With homeschooling the norm, parents are looking for ways to educate and entertain kids
Do you ever wish someone taught you the fundamentals of finance when you were a kid? If so, you're certainly not alone.
It's something TD Bank's Candy Cambridge hears quite often from both parents and teachers. Cambridge is the head of community development service strategy at TD Bank, which offers a full suite of financial lesson plans and educational tools free for all to use, whether they are a customer or not.
"We get a lot of positive stories and great responses from the kids and parents after using these programs," Cambridge added. "Adults can even take our courses. A lot of them usually say they never learned these fundamentals in school and wish they had these resources when they were kids."
With homeschooling the norm amid COVID-19, many parents are trying to follow the lesson plans distributed by schools, while making their time at home with their kids as meaningful as possible.
As a complement to what children are learning in school, it's a great time to instill a sound fundamental understanding in the economy and other financial topics.
The curriculum, written to meet the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics standards, is located in a user-friendly platform called the TD Bank WOW!Zone.
Cambridge says the lessons, tailored to kids of all ages K through 12, are free of financial jargon and complications, with the goal of making these topics less scary to learn and teach. They include worksheets and guidance for leading interactive activities at home.
Topics covered by the curriculum include:
- Balancing a check book
- Planning a budget
- Understanding Credit
- Income Taxes
- Identity Theft and Phishing
Understanding the market
TD also offers a virtual trading simulation that teaches participants how the U.S. stock market works, without risking real money.
Students can learn the ins, outs and unpredictable behavior of the market we are seeing today in response to the global pandemic.
None of these lessons should replace using professionals for expert investing, but Cambridge says they can also help you to learn what questions to ask your financial adviser.
"A lot of people may be invested in the market through a financial adviser, but don't really understand how and where their money is going," she said. "This simulator takes away that unknown. And participants can supplement these exercises by accessing the hundreds of articles in our learning center about investing for beginners."
Nurturing future entrepreneurs
For children with an entrepreneurial spirit, the TD Bank WOW!Zone offers lesson plans focused on starting and growing a small business, covering topics ranging from raising money to developing a business plan and budgeting for planned expenses.
These lessons are designed to help students become aware of how credit is obtained and how a structured budget/business plan is created, including the planning for unexpected times like we are seeing now.
"The resources also delve into where income comes from," Cambridge said. "Especially during these challenging times for small businesses, it's important for children to understand how their neighborhood ice cream shop operates and why they need our support."
Homeownership, emergency savings and more
As students get older and begin gravitating toward self-service tools, TD is here to help. A great resource for students in high school is the TD Bank Learning Center.
"It's not overwhelming," she said. "There are bite-size lessons that lead to other resources if you want to learn more."
The site is all about empowering individuals to manage their money through homeownership, building emergency savings and even planning for retirement. It can be accessed on a computer or mobile device.
"We've invested in these resources to help people," Cambridge said. "If they want to bank with us, that's great, but we don’t want to push them towards any products, just help educate them."
April is Financial Literacy Month across the U.S. Join us in discussing why achieving financial stability is so important and stay tuned for insights from TD leaders about their financial education journeys.