By kwilliams

Most adults can trace the development of their financial lives back to childhood. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau researched more about this topic to determine what the most helpful activities are for children and youth as they learn and grow. This three-article series provides tips for parents of young children, elementary and middle school students, and teenagers and young adults.

Part 2: For parents of elementary and middle school students

Children take note of how you live your financial life, and they adopt that as the norm for their own lives. Do you regularly check your bank transactions online? Do you drop your bills in a pile without opening them? Do you resist buying the latest gadget and wait till it’s on sale? These are the kinds of actions your kids can easily see and remember.

Building your child’s confidence and familiarity with money topics

When children are in elementary and middle school, they begin to learn about the financial world around us. They probably know that you go to work to earn income, and that helps pay for things the family needs. But employer benefits aren’t always visible to your kids. Now, as you choose your benefits, you can explain that your health care and retirement are connected to your job as well. Your child can learn some basics about how your benefits work:

• You and your employer both pay part of the cost of important things your family needs, like health care and insurance.
• Most people have to plan ahead to pay for things they’ll need in the future, like visits to the doctor or dentist.
• Eventually, most people stop working and retire, and they hope to have enough money saved up for spending.
• Automatically having money taken from your paycheck can be easier or more convenient than remembering to pay a bill every month.

You don’t have to do anything different as you choose your benefits. But by showing your child how the enrollment process works and how you treat it, you’re teaching them to be more confident about benefits as a normal part of the working world. For more ideas, visit www.consumerfinance.gov/parents.

The post You Show Your Kids What’s a “Normal” Financial Life appeared first on Council for Economic Education.

POSTED: December 10, 2014 | BY: brendan

By kwilliams

Most adults can trace the development of their financial lives back to childhood. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau researched more about this topic to determine what the most helpful activities are for children and youth as they learn and grow. This three-article series provides tips for parents of young children, elementary and middle school students, and teenagers and young adults.

Part 2: For parents of elementary and middle school students

Children take note of how you live your financial life, and they adopt that as the norm for their own lives. Do you regularly check your bank transactions online? Do you drop your bills in a pile without opening them? Do you resist buying the latest gadget and wait till it’s on sale? These are the kinds of actions your kids can easily see and remember.

Building your child’s confidence and familiarity with money topics

When children are in elementary and middle school, they begin to learn about the financial world around us. They probably know that you go to work to earn income, and that helps pay for things the family needs. But employer benefits aren’t always visible to your kids. Now, as you choose your benefits, you can explain that your health care and retirement are connected to your job as well. Your child can learn some basics about how your benefits work:

• You and your employer both pay part of the cost of important things your family needs, like health care and insurance.
• Most people have to plan ahead to pay for things they’ll need in the future, like visits to the doctor or dentist.
• Eventually, most people stop working and retire, and they hope to have enough money saved up for spending.
• Automatically having money taken from your paycheck can be easier or more convenient than remembering to pay a bill every month.

You don’t have to do anything different as you choose your benefits. But by showing your child how the enrollment process works and how you treat it, you’re teaching them to be more confident about benefits as a normal part of the working world. For more ideas, visit www.consumerfinance.gov/parents.

The post You Show Your Kids What’s a “Normal” Financial Life appeared first on Council for Economic Education.

POSTED: December 10, 2014 | BY: brendan

By Daniel Thompson

The Council for Economic Education has launched its newest resource: Math in the Real World. Math in the Real World contains interdisciplinary lessons aimed at teaching personal finance and economic concepts, all in the context of math lessons.

Math in the Real World includes lessons that range from “Break-Even Analysis” and “Profit Maximization” to lessons on payday loan expenses and building good credit.

CEE created Math in the Real World when it saw a gap between the teaching of math, economics, and personal finance. While many concepts of economics and personal finance overlap with math curriculum, many economics and finance teachers have not been trained to teach the higher level concepts and calculations of math. At the same time, math teachers may not focus their teaching on application of personal finance and economics. Math in the Real World was born with the intention to bridge this gap.

To learn more about Math in the Real World and to use the program, visit EconEdLink here. Full access to Math in the Real World is only avaiable to EconEdLink members. To become a member, sign-up for free here!

Math in the Real World is made possible through the generous support of our sponsors: Verizon, Moody’s and the Calvin K. Kazanjian Economics Foundation.

The post CEE Launches Math in the Real World appeared first on Council for Economic Education.

POSTED: December 8, 2014 | BY: brendan

By kwilliams

Last month, Rhode Island became the fourth state in the US to adopt the Council for Economic Education’s National Standards for Financial Literacy—and in part, it’s thanks to the efforts of one group of students who decided to make a difference.

Click here to read more about these East Greenwich students, and how they, along with Rhode Island Council for Economic Education’s President Margaret Brooks, raised the bar for financial literacy in their state.

To read additional media coverage click here and here.

Rhode Island joins Florida, Alabama and Oklahoma in adopting CEE’s standards as the basis for Financial Literacy education in their state.

The post CEE in the News: Rhode Island Adopts CEE’s National Standards for Financial Literacy appeared first on Council for Economic Education.

POSTED: December 4, 2014 | BY: brendan

By kwilliams

Most adults can trace the development of their financial lives back to childhood. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau researched more about this topic to determine what the most helpful activities are for children and youth as they learn and grow. This three-article series provides tips for parents of young children, elementary and middle school students, and teenagers and young adults.

Part 1: For parents with children ages 3 to 5

Children absorb habits and information from their parents and primary caregivers. If you’re like most parents, you believe in helping your kids learn about money. But it can be a difficult subject to talk about, so be on the lookout for opportunities to build a good financial foundation.

Money skills don’t always mean dollars and cents

You probably wouldn’t think of including your young child in complicated decisions like benefits open enrollment. (And of course it won’t work to try explaining the details of copayments or flexible spending accounts!) But there are parts of your decision-making process you can share, and these can help build the basic attitudes that even young children need for a solid financial future.

Here are a few key concepts that young kids can start to understand and use in their own lives:

• Planning ahead: You’re thinking about the upcoming year and what the family will need.
• Staying focused: You’ve got decisions to make, and a deadline to meet, so it’s important to concentrate.
• Setting priorities: You make choices based on what’s most important to you.

You don’t have to do anything new or different. But you can share a money experience with your child. You could do the same for paying bills or checking your bank statements—routine tasks you do on a regular basis. Over time, these help your child form good money management habits and attitudes.

As you choose your family’s benefits, help build a foundation for your child’s money skills. For more ideas, visit www.consumerfinance.gov/parents.

The post Kids Learn From You, Whether You’re Teaching Them or Not appeared first on Council for Economic Education.

POSTED: December 3, 2014 | BY: brendan

By kwilliams

In This Issue:

• New Math in the Real World Lessons!
• Double Your Donation with CEE’s Year-End Matching Challenge
• Shopping Online for the Holidays? Support CEE By Using Amazon Smile
• Gen i Revolution-Free Online Personal Finance Game
• 4 Reasons to Participate in the 2015 National Economics Challenge
• Save the Date for the 2015 National Teachers Conference

New Math in the Real World Lessons!

A new CEE resource, Math in the Real World, brings together the expertise of math teachers and economics teachers to create interdisciplinary lessons.

Two new lessons now available:

• When Graphs Mislead Us
• How Expensive are Payday loans?

Full access is available to members of EconEdLink only! Check out all lessons published to date.

Double Your Donation with CEE’s Year-End Matching Challenge

Here’s your chance to double the impact of your donation.

A generous CEE Board Member has issued a Year-End Matching Challenge. Every gift received by December 31 will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $5,000. We hope that you will consider making a donation of $10, $15, or $25 to help CEE continue to support the important work you do. Every gift counts–no contribution is too small.

Click here to donate.

Shopping Online for the Holidays? Support CEE By Using Amazon Smile

AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support the Council for Economic Education while you shop this holiday season, at no cost to you. When you shop at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/13-1623848 you’ll find the exact same low prices, vast selection and convenient shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to CEE.

Click here to start shopping!

Note: CEE is listed as National Council on Economic Education dba Council for Economic Education

Gen i Revolution-Free Online Personal Finance Game

Assign your students work they’ll enjoy for the holiday break!

• Easy Class Registration (team or individual play)
• Ability to Monitor Student Progress
• Manage Access to Missions
• Free Teacher Guide Available
• Video demos for game provided along with player’s and mission guides
• Companion Curriculum Resource Available – Learning, Earning and Investing for a New Generation
• Mini-games also available: Murktide Invasion and Beyond the Mission

Gen i Revolution is currently being used by teachers across EVERY state in the U.S.-Sign up today!

4 Reasons to Participate in the 2015 National Economics Challenge

The 2015 National Economics Challenge is heating up! Here are four reasons why you should become a coach and create your team:

Bring new students to your classes by attracting them with the competition
Make learning fun
Promote economic education
Win cash and prizes

Contact your state coordinator today to get started! Learn more about the challenge here.

Save the Date for the 2015 National Teachers Conference

The Council for Economic Education’s 54th Annual Financial Literacy and Economic Education Conference will be held October 7-10, 2015 at the Vinoy Renaissance St. Petersburg Resort & Golf Club, in St. Petersburg, Florida

See last year’s program for exceptional teacher training workshops.

The post Teaching Opportunity – December 2014 appeared first on Council for Economic Education.

POSTED: December 1, 2014 | BY: brendan

By kwilliams

The Council for Economic Education is now offering the Online Assessment Center. The OAC is a free online resource that provides teachers with an easy and efficient way of measuring their students’ academic progress. It allows teachers to track real-time data on their students’ understanding of economic and financial concepts.

The OAC provides teachers with economics and personal finance tests that they can administer online as a way to track their students’ progress. To aid teachers in the administering of these tests, the CEE offers free examiners’ manuals, which provide teachers with information on test procedures, performance analysis, and rationale for student responses. Examiners’ manuals can be found here in the CEE Online Store.

Teachers can also use the OAC to analyze student and class performance. The OAC offers measurements by test and by item and evaluation of both individual student and class performance over a school year. Further, OAC includes tools that allows teachers to compare their students’ performance against standards and benchmarks outside of their classroom. With OAC, teachers can also create custom reports.

The Online Assessment Center was created in partnership with PwC as the founding sponsor and features PwC’s Earn Your Future curricula. The program, by offering lesson plans and interactive handouts, aims to aid students in the development of financial skills and to equip educators with the necessary resources for teaching those skills. For teachers desiring to better measure their students’ progress, register for the Online Assessment Center here!

The post CEE Offers Free Online Assessment Center appeared first on Council for Economic Education.

POSTED: December 1, 2014 | BY: brendan

By kwilliams

In celebrating the Council for Economic Education’s 65th Birthday, we asked students to share their thoughts on the age of 65. CEE asked a group of K-12 students to finish the thought, “When I’m 65…” Watch them share their ideas and goals below!

Students like these have benefited from CEE since its creation in 1948. Since then, it has provided economic education and financial literacy to elementary, middle, and high school students throughout the nation. To do this, over the past 65 years CEE has focused on “educating the educators” and equipping them with the necessary resources so that students like those in the video have the ability to realize their dreams over the next 65 years.

The post Students Celebrate CEE’s 65th Birthday appeared first on Council for Economic Education.

POSTED: November 25, 2014 | BY: brendan

By Daniel Thompson

What do kids think about economics? Watch this video to see elementary, middle and high school students talk about the importance of understanding economics and personal finance principles. You’ll be surprised to see how insightful these kids are when they talk about viewing the world through economic lenses!

Watch Kid’s on Economics!

The post Kids on Economics appeared first on Council for Economic Education.

POSTED: November 18, 2014 | BY: brendan

By Annamarie Cerreta

Flocabulary, an educational hip-hop video producer, recently released a new series for teaching financial literacy, with lessons aligned to CEE’s National Standards for Financial Literacy.

Check out the official announcement here.

The post CEE in the News: Flocabulary Hip-Hop Video Series Teaches Financial Literacy appeared first on Council for Economic Education.

POSTED: November 17, 2014 | BY: brendan