Smart Lessons That Are All Fun and Games

Choose an activity and get started! Your kids will love the quality time you spend with them, and in the process, they will learn values to help them learn and grow.

Deal Quest

Teach your kids to be savvy and responsible shoppers with a grocery-shopping challenge.

In this grocery-store challenge, kids will shop for and purchase five items for under $20. But, here’s the fun part: they get to keep the change! So the smarter they shop, the more money they get to keep for themselves. This fun game will teach kids how to comparison-shop and spend wisely so they save more.

Delayed Gratification

Get your kids started on a path to patience by encouraging them to work toward a spending goal and wait for the reward.

Your kids will shop catalogs for three toys or items they wish to buy—one inexpensive item, one medium-priced, and one higher-priced. Then they will create a goal sheet with an estimated saving time for each item and track their progress over several weeks or months. Finally, they can celebrate their hard work and patience by purchasing the toy they want with their hard-earned money!

The Great Chore Challenge

Teach your kids that money comes from work with this Jeopardy-style chore challenge!

Your kids will choose a dollar amount from one of five categories on a scoreboard. Each dollar amount has a mystery chore written on the back of it. Kids must complete the chore and bring the note back to you before they select the next chore. The child who has the highest dollar amount at the end of the game wins!

Scavenger Hunt

Your child will listen to a story—told by you—and go on a scavenger hunt to find objects mentioned in the story.

One of the most valuable lessons you can teach your kids is to be good listeners. In this activity, they must use their super listening ears and amazing memory skills to see how quickly they can find 10 common, household items and bring them back to you. You can repeat the story and hunt until they are able to collect all 10 items.

Yearbook in a Box

Help your kids learn gratitude and contentment by creating a memory box of your family’s highlights from the year.

Let your kids go on a memento-finding mission for vacation photos, awards or certificates, artwork or drawings, recital programs, and so on. Place everything in the box and set a date on your calendar (Christmas Day or New Year’s Eve, maybe) when your family can open the box and go through the contents. When that day arrives, make it a family event! Tell your favorite memories from the year and be grateful for all the fun things you did together.

Firefighter Kindness Kits

Teach your kids to be gracious givers by helping them create a Kindness Kit for your local fire station.

Your family will work together to fill a shoebox with goodies—energy bars, candy or snacks—for firefighters. Your kids will decorate the box and write a thank-you card for the firefighters. Then, you’ll deliver the Kindness Kit to your local fire station and thank the firefighters in person. Who knows? You may even get a personal tour of the station!

Shoot for the Stars

Teach your kids to shoot for the stars by setting goals and working to complete them.

Work together to write some family and individual goals for the year. Your kids will create goal magnets in the shape of stars and place them at the bottom of your refrigerator. Then, when they complete one of their goals, they will move that star to the top of the fridge—just like a shooting star—to show that they’ve accomplished that goal.

Wacky Word Bank

Have fun with your kids by writing a wacky, Mad Libs-style story about giving, saving and spending—in space!

This laugh-out-loud activity reinforces the ideas of working, giving, saving and spending with your kids in a unique way. They will choose words to fill the blanks in the story and then read the story aloud. Watch them giggle until their sides hurt and entertain themselves over and over again!

Show Me the Price

Teach your kids how much things really cost!

Today your kids will learn what everyday grocery items cost—and hopefully what it takes to be a responsible spender. Kids will guess the prices of five grocery items from your own cupboard or pantry. Then you will reveal the real cost and discuss how much it would take for them to earn enough commission to pay for those items.

Service With a Smile

Teach your children to give with a family serving day in your neighborhood or community!

Help your kids give back to their community by planning a serving day in your neighborhood. Clean up trash on the street, volunteer at a local charity, or offer to help an elderly neighbor. Giving to others will make your children more aware of the blessings they have . . . and it just feels good.

A Piece of the Puzzle

Teach your kids how to be patient while working and saving for a big goal!

Your child will build their patience muscles by setting a goal—in the form of a puzzle—and working to complete it. Let your child think of a toy or item they want and then have them draw it on the puzzle grid. Assign chores and dollar amounts to each puzzle piece and see how quickly your child can complete the puzzle and earn the money to buy the item.

A Manner of Speaking

Teach your kids to remember and use their manners with The Manners Game!

We all want our children to use good manners automatically. For this activity, your kids will play The Manners Game where they will earn points (and prizes) for using key phrases like “Please” and “Thank you.” You can make the game extra challenging by letting children practice their good manners at the grocery story or at a restaurant.

The Home Café

Teach your kids the importance of serving others by letting them run their own restaurant!

Your kids will run their very own restaurant—in your dining room! From designing their own menu to taking and filling food orders, your kids will learn what it takes to run a restaurant well. They will discover the values of hard work and serving others—things that will help them succeed in both work and life.

The Envelope, Please

Teach your kids how to be smart with their money by helping them make special envelopes!

Your kids will learn the three basic steps of budgeting by creating envelopes for giving, saving and spending. Together, you will decide on chores they can do to earn commission. And you will celebrate once a week with a payday where they will earn money for the chores they did.

Smart Cookies

Teach your kids to be thoughtful givers by making and giving away cookies!

Children will learn to be thoughtful givers by baking Smart Cookies to give to a neighbor or loved one. They will follow a recipe, work with you to bake the cookies, and create a thoughtful card for the special recipient. And in doing so, they will discover the joy of giving and their power to bless others in fun and surprising ways!

If I Had a Hundred Dollars

Teach your kids to prioritize their spending by giving them imaginary cash!

For a child, $100 is a pretty big deal. In this activity, kids will decide what they would do if they had $100 and draw a picture of how they would spend the money. Then, you will work together to come up with a spending plan and talk about ways to reach their goal.