I’ve been spending a lot of time talking about money and the need for us to be teaching our high school students how to handle finances responsibly. Knowing how to handle money wisely will make a huge difference in their lives when they graduate high school and are on their own in the real world.

Let me side-track for a moment….if you read Teaching Teens Real Life Money Skills: What We’re Doing, you’ll remember by “rant” about one of my pet peeves regarding young people not knowing how to make change. Well, it happened again last night. The bill was $5.81. I handed the cashier $6. She entered it into the register and it showed her she needed to give me .19 cents in change. Then… I did the unthinkable, I said, “Oh wait, I have a penny” and held it out. She looked at the register, said “Ah”, “Ah”…. “I can’t take it because I’ve already entered it into the computer and it shows me how much change to give you.” I just sighed and took my .19 cents. My grandkids were with me and were surprised. My grandson, with his sweet, sensitive heart, said “Maybe she’s just tired.” Yeah, maybe…

OK, end of rant and back to the topic at hand: our kids need to know how to handle money, especially in this economy.  It’s part of life, a huge part. To help you with this, Read the rest of this entry »

In the previous post I talked, perhaps more accurately, got on my soapbox about how crucial it is to teach our kids to handle money. Learning real life money skills can and ideally should start at an early age, but if it hasn’t, it’s never too late to start, even at the high school (or adult) level.

Let me share with you some practical things we have been doing to learn about and improve our real life money skills that might give you some ideas for your family. (As a side note, this has become a learning process for our entire family )

Responsibility for purchases

The first thing we did was give each of our teens their clothing budget money – the amount we would have spent on them – and let them manage it.

Lessons learned:

• How fast it could go – looked like a lot of bucks at first, but went very quickly
• How to shop smarter and stretch the money
  • Now they check out sale racks first
  • Don’t buy anything if it’s not on sale
  • When they have time, they shop at thrift stores.
• Brand names aren’t worth the price tag
• Shock at the amount of money some of their friends spend on clothes & how important brand names are to them

Checking Account

One of the next things we did was open up a checking account.

Read the rest of this entry »

Do you agree that we as a country are in big financial trouble? Do you think it would be difficult to find an American adult who would disagree?

At every level, from families to local governments to the national government, we don’t live within our means; we overspend. The mindset of  “buy now, pay later” permeates our culture. We are up to our eyeballs in debt! As Dave Ramsey succinctly puts it:

“We want it all and we can borrow to get it all before we can afford it all.”

Consider these alarming statistics about students who graduate from high school:

• They lack basic skills in the management of personal financial affairs (1)
• Many are unable to balance a checkbook (1)
• Most simply have no insight into the basic survival principles involved with earning, spending, saving and investing. (1)
• Of the 6,000 students who took the Jump$tart personal finance survey in 2006, 62% received failing scores with 60% being the lowest passing grade. (2)
• A study of 1,065 teens found that 21% of 18 and 19-year-olds have credit cards. (2)
• Nearly 1/3 of high school seniors already use a credit card (2)
• By the time they reach their senior year, 56 percent of students carry four or more credit cards, with an average balance of $2,864. (2) Read the rest of this entry »

Several months ago, a friend sent me this quote from the late President Reagan:

“All great change in America begins at the dinner table.“

I really liked it and yet, it really bothered me. A lot. I couldn’t get it out of my head – it just kept nagging me. But why? I can be a little slow sometimes, but eventually, I realized, God was trying to teach me something.

My grandkids and I began our home education adventure late in the game, so to speak. First, my granddaughter asked to be homeschooled in March of her 7th grade year of public schooling. I knew it was the right thing to do and a week later, we began. She needed to be home where she could excel, but, as I wrote in an earlier post, she also desperately needed time – a full year to be exact – to decompress from the stresses she brought home with her. Once she was ready, she went from a struggling student who was barely pulling a ”C” in most of her classes, to one who will graduate this year with a 4.0 (so far) GPA.

The next year, in October, my grandson also in 7th grade at the time, asked to come home and try homeschooling. He is now a high school junior and doing great! His interests and style of learning are as different as night and day from his sister, but being home educated has afforded him to learn his way and pursue his interests. I know in my heart of hearts, had he stayed in public school, he would have sunk.

Before we began home educating, I prayerfully asked God to show me His priorities. His answer was very clear: “Teach them about Me and My Word, be a Godly example and trust Me to lead you as you continue.”

I confess I get side-tracked sometimes, putting my agenda before His. But, Read the rest of this entry »

OK, this one is a treat for the whole family. Your kids will have so much fun that they won’t even realize it’s educational! What am I talking about? It’s a thing called “Letterboxing.” It’s been popular in Europe for hundreds of years, but has only caught on in the US in recent years. Our family has done it several times and we’ve had a blast!

So what is letterboxing? Simply put, it’s a treasure hunt. Letterboxes are placed, by different individuals (and, yes, once you get the hang of it, you & your family can hide a letterbox too!) all over the place. Some are located inside buildings, most are hidden outside. You have a list of clues, that when properly followed & with sharp eyes, will lead you to the letterbox.

Supplies you need to bring:

• A rubber stamp – you can use a purchased stamp or make your own. The more unique and reflective of you, the better. The whole family can use one stamp, but usually the kids each like to have their own.
  • Stamps aren’t hard to make and making them together can be lots of fun. Here’s a few sites with directions for making stamps How to Make a Rubber Stamp, Eraser Carving, Letterboxing Kids, and Make a Rubber Stamp with Foam
• Ink pad
• Small sketch book
• A pen
• A compass
• The set of clues
• A packed lunch or snack

The process:

• Follow the set of clues, using your compass when necessary, to find the letterbox. (The letterbox is simply a plastic leftover-type container with a lid, to keep the contents dry.)
• Once you find it, open it and inside the box you’ll find a rubber stamp, a notepad and usually an ink pad (sometimes the ink pad is missing or dried up which is why it’s a good idea to bring your own.)
• Using the stamp found in the letterbox, stamp it into your sketchbook. Make a note of where you found it and any other notes as well.
• Using your stamp, stamp the letterbox notebook and make a note of where you’re from and anything else you want to add.
• Take some time to look at other entries and where other people came from – you might be surprised!
• Remember to put everything back, just as you found it.

This really is so much fun and such a great educational experience for the whole family! With one fell swoop, you can cover art, geography, critical thinking, using a compass, all while you’re having a great time together as a family.

If you’re headed somewhere on vacation, be sure to check for letterboxes in the area of your destination and bring your supplies! It’s addicting

To get the whole scoop, visit Letterboxing.org. To access the information you will need to sign up, but registration is free. Have fun & let us know about your family fun educational experiences!

Sue

Have you ever dreamed about leaving the rat-race, selling everything and traveling to wherever, meeting new people, seeing first-hand God’s wonderful creation? My husband & I have dreamed about it many times. Many times.

Years ago, after their children were grown, one of my husband’s cousins and his wife did just that. They sold everything and bought a boat. Everyone thought they were absolutely nuts (’cept us ) and figured it was just a matter of time before they came to their senses. But they have never looked back and wouldn’t trade what they’re doing for anything. They have traveled all over, making money using their boat.

At this stage in our life, it’s hard to imagine that doing something that “gutsy” will ever become reality for us, but who knows?! At any rate, we still like to dream.

This morning I read a wonderful inspiring story about the Vogel family who “took the plunge.” Read the rest of this entry »

Recently someone whose opinion I value & respect, commented on the phrase “education for life” saying that it sounded more like “life coaching” than “homeschooling”. Hmmm, food for thought, said I.

After chewing on it, I replied:

“Actually, in my mind, homeschooling is life coaching – preparing & equipping our kids for life, which in my mind is waaay more than academics. Teach them how to learn & when life hits them in the face, they’ll know how to find the information they need. Also, teaching them about character, integrity, good work ethics, spending & saving etc…In my opinion, not every kid needs Algebra, Chemistry, Calculus, etc. Some do, depending on their individual “bent”, some don’t. But all of them need to know how to be productive citizens, parents, individuals.”

I realized that, that has become my homeschool philosophy and each year into it, I believe it more strongly.

Question: What did you learn in highschool that stayed with you, that has proven to be of practical value in your adult life?

Read the rest of this entry »