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That's the thought behind Larry Burkett's new Money Matters: The Christian Financial Concepts Game, produced by Rainfall Educational Toys. It's really fun! Designed for two to six players (parents and kids should play together if children are younger than seven), the game board represents a town with various buildings and businesses. Each player draws one of the 30 Character Cards which defines a role in the town, including monthly wages and expenditures. These vary widely. Clever character names include "Willy Makit," "Robert & Vera Loewen-Cash," and "Kevin & Terry Towell."
Players start by choosing a pawn, placing it on "Pay Day," and taking 14 Category Cards (one for each of the 14 budget areas) and 14 paper clips. As they roll the die and progress around the board, they must make or receive payments in the category where they land. All kinds of things can happen (some too true!) from withdrawing money for child care to giving money to a radio ministry to being rewarded for returning a lost briefcase to its owner. Or in an effort to get rich quick, a player may spend a hunk of his salary playing the lottery -- and lose it all to the Bogus Box. One player serves as banker to receive payments and pay wages.
Burkett has teamed with Rick Osborne to help parents teach biblical financial principles in a new book from Chariot Family Publishing, Financial Parenting. "If you can instill in your children the biblical principles of handling money and you can do it in a manner they will understand, that is God's best for their lives," says Burkett. He also counsels parents to get their own finances squared away first, and this book serves both ends.
Burkett and Osborne are particularly good at describing how we got to where we are with our lack of understanding and discipline about money management. Changes in lifestyle now obscure the relationship between what we do and what we are paid; more and more Americans now turn to government for financial handouts of one kind or another.
Following this historical background, the authors describe a parent's responsibility in teaching the biblical perspective on money management. One of the best chapters is "Lay the Foundations," a sort of Parenting Economics 101 with seven rules that combine being good parents and teaching good financial habits. The latter part of the book gives very practical suggestions, tools, and activities. Budgets for three different age-levels are suggested.
Between reading Financial Parenting and playing Money Matters with your children, you'll discover the true meaning of stewardship and have fun too.
Estelle Lamb is a mother and teacher in Lexington, KY.
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