Financial Education and Kid Art

August – what a blur!

I changed jobs this month and have been adjusting to a new schedule and the whole transition of am working in a educational type role again. The subject matter is near and dear to my heart (financial education) and I’m loving being able to help families meet their asset goals and get out of debt. The opportunities to learn about financial matters (tax laws, public policy, etc.) is inspiring. I also get to travel a bit and am excited for an upcoming conference in Washington D.C.! Should be very educational and a lot of fun. Blah blah blah. Well – enough of work! Sorry to bore you all.

Now, I want to share a silly story about some nice young girls. The other day, when we were painting the exterior of our house, two girls strolled up (maybe 6 or 7 years old). And literally one was in a stroller, being pushed along by her friend, while she carried a big box on her lap. They were very cute indeed. They asked if I would like to buy some art from their big box to help their “back-to-school fund”.

Sure – I love kid art. So one by one they showed me their “posters”. I was utterly disappointed! I usually am very encouraging of art and creativity (even if I have no idea what it is), but this time I was just plain saddened. Their so-called “posters” were pages just torn out of an everyday magazine! And that’s it. Granted they were only selling them for a penny a piece, but still. No creativity. At. All. That made me sad.

So, the teacher in me thought to tell them honestly what I thought (in a nice way) and encourage them to be creative! After all kids have some of the most interesting ideas. I remembered back to when I was a little girl and went through the “make-a-homemade-envelope-from-a-magazine-page” phase of life. I told the girls to wait a sec and I ran inside, grabbed an envelope, scissors, and glue. Then on the sidewalk we made a few envelopes out of those “posters” and the girls had so much fun! And so did I. They left pretty excited to make envelopes and homemade greeting cards from their “posters”. Not sure if they sold any – they never did come back!

That is my silly story. If you have kids or are around kids – inspire them to be creative. Don’t let them settle for easy pre-made things. Help them to use their resources to make something new, repurposed, and original. OK - those are my thoughts! Would love to hear yours!