NINE-year-old Kade has coded an online game teaching kids about assets and liabilities.
His six-year-old classmate Adeline co-authored a picture book on smart spending and debt.
Welcome to the classroom of the future, where children as young as five are taught financial literacy by earning money, paying bills and selling or renting commodities to their classmates.
Kids at Switch is an after-school centre on Sydney’s lower North Shore, where children learn the value of money in a fast-paced consumer world.
The program is unique in that it not only teaches children to save, it shows them how to spend responsibly, and invest and donate their money to worthwhile causes.
These children are being trained for jobs that don’t even exist yet. Photo: Michael Wu Source: Supplied
Jamie Lee, founder of Kids at Switch, is a primary school teacher who is passionate about equipping young children for careers that don’t even exist yet. After finishing university in 2011, Ms Lee decided to create an after-school centre where kids have the opportunity to learn practical ‘life skills’ they can use now and in the future.
Students are required to pay rent and bills using “money” they earn from projects completed either during the program, or at home.
These compulsory payments include renting chairs, and paying land tax and stamp duty, which the children must budget for. Students have the opportunity to save their Kids at Switch “money” to buy a chair instead of renting one. They can even buy a second chair and rent it to their classmates at a higher price.
Kids love spending their ‘money’ at the shop. Photo: Michael Wu Source: Supplied
Jamie Lee is the 25-year-old founder of Kids at Switch. Photo: Michael Wu Source: Supplied
In this mini economy, children apply for real world jobs according to their interests, such as app developers, authors, small business owners or website coders. Students are paid to complete work associated with their job. For example if a student wants to start a baking business, they might complete a budget for ingredients to show the teacher.
Students divide their money between saving, spending, giving and investing accounts, and work towards purchasing an asset like a chair and a shop instead of liabilities (any product that doesn’t create wealth).
Hands-on learning helps children understand that financial literacy is not all about a piggy bank. Photo: Grace KoelmaSource: Supplied
Many schools may view this kind of teaching as extra-curricular, but Ms Lee believes financial literacy is of extreme importance, especially in today’s world.
“If we keep teaching children according to the past we will never prepare them for the future,” she says.
News.com.au visited Kids at Switch to observe a class and report back on what really went on.
It’s 3:30pm on Friday afternoon, the end of a big schooling week. Most children would be tired at the thought of more school. But when the students aged between five and seven arrive at the doors they are skipping and laughing. As their parents chat, some of the five children run to the whiteboard while others check out what’s for sale this week in the ‘shop’.
Kids at Switch are learning about budgeting and financial planning. Photo: Michael Wu Source: Supplied
Kids at Switch students raise money with their lemonade stand business. Photo: Michael Wu Source: Supplied
Classes here are smaller than at a traditional school, with five to ten students in each, giving the teacher the chance to interact with each child.
Michelle Tso, a recent University of NSW teaching graduate, is taking the class today. One of the key lessons is about consumerism, where children are taught about weighing up costs of a purchase versus the benefit they’ll receive.
The lesson ends with the students checking their online bank balance on a smart tablet app which parents can access at home, and paying rent for their chairs.
Ms Lee tells me that in other lessons children have purchased the shop and invented products to sell in it.
“One boy bought the shop and had a friend who wanted to buy it as well. Together they negotiated a 60-40 per cent split of the profits,” Jamie says with a smile. And remember, these two boys are only six.
Going paperless: This balance sheet has now been replaced by a banking app. Photo: Grace Koelma Source:Supplied
But the kids aren’t the only happy customers. Parents are continually blown away by the real world financial knowledge their children have developed.
Michelle Buric has been sending her daughter to Kids at Switch for the last term. “Her ability to understand the principles of money has been phenomenal,” Ms. Buric told me. “She really applies the knowledge that she’s learned here in the real world, when we’re making decisions around finance and purchases and putting money aside.”
And why does Ms Buric see her daughter’s learning as a future investment?
“At the end of your schooling your bank manager doesn’t look at your report card, he looks at your financial savviness,” she tells me.
During the course, the children are also faced with a variety of economic circumstances, such as inflation, deflation, paying taxes and losing their jobs. This process allows the children to understand the importance of making investments and to create a second source of income.
These children love learning about money. Photo: Michael Wu Source: Supplied
Ms Lee tells me that there are currently ten students who have bought their “first house” and four who have bought chairs to rent out.
But what about those who miss out?
“We do have kids going home feeling upset and grumpy because they couldn’t get the things that they want from the shop,” she said. “What’s uncomfortable for the kids now would be comfortable in the future, you wouldn’t want it to be the other way around.
“It’s like we wouldn’t give someone a car key without teaching them how to drive, but we are giving our children money to buy things from the canteen without teaching them how to use it.”
At the end, Ms Lee gives me a copy of the children’s picture book Little by Little, co-written and published by six year old Adeline. It’s about a turtle called Hubert who spends all his money and has to sell his shell.
On the last page, Adeline adds a cautionary moral: “Remember, if you always buy the things that you don’t need, soon you’ll have to sell the things that you do need.”
Perhaps Kids at Switch has a lesson for us all?
Would you send your kids to Kids at Switch? Comment below or join the conversation on Twitter @newscomauHQ | @gracekoelma
Wise beyond her years: Adeline is a published author at the age of six. Photo: Grace Koelma Source: Supplied
Six-year-old Adeline signing books at her book launch. Photo: Michael Wu Source: Supplied
Adeline’s book includes important life lessons about money. Photo: Grace Koelma Source: Supplied
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