Here’s our credit counseling belief – summer is the perfect time to engage kids in some fun educational activities. Sidewalk chalk games can be used as a creative and unique way to teach kids about money. Learning about finances early and often is a great way to help prevent consumer debt later in life. Try some of these sidewalk chalk activities to teach important financial principles to your kids this summer.
Learning how to avoid debt is more fun with these sidewalk chalk games.
Teaching Finances Through Sidewalk Chalk Games
Most kids and many teenagers enjoy sidewalk chalk. This is an affordable, simple and easily accessible learning tool. Luckily, there are many things you can teach and a million ways to be creative in doing so. If it’s a rainy day, try these 3 Financial Literacy Games. Hopefully, you will be able to get outside! Here are some ideas for what you can teach through sidewalk chalk games.
Play Store/Bakery/Shopping
If you have a few kids running around, have each of them draw some kind of store. They can manage their store and the goods being sold. One could have a bakery, another a toy store and maybe even an ice cream shop. Help them to set prices for their items if you’d like to make it more realistic.
You could add play money to this game to make it more interactive! Even writing checks or credit cards could be a useful experience. The kids can track their spending and see if they end up with too much debt.
Grocery Store Price Check
Another game you can play is to draw a few items from the grocery store. Assign each item a price. Then have your child draw the correct currency to match the price. This is an opportunity for them to be counting, recognize size and shape of coins and dollars, and think through exact change.
For an additional challenge, give them a budget to follow. After they have drawn the currency next to each item, have them select the items they want that would fit within the budget.
Matching Key Credit Terms
Finally, create a test or matching game for the older kids. See how much they know about credit terms. You can have one column be the terms and another can be the definitions. They can draw a line to match the term to its definition.
You could also just write out the credit terms in a fun way and have them jump to the correct word as you read a definition out loud.
Financial literacy can have a long-lasting effect throughout a person’s life. Incorporating a few sidewalk chalk games is a simple and less tedious way to engage your kids during the summer. Give these ideas a try and don’t forget to think of your own as a family!
If you’re struggling to pay off debt, schedule a free credit counseling session with us today.
