A Chat With Chelsea Addison – Teaching Financial Literacy with “Savannah’s Savings Jar”
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Teaching Financial Literacy with “Savannah’s Savings Jar”
Many people agree that the extent of their personal finance education fell short, if it even existed at all. When we consider that money is the heart of our capitalist culture, has been for years, and really isn’t going to change anytime soon this lack of education and no teachers teaching financial literacy is strange. We need money to have a home, access utilities, travel, eat – it’s essential for survival.
So why aren’t we taught basic money management skills? Although we won’t focus too heavily on the why not, Chelsea Addison explains why teaching financial literacy should start from young and why we need resources like the one she has created.
I caught up with the lovely Chelsea Addison, Author of Savannah’s Savings Jar. I had met with Chelsea previously in 2019 and since then I had seen her latest book all over her social media with a great focus on teaching financial literacy to children which made me really want to get to know more about her mission and aims with the book. Keep reading to learn about the benefits of financial literacy, the age you should learn about it, and why schools should be teaching financial literacy to kids.
Sam: Why did you write this book?
CA: The book is called Savannah’s Savings Jar and I wrote the book while I was teaching elementary school. During my last year of teaching second grade students I realised I wasn’t teaching financial literacy. We pretty much covered all the compulsory content in school for that year and most of them had progressed above their grade level so I asked them “guys what do you want to learn about?” Money was the topic, and I couldn’t find a lot of resources that were reflective of my students so I wanted to create a book that was not only reflective and diverse of the students that were in my class but a full gambit. Theres a girl with a job in the book, theres a student in a wheelchair, just because I didn’t see a lot of those students represented in the books that were available. I also wanted to give parents, teachers and students that were reading by themselves an opportunity to really delve into the content of money and financial literacy using comprehension questions. I wrote it like a teacher would write it.
>> Purchase Savannah’s Savings Jar here <<
Sam: How long did you spend working on it?
CA: I started working on it my last semester of teaching and that was around 2017 and 2018 I really delved in to it with getting the illustrations completed and then I waited to publish in 2019.
Sam: How important was it to get the perfect illustrations?
CA: The illustrations took a little longer than expected but I love them and they are perfect, I ended up finding someone on Fiver actually. The illustrations were really important to consider as I always thought about creating an animation of it, it’s really important for the kids to gravitate toward it, for the colours to pop and for the illustrations to look relatable. I wanted it to be something that I could really be proud of and I also had my students really involved in the process, because it was for them and they were really honest too with the ones that they didn’t and did like.
Sam: Why is it so important for you to give this information to children, teaching financial literacy?
CA: I think it’s very important we start educating children on finance at an early age, we all at some point have to encounter it. Kids are at a disadvantage when they don’t have that information and kids from ages 3-5 have basic skills where they can start learning financial literacy so we need to be introducing it then, so that when they get to middle school, high school and become adults they already have a strong foundation and understanding of it.
Addison believes, “Children can learn about finance at an early age and put that knowledge to use right away“.
Teaching financial literacy is important because it helps us make informed decisions about the use and management of money. Teaching financial literacy for kids places importance on introducing effective skills to handle money, even from an early age. These skills include budgeting, managing personal finances, saving, and investing.
>> Purchase Savannah’s Savings Jar here <<
Stay safe and take care,
Sammi xx
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