Chan said the Kinderbank 'illustrates to the kids that the ATM is not a free money machine'.

It is used to emphasise the practical experience of saving and the value of money, rather than the importance of money, he said.

Indeed, money is a very small part of their curriculum, the founders said.

'We teach financial literacy as well as the concept of the value of money and trade-offs,' said co-founder Janet Chia, 33, who has a master's in applied finance from the Singapore Management University and is a volunteer teacher at her church.

'A degree doesn't prepare you enough for life... We want to be a global city and a financial hub. For us to be able to be competitive, we need a host of life skills such as critical thinking and problem solving because more often than not, things do not happen our way.'

The third co-founder, Mr K.H. Yeo, 28, who graduated with first-class honours from Sydney's University of New South Wales and worked with the financial services company Boston Consulting Group, added: 'Understanding the world around you, and how things work together, is incredibly important. We want to incorporate practice-based learning into childhood education.'

The founders say that learning through hands-on experience - the children may get to bake in class, for example - has endeared the programme to the children and their parents.

Ms Paula Robinson said her four-year-old son Garrett went to Kindernomics' natural resources camp and learnt how to recycle paper. 'They tore up bits of newspapers and recycled them into new paper, which they turned into a party invitation, so that was cool,' she said.

'The earlier the kids learn about money, the more they will realise it is not an endless supply.

'We see so many people getting into financial difficulties at a younger and younger age, so it's very important to me to teach my children how to handle money.'

She said Kindernomics offers a 'supplementary programme, but it does cover some things that other schools don't, such as how to work within a budget and how to handle money. Some schools might just focus on that briefly'.

'I think if kids were concentrating more on this in school, it wouldn't matter if they came from a rich or poor background, they would be able to work within their budget and become more successful in life,' she added.

The Kindernomics trio were reticent about how much they invested in the business. They admitted to digging deeper into their savings, as the initial budget for their start-up costs proved inadequate. Despite this, the founders are keen to expand in the region, saying an education player from India has already expressed interest.

joyceteo@sph.com.sg
My Value Investing Blog: http://sgmusicwhiz.blogspot.com/
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#2
OMG!! Confused kindernomics are we going to stress out our kids or not it's so ridiculous they are just kids but already they have so many things to learn.

I notice many of these kids grow up to be very smart but they have have a lot of anger bottled up over the years and become very low EQ and often see outbursts disrespect to elders I see some of them talking down to their parents in public circumventing argument until parents become exasperated and speechless they must wondering if it was right thing to do in first place all those years ago making their kids too smart for them to handle.

I think if it makes economic sense they will ditch their aged parents one day too.Huh
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#3
My guess is because these parents did not discipline their kids hard enough. I do not hesitate to use cane when my boy only 3+ years old shows disrespect to elders. You spare the cane you will spoil the child.

(02-05-2012, 08:07 AM)sgd Wrote: OMG!! Confused kindernomics are we going to stress out our kids or not it's so ridiculous they are just kids but already they have so many things to learn.

I notice many of these kids grow up to be very smart but they have have a lot of anger bottled up over the years and become very low EQ and often see outbursts disrespect to elders I see some of them talking down to their parents in public circumventing argument until parents become exasperated and speechless they must wondering if it was right thing to do in first place all those years ago making their kids too smart for them to handle.

I think if it makes economic sense they will ditch their aged parents one day too.Huh
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#4
Personal finance is basically common sense.
What's there to teach?

Sending kids to the course is already a demonstration of poor personal finance of the parents - wasting of money.
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#5
(02-05-2012, 08:40 AM)yeokiwi Wrote: Personal finance is basically common sense.
What's there to teach?

Sending kids to the course is already a demonstration of poor personal finance of the parents - wasting of money.

Many parents work in MNCs where the trend over the past years had been 'out-sourcing' ie. outsource HR, Service & Support, Data Centre,... for cost saving reasons.

So, such parents had also adopted the out-sourcing model to their personal life eg. Kids sent to Day Care, Tuition Centres, Swim School, Sports,... and now Personal Finance.

I think when the kids beomes working adults and the parents are old and unable to take care of themsleves, their kids will no doubt return the favour and follow the same outsourcing model and send them to Old Folks home!

I'm not against sending kids to some enrichment courses where both parents do not have the core skills to teach eg. Music. But, basic stuff like Personal Finance??? All you need to do is to get them a Piggy Bank and get them started on the Savings habit. Use daily lives examples to highlight the value of savings and when they are old enough to understand, investing + pitfalls of 'get-rich-fast' schemes that they can see readily in their everyday lives ... Is that so difficult? Or the working parents feels that their time are better spent doing something else? Ya, just park their kids for yet another 1-2hrs for some 'enrichment' courses (get their maids to send them even) so that they can have the freedom to do whatever they want? Undecided
Luck & Fortune Favours those who are Prepared & Decisive when Opportunity Knocks
------------ 知己知彼 ,百战不殆 ;不知彼 ,不知己 ,每战必殆 ------------
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#6
For those with children in Primary and Secondary schools,
you will notice what they teach and learn is not so meaningful,
yet stressful.

There will be a lot of enrichment classes which will wipe off the edusave fund given by the government.
Some may even have to top-up in cash.

Basically the courses are quite useless. Maths, Science Olympaids. Leadership, entrepreuer courses, camping, etc.

However, school said compulsory, just follow, as the children feel obligated. They do not want to be ridiculed by the teacher ( some are big bullies).

Learn to Earn (or Earn to Learn) like what Peter Lynch said could be more useful, like picking up a part-time job at the earliest age about 16 to 18 could be more meaningful

At least you got to learn how a business is run from their point of work and also learn how money is earned the hard and meaningful and respectable way.

And of course, save some momey in the process.Big Grin
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#7
I am not yet a parent of a Primary school kid, but let me share my view.

I am a firm believer in the effectiveness of "teach-by-example" and a chinese proverb "知之者不如好之者,好之者不如乐之者" (A person will perform better if he like to do it. He will perform the best if he enjoy doing it)

Base on the believe, IMO, the best approach should be "teach-by-example" for value/skill which can be done by parents. For those skill/value which require "out-source", the pre-requisite is your kids like it or even better they enjoy doing it.

I recalled a talk by Steve Jobs in a graduation ceremory. We are building dots in life, one of them is via learning. Some dots are perceivably useless but we never know it will make a fruitful life for your kids in future.

Just my 2 cts
“夏则资皮,冬则资纱,旱则资船,水则资车” - 范蠡
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#8
I once read a press interview of a "successful" person who recount to the journalist how he earned money from his classmates when he was young, perhaps to show that he is a born entrepreneur. I was thinking to myself, if I had such classmate, I would get far far away from him.

I was fortunate that the classmates I had are the type who lend me story books to read, or video tapes to watch, without asking for money in return.

While the mechanics of how money works can be taught to preschoolers, the maturity to handle money comes later. Educators who don't understand this teach to the detriment of the child.

Fully agree with many forumers here that home is the best place to impart personal finance skills, and also many other things that is important in life, such as moral values.
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#9
(02-05-2012, 11:53 AM)CityFarmer Wrote: I am not yet a parent of a Primary school kid, but let me share my view.

I am a firm believer in the effectiveness of "teach-by-example" and a chinese proverb "知之者不如好之者,好之者不如乐之者" (A person will perform better if he like to do it. He will perform the best if he enjoy doing it)

Base on the believe, IMO, the best approach should be "teach-by-example" for value/skill which can be done by parents. For those skill/value which require "out-source", the pre-requisite is your kids like it or even better they enjoy doing it.

I recalled a talk by Steve Jobs in a graduation ceremory. We are building dots in life, one of them is via learning. Some dots are perceivably useless but we never know it will make a fruitful life for your kids in future.

Just my 2 cts

Link for the Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005 in Youtube, for those interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA
“夏则资皮,冬则资纱,旱则资船,水则资车” - 范蠡
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