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World Cup Money Lessons

Cashing in on World Cup Fever

Love it or loathe it—The World Cup is going to be hard to avoid over the next couple of months. So if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em and use it as an opportunity to get your kids interested in learning about money.

Financial Soccer is a free financial literacy resource supported by Visa.Financial Soccer Logo

It build upon the success of Financial Football, which apparently is a different game in the US, Australia and a few other places. 🙂
 

 

The essence of the game is to answer questions which give you an opportunity to move down the pitch and hopefully score a goal. What makes it fun are the great graphics and animation plus the opportunity to decide whether to go for a short pass (easy) or a more complex move (harder).

The game has several playing levels based upon age and ability ranging from 11 to 18+. You can decide your country or region which gives some more rele-vant questions.

Strangely there is not any coverage for European countries. The game is however very popular in North and South America plus the far East and Australia.

There is enough going on to keep your kids amused for hours, plus the opportunity to use the game as a starting point for discussions about for example savings or interest rates.

If you can drag yourself away from the game there are also downloadable work-sheets and information guides.

Unquestionably credit card companies have to shoulder some of the responsibility for the current economic turmoil. Whether this can be viewed as positive PR or a genuine attempt at financial literacy is a matter of choice. As an educational game however, it gets my recommendation.

 

 

Financial Literacy – Learning Through Games

I’ve recently got hold of the Thrive Time game from Sharon Lechter’s company Pay Your Family First.

In this reality based board game, the players are teens starting in high school with part time jobs. they then will be faced with money and life decisions like buying cars, managing expenses, giving back to their community, paying for further education, using credit cards, buying stocks and shares and perhaps starting businesses.

The Video below shows the game in action in the US. We are planning a trial here in a local school shortly and will post a full evaluation.

Looks like great fun!