Thursday, February 3, 2011
Proud wife and mother, Moonjar fan/customer, and member of the world community (but located in Lawrence, KS)!
Dear Moonjar Staff:
My name is Jeannie Houts and I am the co-parent of a 6 year old boy. We gave him a Classic Moonjar for the winter holidays. He was delighted with the separate containers, colors, and even the rubber band. We had no problem convincing him to use the Moonjar instead of the piggy bank from when we opened his savings account with a local bank. The separate containers offer us a chance to teach him about finances and what it truly means to "decide"
and "choose" where and how to spend ones money.
Our son is currently in Kindergarten and being taught by an incredible teacher, Mrs. Kelly Rettig. She teaches the children about self-awareness, kindness, and the power of choice in addition to the mandatory curriculum of the public school system in which she teaches.
The class will be organizing a "Pennies for Peace" drive in the spring based on the lessons from the book Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. The money raised goes to the non-profit Central Asia Institute, to promote and support community-based education, especially for girls, in remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Along the spirit of the lessons learned from one man's journey to change the World, one child and one school at a time I am interested in giving Standard Moneybox Moonjars to each child in his class (there are 24 students). My family would love to pass on the lesson of financial mindedness to the kindergartner's in our sons class. Having these messages introduced to children at such an early stage in their lives is POWERFUL for all!
Sincerely,
Jeannie M. Houts
(Proud wife and mother, Moonjar fan/customer, and member of the world community (but located in Lawrence, KS))
Jeannie M. Houts
903 W. 20th Terrace
Lawrence, KS 66046
785.832.9328
jmhouts@ku.edu
My name is Jeannie Houts and I am the co-parent of a 6 year old boy. We gave him a Classic Moonjar for the winter holidays. He was delighted with the separate containers, colors, and even the rubber band. We had no problem convincing him to use the Moonjar instead of the piggy bank from when we opened his savings account with a local bank. The separate containers offer us a chance to teach him about finances and what it truly means to "decide"
and "choose" where and how to spend ones money.
Our son is currently in Kindergarten and being taught by an incredible teacher, Mrs. Kelly Rettig. She teaches the children about self-awareness, kindness, and the power of choice in addition to the mandatory curriculum of the public school system in which she teaches.
The class will be organizing a "Pennies for Peace" drive in the spring based on the lessons from the book Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. The money raised goes to the non-profit Central Asia Institute, to promote and support community-based education, especially for girls, in remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Along the spirit of the lessons learned from one man's journey to change the World, one child and one school at a time I am interested in giving Standard Moneybox Moonjars to each child in his class (there are 24 students). My family would love to pass on the lesson of financial mindedness to the kindergartner's in our sons class. Having these messages introduced to children at such an early stage in their lives is POWERFUL for all!
Sincerely,
Jeannie M. Houts
(Proud wife and mother, Moonjar fan/customer, and member of the world community (but located in Lawrence, KS))
Jeannie M. Houts
903 W. 20th Terrace
Lawrence, KS 66046
785.832.9328
jmhouts@ku.edu
Words That Last – Save, Spend, Share
~ Mary Karges, CEO of Moonjar and PEPS parent
Stop, Look and Listen - we can all read those words and remember immediately that those were the cues offered to us from a very young age to bring us safely across the street. Before too long those words just became the actions that we automatically follow, several times a day!
Save, Spend, Share
What words do we have to direct our children to safe financial habits? At Moonjar, we believe the financial counterpart of Stop, Look and Listen is SAVE, SPEND and SHARE. Finding ways to talk to kids about money can be tricky so we are dedicated to creating tools in the form of banks, books, games and curriculum that help families open the conversation about money and keep it growing as the children do.
Children as young as three years old are ready to make simple choices around money. Our moneyboxes are three-part teaching banks that invite the youngest children to decide where to put the money based on color. The bank is divided into Save (red) Spend (green) and Share (blue). As children grow, so does their financial capability and responsibility. When a 6 or 7 year old gets a Moonjar it is all about putting pictures on the outside of the box, creating visual goals. I recently saw a second grader with a Moonjar saving for a rocket and spending on a calculator while sharing with space exploration. This was a very individualized statement and one quite different from my son’s where he is saving for games and spending on candy! This opportunity
for individuality is the key in money conversations because we all have different goals and those goals need to be acknowledged.
Financial capability and literacy are making great strides these days. We are seeing more and more high schools offering classes and requiring some financial awareness for graduation. Early studies, however, suggest high school is not soon enough. We need to start teaching that money is about choices from a very young age.
Share
We have found the SHARE box to be a very popular piece of a child’s development. Just before the holidays I was with some third graders who were targeting a micro-lending group in South America. The children understood so clearly the basic needs of others and thanks to Google Earth they saw exactly where their help would be going. The season for sharing is always! The Share box is as much an important piece of the whole as the Save or the Spend and deserves a great deal of thought and care. If the goal is to start a conversation, starting with the SHARE box is a great place. Our Conversations to Go game has some great questions to get the family chatting about what really matters to each person and from that the child can begin to decide where she would like to share. A couple questions to get going; “ When have you worked the hardest and felt the greatest sense of accomplishment?” and “Name the most important job in the world. What is it worth?"
As parents our task is to create an environment where a conversation about money can be as common as the conversation about crossing the street. When offering simple solutions to complex ideas that can last a lifetime, our children are empowered and teaching money capability starting from preschool will offer our children the financial smarts to make positive choice
s.
About the Author
Mary is currently the CEO of Moonjar where she gets to combine her passion for communication with her passion for children and parenting. Mary is the mother of three: two high-schoolers and a sixth grader. She participated in PEPS with her oldest and loved it. Mary incorporated the concept of Moonjar into her own family live. Her oldest was saving since she was 8 to get a red car …now at 16 she is rolling that savings into money for college! Her sharing of time and money is going to the 4NOLA and Shirts Across America group that helps to rebuild New Orleans Africa and the Richard’s Rwanda project. Her 15 year old is sharing his time, energy and money with Africa and the Richard’s Rwanda project and her 12 year old uses his share money to help me buy food for the events we help with at the Recovery Café.
About Moonjar
At Moonjar we spend the days reaching out to companies, organizations, families, teachers and community leaders who want to create change. Our mission is to help kids build dreams by learning to save, spend and share. When Eulalie Scandiuzzi created the Moonjar product and company in 2002 she understood that most children are visual learners. All of our products are visually exciting and offer the space to encourage individuality in order to bring these concepts to life.
~ Mary Karges, CEO of Moonjar and PEPS parent
Stop, Look and Listen - we can all read those words and remember immediately that those were the cues offered to us from a very young age to bring us safely across the street. Before too long those words just became the actions that we automatically follow, several times a day!
Save, Spend, Share
What words do we have to direct our children to safe financial habits? At Moonjar, we believe the financial counterpart of Stop, Look and Listen is SAVE, SPEND and SHARE. Finding ways to talk to kids about money can be tricky so we are dedicated to creating tools in the form of banks, books, games and curriculum that help families open the conversation about money and keep it growing as the children do.
Children as young as three years old are ready to make simple choices around money. Our moneyboxes are three-part teaching banks that invite the youngest children to decide where to put the money based on color. The bank is divided into Save (red) Spend (green) and Share (blue). As children grow, so does their financial capability and responsibility. When a 6 or 7 year old gets a Moonjar it is all about putting pictures on the outside of the box, creating visual goals. I recently saw a second grader with a Moonjar saving for a rocket and spending on a calculator while sharing with space exploration. This was a very individualized statement and one quite different from my son’s where he is saving for games and spending on candy! This opportunity
for individuality is the key in money conversations because we all have different goals and those goals need to be acknowledged.Financial capability and literacy are making great strides these days. We are seeing more and more high schools offering classes and requiring some financial awareness for graduation. Early studies, however, suggest high school is not soon enough. We need to start teaching that money is about choices from a very young age.
Share
We have found the SHARE box to be a very popular piece of a child’s development. Just before the holidays I was with some third graders who were targeting a micro-lending group in South America. The children understood so clearly the basic needs of others and thanks to Google Earth they saw exactly where their help would be going. The season for sharing is always! The Share box is as much an important piece of the whole as the Save or the Spend and deserves a great deal of thought and care. If the goal is to start a conversation, starting with the SHARE box is a great place. Our Conversations to Go game has some great questions to get the family chatting about what really matters to each person and from that the child can begin to decide where she would like to share. A couple questions to get going; “ When have you worked the hardest and felt the greatest sense of accomplishment?” and “Name the most important job in the world. What is it worth?"
As parents our task is to create an environment where a conversation about money can be as common as the conversation about crossing the street. When offering simple solutions to complex ideas that can last a lifetime, our children are empowered and teaching money capability starting from preschool will offer our children the financial smarts to make positive choice
s.About the Author
Mary is currently the CEO of Moonjar where she gets to combine her passion for communication with her passion for children and parenting. Mary is the mother of three: two high-schoolers and a sixth grader. She participated in PEPS with her oldest and loved it. Mary incorporated the concept of Moonjar into her own family live. Her oldest was saving since she was 8 to get a red car …now at 16 she is rolling that savings into money for college! Her sharing of time and money is going to the 4NOLA and Shirts Across America group that helps to rebuild New Orleans Africa and the Richard’s Rwanda project. Her 15 year old is sharing his time, energy and money with Africa and the Richard’s Rwanda project and her 12 year old uses his share money to help me buy food for the events we help with at the Recovery Café.
About Moonjar
At Moonjar we spend the days reaching out to companies, organizations, families, teachers and community leaders who want to create change. Our mission is to help kids build dreams by learning to save, spend and share. When Eulalie Scandiuzzi created the Moonjar product and company in 2002 she understood that most children are visual learners. All of our products are visually exciting and offer the space to encourage individuality in order to bring these concepts to life.
Kristina Halvorson's Parenting bag
My "Intentional Parenting" Bag of Tricks
My fabulous kids are 3 and 6. These are a few of the tools and resources I rely on in my day-to-day work as a mom who's trying to raise self-aware, empathetic, generous kids.
My "Intentional Parenting" Bag of Tricks
My fabulous kids are 3 and 6. These are a few of the tools and resources I rely on in my day-to-day work as a mom who's trying to raise self-aware, empathetic, generous kids.
Moonjar
The Moonjar products help kids learn about the three things you can do with money: spend, save, and share. I bought one of their banks and gave it to my son when he turned 6, just before I started giving him a weekly allowance. He gets it, and he loves it.
The Moonjar products help kids learn about the three things you can do with money: spend, save, and share. I bought one of their banks and gave it to my son when he turned 6, just before I started giving him a weekly allowance. He gets it, and he loves it.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
More For Your Money: How to teach little ones about money basics
More For Your Money: How to teach little ones about money basics
Teaching kids about finances can be challenging. It seems little ones have an unlimited supply of questions, especially when it comes to money. There are some easy ways you can help your kids learn the basics.
Jessica Darrington, a single mother of two, says it seems like her children are always asking for something at the store – and that telling them no just doesn't work.
Community Credit Counseling's Dona Graves educates hundreds of people, including children, every year on personal finance. Graves says the first step is to explain to your kids why you cannot afford something – and give them concrete numbers. "As parents now, we have to be more open about the family budget and the family expenses and explain to our kids what we're doing -- 'look, mommy has to take this money out of the bank every month and make the house payment,'" said Graves.
Additionally, explaining your family's budget will help your kids understand why they cannot always have new things. And while you're at it, use the conversation to talk about wants versus needs and how savings is integral to your budget.
Darrington says she has told her children that they cannot have an item until they can save up enough money to buy it. Once they save the money, they can go to the store together and purchase it. Also, give your kids something tangible to work toward. Seeing the money will help them understand how it works, so do not use debit or credit cards all the time.
"If you're at the check-out counter, for example, and you're paying with a debit card, tell your children 'okay, I'm paying with a debit card, but it comes out of my bank account. So this isn't free money,'" said Graves.
Finally, sharing is an important lesson for kids. If you're not already doing it, teach your kids to give. Talk about a savings goal, and pick a charity together that your child can get excited about. In Darrington's family, they chose the Humane Society because of their dog Mimsy.
Lauren Lowrey
Jan 4, 2011
Never too early! First-graders learn money skills
Never too early! First-graders learn money skills
‘We’re changing lives,’ official says about Memphis program
The smart young savers in Kimberly Britt's first-grade class at Richland Elementary School in Memphis, Tenn., may not be able to spell "entrepreneur" yet, but she's teaching each one of them how to become one.
Budding restaurateurs, cat sitters and dog walkers, these 6- and 7-year-olds are also learning the difference between "needs vs. wants" and determining the "opportunity cost" of their economic decisions.
‘We’re changing lives,’ official says about Memphis program
The smart young savers in Kimberly Britt's first-grade class at Richland Elementary School in Memphis, Tenn., may not be able to spell "entrepreneur" yet, but she's teaching each one of them how to become one.
Budding restaurateurs, cat sitters and dog walkers, these 6- and 7-year-olds are also learning the difference between "needs vs. wants" and determining the "opportunity cost" of their economic decisions.
Watch Teaching Value of a Dollar video: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/39420467/ns/today-money/
Britt reads a story about a young girl having to choose between using money she earned dog walking to buy a new vest or a bike. Camille Clippinger, 6, says she understands why the girl decided to just decorate her old vest so she could save the money for a shiny new two-wheeler.
"She didn't have enough money so she had to get one or the other," Clippinger says.
Clippinger and her classmates are learning the importance of saving, budgeting and entrepreneurship through a program called Smart Tennessee. In the past four years, the program has reached more than 70,000 students statewide in first through eighth grades.
"We're the only state that does a systematic, comprehensive approach starting in first grade, and going all the way up," says University of Memphis economist Julie Heath, who created the program. "I think we're changing lives."
Tennessee is one of only 13 states in the country that requires students take a personal finance course to graduate from high school. But Heath says it's important not to wait that long.
"We treat economic and financial literacy like reading literacy. You start early in the primary grades and build a foundation," says Heath. "Economic and financial literacy ... is not just an educational issue, it's an economic development issue."
Sharon Epperson
9/30/2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Take a look at what the blogaholic said!
BYE BYE PIGGY BANK. HELLO MOONJAR MONEYBOX
I recently wrote a post on how to get your kids excited about fundraising and giving back to the community. Today I’m going to tell you exactly how we got Logan saving up for his favourite charities. Our secret? The Moonjar Moneybox.
This is a great tool for teaching kids about finances. It’s never too early to start talking to your kids about money and the importance of saving. In my opinion, the Moonjar Moneybox is the best place to start – earning its PTPA seal of approval.
The Moonjar is a set of three canisters that helps kids separate their money into categories: saving, spending and sharing.
This system helps kids learn how to budget (something even I could use some help with). It also comes with a passbook, which helps kids track their money by having them document what comes in, how it’s allocated, and what goes out (again, something I should really be working on myself). And finally it comes with a guide to help walk parents through talking to their kids about money (phew).
It’s a complete tool for teaching kids about finances and one that I think all kids should have. So many adults are atrocious at budgeting their money (think Til Debt Do Us Part) so kids should be taught the basics at an early age.
When we first sat down with Logan, he didn’t really have a good understanding of finances – I’m not sure how many six-year-olds do. That was until we received the Moneybox to test.When we gave him the Moonjar, he immediately wanted to put 90 per cent of his allowance into the sharing tin (bless his heart). While we want him to be generous, it wasn’t exactly a realistic financial plan for the long-term. We walked him through the guide and it helped him see how he should be prioritizing his money. We helped him set financial goals and discussed what he wanted to save up for as well as how much he should allocate to savings and charity. Suze Orman would be proud.
Now he has a better understanding of how finances work in the real world (instead of just passing GO and collecting $200) and it’s all thanks to the Moonjar Moneybox. I think I even learned a thing or two in the process.
Posted by The confessions of a blogaholic at Wednesday, October 27, 2010 Labels: moonjar moneybox, PTPA winner, review
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Who Is Moonjar?
- The Moonjar Team
- Seattle, Washington, United States
- Creating Tools To Help Parents, Teachers and Community Leaders To Educate Kids About Money
