Games that Teach Money and Your Kids Might Actually Play
Calling all kids.
Students at Reading High School just north of Cincinnati, OH, are on a mission to find the most fun and effective online games that have a financial literacy component. They have identified a dozen candidates and set up a website where kids can play the games for free and then vote.
So far the vampire game Bite Club is the hands-down winner. But it's a small sample; they need participation for the survey to have any meaning. Why not introduce your kids to this site and ask them to click around and vote? They'll be furthering research into what games about money kids actually like. They may even learn something in the process.
I've written about board games and online games that teach kids about money in this space before. My view is that unless a game is part of a formal program it must be free and fun to be effective. Otherwise no one will play.
This project is part of a personal finance initiative headed by Brian Page, who designed the money-teaching board game Awesome Island and has been recognized in his home state as having the best financial education program. Visa recently cited him as national innovative educator of the month.
Page's students are running the website as an online business venture (it's free to users) with the mission "to provide a platform for financial literacy information useful to teachers and students."
It's a worthy undertaking. When the class gets a large enough sampling I'll report back which games seem to get the most attention. Happy gaming.
Photo courtesy Flickr user derricksphotos.
More on MoneyWatch:
· Bite Club, an Online Game, Has Core Lessons
· Kids and Money: Fun Games That Teach
· The 6 Best Online Games That Teach About Money
· Board Games with Money Lessons
· Top 7 Gifts for Teaching Young Kids About Money
Daniel J. Kadlec is an author and journalist whose work appears regularly in Time and Money magazines. He is the former editor of Time’s Generations section, which was written and edited for boomers. Kadlec came to Time from USA Today, where he was the creator and author of the daily column Street Talk, which anchored the newspaper's business coverage. He has co-written three books, including, most recently, With Purpose: Going from Success to Significance in Work and Life. He has won a New York Press Club award and a National Headliner Award for columns on the economy and investing.
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