Financial Fun Activities to Do at Home

By Tina Bakehouse, Chief Creative Officer, Malvern Bank

East Mills and Iowa schools have shut down until April 30, 2020. During this time, parents are working from home. Students are struggling to complete homework on their own.  In rural areas, Internet can be spotty at best. Finding creative ways to learn tests everyone’s patience, especially when students have been accustomed to working in pairs and with a class.

The question becomes, how can youth be engaged at home while parents are trying to focus on completing their 8-hour work day?  During these challenging times of COVID-19 quarantine, Malvern Bank cares about students and families learning financial information; therefore, we’d like to provide strategies to overcome boredom and Internet burnout.

Financial Literacy Activities Children can do at home:

1. Money evokes emotions. Write down all the emotions you feel, then create a piece of art using one of those emotions as the inspiration. Use colors, pencils, pens, paints, or even materials from outside to create a sculpture.
2. Draw the stages of saving for something special with a graph. Create dates and visual pictures and cut out magazine pictures for your calendar.
3. Create a fun money rap/song/poem and perform for your family. Use props and costumes and sound effects along with household items like wooden spoons, pots, and pans.
4. Collect three used, empty plastic containers. Color and decorate the outside with markers and paper. Label each container “save,” “spend,” and “give.” Then, place your money in each jar and set financial goals.
5. Role-play shopping at the grocery store. Write a grocery list and use play money to purchase items.  Discuss with your family the cost of groceries and choices that are made when grocery shopping.
6. Develop a fictional money story. Create unique characters and an interesting plot with conflict that must be resolved. Share your story with your family.
7. Lay out different forms of currency and have a leader call out each currency and do a movement to create a fun workout. Align the amount of movement with the amount of currency. For example, every time the leaders says, “dime,” jump up and down 10 times or every time the leaders says, “penny,” run in place for one minute.
8. Play Monopoly and pretend it is “real” money. Discuss how using real money changes the game.

For additional financial literacy ideas and resources, be sure to visit the National Education Organization’s website  www.nea.org, the Malvern Bank website Malvern.Bank and follow us on Facebook. Malvern Bank is a community bank, with a mission “to build community by supporting education, innovation, and growth while delivering a banking experience that is both authentic and individualized.”