Even if your children attend a top-notch school, chances are they may be deprived of an important part of a good education – how to make sound financial decisions. According to the non-profit JumpStart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, the average student who graduates from high school lacks even the most basic skills in personal money management like balancing a checkbook.

While youngsters may be remarkably savvy about video games, computers, and the latest cell phone technology, far too many are downright clueless when it comes to basic concepts about learning, spending, saving, and investing money. The result can be bad financial management habits and even disastrous credit experiences as an adult.

Thankfully, there’s a growing movement to add financial skills to school curriculums. "Money management absolutely needs to be taught in both elementary and high school. In elementary school, money management concepts should be integrated into the basic curriculum’s math and reading programs. In high school, it should be a stand-alone half-semester course requirement for graduation," Dena Wise, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Family Economics Specialist with the University of Tennessee Extension, tells Synergy.

However, parents shouldn’t wait for schools to provide all the money management education children need. Instead, you can take advantage of practical and even fun ways to encourage your offspring to learn about and manage money – and even set goals now to help with their financial future as adults.

Money smart tiny tots

Financial literacy should be a subject that children learn about as they grow up. "Yes, even pre-schoolers can begin learning about money," Dr. Wise emphasizes. "For example, help your little ones sort coins into stacks as they learn the names of the coins."

More money teaching tips from Dr. Wise:

• Help your young child understand the concept that spending means exchanging money for things.
• Read a book about money with your child and talk about it together. Alexander Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday by Judith Viorst or the Berenstain Bears' Trouble With Money by Stan and Jan Berenstain are good examples.
• Teach your child the basic, but important concepts that money can be spent but also saved and shared.
• Encourage your child, when he or she receives money, to always set aside a little.
• Talk with your grade school child about the difference between needs and wants. Ask him or her to give examples of each.
• Pay interest on any money your child saves.
• Check out the University of Nebraska Extension’s "Money on the Bookshelf" program (http://www.unce.unr.edu/publications/files/cy/other/cm9702.pdf) which offers online development charts showing appropriate ways to teach kids of different ages about money.

Real-life money lessons for elementary and middle school kids

As your children enter their school years, they have more opportunities to make decisions about money. When they receive an allowance, make sure you explain to them that it comes with requirements. For example, you can teach your children to always put aside 10 percent in savings and help them learn to budget their allowance as they decide what to spend it on.

"Having allowances can teach children valuable lessons in money management, financial decision-making, and setting priorities, but only if parents don’t sabotage those lessons by digging into their pockets for things kids want but the allowance won’t cover," Dr. Wise tells Synergy.

Around the age of 10 or so, kids begin to have opportunities to earn money by taking on "jobs" like raking leaves or feeding a neighbor’s pet. This is a good time to take your child to a bank to open his or her own savings account and learn that interest is something you can earn on your money and not just something people end up paying on credit cards.

"With good parental oversight, kids can learn to count change, do basic financial planning, make spending plans, and calculate net worth in conjunction with a job," Dr. Wise says. "More importantly, children’s jobs sow seeds of entrepreneurship, responsibility, confidence, and self-esteem that can flourish later on in life."

High school and beyond

Teens and college kids in particular can be almost reckless with money especially if they haven’t learned to manage money in their younger years. How can parents help their older children get on the right track to becoming financially responsible adults?

"The most important way parents can help teens and college kids to manage money is to not provide them with an unlimited supply. Limits supply the incentive to set priorities and learn management skills," Dr. Wise emphasizes.

She points out that the federal government recently reigned in the credit card companies’ practice of peddling credit cards on college campuses. "Parents can do their part by warning their kids early and often about the dangers of taking on too much debt through both credit cards and student loans," Dr. Wise adds.

"Resist the urge to bail your student out of financial messes they’ve created for themselves (such as bank overdrafts or credit card excesses). One painful experience can teach more than hours of lecture," Dr. Wise explains.

She also advises encouraging your college-bound and college kids to learn money management skills through online courses designed especially for them. A case in point: Love Your Money (http://loveyourmoney.org) from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and The University of Tennessee Extension is designed to teach basic financial skills to college underclassmen.

Sherry Baker is a writer from Atlanta, Georgia. She last wrote an article titled Computer Vision Syndrome for Synergy. Sherry can be reached at featuredstories@adamcorp.com