Financial Opportunity: Family Progress Financial Literacy Curriculum

Details

Main Website:

http://www.famlit.org/free-resources/educator-resources/educator-resources-adult-learners/

Activity Website:

http://www.famlit.org/pdf/financial-literacy-instruction-guide.pdf

Activity Description

These materials are available to download from the National Center for Financial Literacy web site, on the Educator's Resources page, through a partnership with the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) This is a complete, printable (pdf) financial literacy curriculum, Financial Opportunity: Family Progress, which includes a facilitator guide, adult student workbook, and family play pack with activities for parents and their preschool children. The Web site also has other Financial Literacy tools to access.

The curriculum offers an easy-to-use framework for teaching families basic concepts about managing money. The adult student workbook is appropriate for adults with a fourth grade reading level. The activity play pack [PDF] outlines nine fun activities that families can do together.

Preparation

Preview the 3 workbooks (pdf files) for activities that are appropriate in level and interest for your class:

Introduction - Chapter 2
Topics: Introduction, Follow Your Dreams, Developing a Spending Plan
Chapter 3 - Chapter 6
Topics: Spending Wisely, Understanding Your Income, Understanding Credit, Banks
Chapter 7- Conclusion
Topics: Digging Out of Debt, Building Your Assets, and Creating a Personal Financial Plan

Select and adapt activities as necessary. Print out materials for classroom distribution.

How-To

Be sure to introduce relevant vocabulary before each lesson.
Assign activities from the play pack for homework.

Teacher Tips

The PDF curriculum files are large and may take a while to download, so be patient.

More Ways

While technology is not explicitly used in this curriculum, there are a number of ways to incorporate technology through extension activities. Here are some suggestions:

At the end of Chapter 1-Follow Your Dreams which addresses goal setting, have students write letters to their future selves about their goals using the Future Me [www] Web site . More information about using Future Me.
At the end of Chapter 1-Follow Your Dreams, have students create and print out a Spending Diary using Microsoft Excel.
Use Microsoft Excel to identify income and expenses (Chapter 2).
Have students comparison shop using the free Web site Price Grabber [www] after completing Chapter 3- Spending Wisely
During Chapter 5- Understanding Credit, have students use the Credit Card Calculator [www] to calculate the true cost of paying the minimum payment on a credit card. Also, have students obtain free copies of their credit reports at Annual Credit Report [www], review them for accuracy, and dispute any errors found.
During Chapter 6-Banks: Why Do You Need One?, have students use the Compound Interest Calculator [www] to demonstrate the effects of interest on savings.
During Chapter 7- Digging Out of Debt, have students visit the three free credit counseling Web sites provided on page 53.
During Chapter 9: Creating a Personal Financial Plan, have students identify their net worth using the CNN Money Net Worth Calculator[www].

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