Pioneering New Financial Literacy Curriculum for Kids Set for Launch

The financial literacy industry is buzzing over the pending release of the most wide-ranging and inclusive financial education curriculum for kids to hit the market in years.  The National Financial Educators Council (NFEC) announced that it currently is in the late stages of development of more than two hundred hours of a financial literacy curriculum for preschool, elementary and middle school students, including approximately twenty hours of lesson plans for kids from pre-kindergarten to grade 6, and another eighty hours of lesson plans for students in the 7th and 8th grades.

News of this new curriculum comes at a time when the focus on the importance of financial literacy for kids is at an all-time high.  Research has demonstrated that children form financial routines at very early ages.  Moreover, children continue to report low scores on financial literacy assessments, while they simultaneously are blitzed with advertisements and kid-friendly promotions urging them to spend money.  For those reasons, the new curriculum is designed to teach kids to develop effective habits with respect to saving, budgeting and spending responsibly.

One of the differentiating factors of the new curriculum is its inclusion of strategies and resources for teachers and parents, which provides a more universal and inclusive approach to teaching kids about money, given that teachers and parents can provide support and reinforcement of important money management concepts.  Further extending this holistic approach, NFEC also broadened its professional development course for those interested in teaching personal finance skills and in becoming certified as a financial education instructor.

Once the curriculum is released officially, financial literacy observers will be monitoring its success with kids from pre-kindergarten through the 7th grade to evaluate the effectiveness of the new lesson plans as compared to those currently in the market.  And with the global spotlight shining on the significance of financial literacy success among children, new and improved teaching methods and materials such as those contained in the pending curriculum are expected to have a meaningful impact on financial education in the months ahead.