Other changes include the use of green, peach, and light blue for the background, and the portrait of Andrew Jackson has been enlarged. The new bills will be in circulation soon, so here's a peek at what one looks like in case you get one at the bank or as change while shopping.
This change in our money got me thinking about money and kids again. My article, Money, Money, Money, has some advice on helping kids develop money skills and on ways to deal with allowances. Since then, I've come across a few other great teaching tools for parents and teachers to use to help their children learn about money.
Practical Money Skills is a money education program that is available online. Developed by VISA, the site has pages of activities for teachers to use at school and for parents to use at home to teach money skills. The lessons and worksheets are available for download in PDF format, and are tailored for school and for home. The lessons in the teacher section are grouped by grade level and include topics such as Allowances and Spending Plans, Money Responsibility, Saving and Investing and Comparison Shopping. It is a wonderful resource for both parents and teachers.
Several months ago, I also happened to hear about a great book that parents may want to use with their children. Called the First National Bank of Dad, this book gives great advice for teaching about credit, allowances, and budgeting. I heard the author, David Owen, interviewed on the Today Show one morning, and he made some excellent points. Basically what he did was to set up an at-home "bank" for his children. He gave them an allowance, and let them invest it in his "bank" in a savings account, for which he paid a good amount of interest. His children learned the value of careful budgeting and saving and also how money can grow (albeit very very slowly in today's economy) when saved and earning interest. Later on he also added a "stock market" and mutual funds for his children.
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