Money Savvy Generation is a program designed by Susan Beacham and Lynnette Khalfani Cox designed to help "kids get smart about money". To teach children the difference between money to spend and money to save, they have created numerous products. In addition to piggy banks, a personal financial organizer, and a coloring book, they have created a series of books for kids, known as The Millionaire Kids Club Books [Advantage World Press, 2008, 2009]. This is an overview of the first two books.
The Millionaire Kids Club: Garage Sale Riches [Advantage World Press, 2008, ISBN 978-1-932450-01-9]
In Volume One, readers are introduced to the four friends who have an interest in money, and dub themselves the Millionaire Kids Club: Isaiah, Sandy, Dennis, and Stephanie. In this story, Isaiah's mother is holding a garage sale, and tells Isiah he can keep any money from anything he helps to sell. He enlists the help of his friends, promising to split the profits among them.
As they are working hard organizing the sale items, they encounter many others who work hard to earn a few dollars, including a letter carrier, salesman, and a tutor. Each of these tell the children about the purpose of working hard to earn money, and all of the things they can do with the money.
The children are inspired to think of different ways to use the money they will earn at the garage sale. Sandy wants to save up for a bike; Stephanie wants to spend; Isaiah wants to save for college; Dennis wants to donate to hurricane families.
Following the garage sale, Isaiah's mom talks to them about spending, saving, and donating money, then splits their profits among them. The children go to the mall and very learn how quickly money can slip through one's fingers, then discuss their options.
The Millionaire Kids Club: Putting the "Do" in Donate [Advantage World Press, 2008, ISBN 978-7-932450-02-6]
Dennis is excited because over the weekend, his grandfather gave him $100 to do something good for others. They consider giving the $100 to the local food pantry, but their teacher Mrs. Berry tells them that wouldn't last very long. She tells them that they can donate money, time, and talent, and the four members of the Millionaire Kids Club start to think.
The kids decide to use the $100 as seed money to print flyers advertising their services doing yard work on a Saturday and to set up a lemonade stand to raise money for the food bank. They manage to raise $500, plus land a job pulling weeds once a month for Mrs. Weedly. Mrs. Weedly has also agreed to match the money they've raised, thus giving $1000 to the food pantry.
These first two books in the Millionaire Kids Club series teach children they have four choices with their money: to spend, to save, to invest, and to donate. They also teach children to be creative about creating money opportunities to help others.
Read about the next two books in the series.
A set of review copies of the series was provided by the publisher.
Andrea Coventry - Andrea Coventry is a Montessori child, now Montessori educator, with 25 years' experience with children, publishing online since 2007.
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