The child’s relationship with money develops naturally. The child enters this world where money is everywhere. He sees that in this world, papers are exchanged. What are those, how are they made and how can I have them too? All these questions run through the child’s mind.
A child is an adult who is not yet mature, 100% responsible. He is an adult in the making. He is like a plant. It takes a long time to mature, to bear fruit. Depending on the species. Both plants and animals have a period in which they bear fruit and become independent. It takes the human being the longest to become independent; 18 years to be exact.
When does a child’s relationship with money start?
Financial education can start at the age of 3. At this age, he enters the community. Then he comes into contact with many things: toys and children’s accessories that “he wants too” and it is normal, because, at this age, he is selfish and possessive. The whole environment “revolves” around him.
Financial education done at this age is not easy, but now the child is like a “sponge” – he absorbs all the information received.
Financial education is not about saving, investing, but now he is getting acquainted with money: what it is and how to earn it. The fact that the child knows about money helps him discover the world. The world does not revolve around money, but we need it. If he also finds out how it is made, then we have created the foundations of saving. A child who soon learns that money doesn’t grow on trees, that it is produced and becomes aware of the fact that parents stay at work as long as he is in kindergarten, and a child who stays all day in kindergarten where he goes in the morning – at dawn and leaves when it gets dark, perceives that it is a lot. He perceives how much work is done for them. Here we must be careful not to say it to the extreme of conveying to him that: “money is hard to make” – which leads to limitation.
Growth and development of the 3-5 year old child
The moment we tell the child NO: “We’re not buying the whole store” we lay the foundation for saving and responsibility. A child who finds out that he can’t buy what he wants will look for solutions. (The job market is looking for people who can find solutions, come up with ideas and implement them to bring added value to society.) The moment the child receives no, he will find solutions to be able to buy. His most accessible solution is crying and screaming: “I want it!” Maybe you know this solution. Well, you, his parent, can guide him to find smarter solutions, such as producing money, having his own money and buying when he has the money. He will accept this solution and he will be open.
Courses that you, the parent, can take to learn about your relationship with money and how to provide financial education to your child, as well as courses that the child can participate in directly, can be found here: https://financialparenting.eu/
Childhood games – the premise of intelligence development
At this age, children are forming. They lay the foundations of their intelligence and learn by playing. This is the fundamental activity at preschool age (3-5/6 years old). Children learn everything around them by discovering and playing.
Lessons are not appropriate at this age: information, dogmatism; everything that comes verbally is not intelligible to a 3-5/6 year old child. Everything that is abstract needs applicability. That is why, when we teach a small child, we teach him by showing him the thing we are talking about, we let him interact with it: to manipulate it, so that it becomes familiar to him and perceives it. At this age, perception is the path to development and knowledge of the world.
There is no point in hiding money from him, as long as it is part of our lives.
The child’s relationship with money
Children learn things for life by imitating their parents. This is how the child’s relationship with money begins. They observe their parents and act accordingly, when they are put in that position. Even if not immediately, they will act, even decades later.
When you, as a parent, sit at the table with all the family members and discuss the budget, divide the expenses and discuss your financial goals, he, when he grows up, will do the same in his family: he will gather his family and organize the family budget. On the other hand, if he lives in an environment where money is not talked about because it is “little and not enough for us”, “not important”, the subject of money will be taboo in his family.
Although he is small, the child can sit around your table, around the discussion, to participate passively. However, he will retain the impression he had about the situation; he will preserve the atmosphere: whether it was stressful or relaxed. At this age, information is based on affect. It matters a lot whether the emotions regarding an aspect were stored in a pleasant way or he felt negative emotions regarding that aspect.
Children have a much greater capacity to understand things than we can imagine. Children understand what we feel at a certain moment, in a certain relationship.
They are our future and we must take care to train them harmoniously so that they develop as such and are able to adapt to the environment.
I propose to parents, in this way, a book in which they will find 101 ideas on how to do financial education at home for their child. It can be ordered from the personal website: Psychology of Money, section: Store. There are theoretical and practical ideas, so that theory is combined with practice. Theory is put into practice harmoniously in the child’s understanding, according to his age and interest. The book addresses activities consistent with the age of 3 to 11 years. https://www.psihologiabanilor.ro/product/101-idei-despre-cum-sa-faci-educatie-financiara-copilului-tau/
Success in raising awareness of money and financial education in childhood!
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