Take advantage of teachable moments in your children’s lives to work on math skills. Also, using issues that effect everyone, like gas prices, is a great way to teach your children math concepts and show first hand how important math is to every day life. This real life connection is especially important for children who do not like math, or who have a learning disability in the area of math.
Teaching Children about a Budget
If you do not wish to share every detail of your family budget with your children, share the gas and grocery portion of the budget alone. When gas prices rise, discuss the change in your budget. For example, if you used to budget $150 a month for gas, you may now have to budget $200 a month for gas. Discuss where the extra $50 has to come from. Does it come from extra income from work? Or does it come from cutting back on the vacation or eating out budget?
Make sure to emphasize how important it is to live within your budget to prevent spending more money than you make. Ask your children to help you come up with ideas on how to help stay in your budget. Consider small changes in eating habits that may help cut back on the total amount spent on food, in order to be able to go out to eat.
Make sure that some budget items are off limits (obviously cutting back on retirement accounts or electric bills should not happen). Allow your child's learning style to help guide you as you involve your children in the learning process.
Gas Mileage and the Family Budget
When gas prices effect the family budget, take the time to teach children about how gas mileage in the family car is important. Explain that the gas mileage is how far a car can drive on one gallon of gas. Each time you fill your car up with gas have your children figure out your mileage for the previous tank of gas by dividing the total number of miles you drove by the number of gallons you put back into the tank.
Next time you shop for a new car, have your children assist in the process by discussing the pros and cons of a new or used car and the effect that gas mileage will have on the actual cost of operating the car. Have your children help you research car types and learn which car might get the best mileage for the type of driving you would be using the car for: highway or in town.
Your children may ask you why different gas stations have different prices, or why the gas prices rise and fall. Use this opportunity to discuss the economic issue of supply and demand. When demand goes up and supply is low, the price becomes higher. Different businesses react differently to this supply and demand issue, thus resulting in the differing prices between stations.
These are only a few ideas of how you can teach your children about budgeting. Remember that it is important to teach your children how to budget and spend their money wisely. You may be interested in other math lesson ideas, and other tips for parents on teaching children about money.
