I love Dave Ramsey and all he has to say about money and managing it God’s way. I’m serving on a team of people that are teaching the Financial Peace Bible Study for Kids this Fall and it’s been really neat. The curriculum is downloadable so there’s a lot of copying involved and planning but it’s so worth it.
What we love about this study is that it is action packed and it moves fast. Every week there is a main point that is emphasized through a story about Junior, a Bible story, one large group game and two small group activities and then a closing activity to help the kids memorize the verse that the lesson is built on. It’s really quite awesome and we see the kids responding to it.
This is a 6 week course that can be stretched into 10 weeks which is what we’re doing. It is designed to accompany the adult study but our church has already done the adult study so it’s standing alone. The cost of the curriculum is $75 and it’s worth every penny. (No, I’m not getting paid to say all this – just think it’s too awesome to not share with others)
There is a Financial Peace Junior Kit that is sold separately that is designed for parents to help their kids with chores and understanding the basic principles of giving, saving and spending. We chose to make this kit a part of the registration fee for the class. So we charged what it would cost to purchase the kit plus a few dollars for a pizza party at the end of the study. The kit is really a great tool for parents and kids. Although the kids do not bring their kits to class there will be one Wednesday night that they bring their “envelopes” and calculators as we have a working session of how to calculate 10%, 20%, etc. and talk about what they are saving up for.
The age range for this study is K5-6th grade. Most of our kids are 3-5th graders. Breaking into smaller groups helps if you have younger kids. Our team consists of 8 leaders. We divided up with 2 storytellers, 2 gamers, 3 small groupers, 1 banker (we give the kids a fake dollar bill when they come and say their verse. Later all the bills will be put in a jar and draw for a piggy bank filled with cash). Of course you could do this with less people if you needed to but I love having this many people on a team because it makes it flow so well. And it’s awesome to see the gifts and talents at work in these specific areas of leadership.
So the main topics taught in this series are:
- God owns it all
- Work
- Give
- Save
- Spend
- Contentment
*We are inserting a service project for a local school that has a backpack program for kids that need food over the weekend. All the kids have been collecting non-perishable food items and we will pack them up on one of our nights and pray over these items and for the kids receiving them.
**Will end our time with a pizza party where the group has to work (hard and without complaining) for their money to purchase their pizza. They will receive fake money and will have choices of how to spend it with pizza options.
Okay, well that’s about all I have on FPJr. Let me know if you have any questions.
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