June 11, 2025 – Financial Stewardship Is a Life Skill

Stephanie Morrison

Homegrown Financial Lesson Plan

Providing your children with the right knowledge about money management isn’t as easy as finding a course that teaches the subject. There are several aspects to be learned about how money works and how to handle it, as well as different perspectives on what’s right and wrong. 

I’ve dabbled in a few courses for my boys to learn good money habits and understand the financial world, but the custom lesson plan I created this past year has been the best thing to bring them into our real life household finances and provide them with valuable experiences that will stick with them into their adulthood. 

I’ve only been doing custom lesson plans for the past couple of years, but it is totally one of those things I wish I had done earlier! I don’t create my own lesson plan for every subject, but to appropriately cover some subjects—mainly electives—it really is the most effective method of organizing different learning materials to focus on what you consider valuable. 

Here are a few of the details I’ve included in our custom Personal Finance course: 

Learning Objectives: Stewardship, budgeting, career exploration, business finances, investments

Instructional Strategies: 

1. Go through slide deck of financial stewardship course from RightNow Media. 
2. Cover lesson material for SchoolhouseTeachers.com course, Personal Finance in Bite Sized Chunks.
3. Integrate additional skill building activities as SchoolhouseTeachers course relates. 
4. Set up personal Wave account for mock business and personal accounting
5. Record household spending in spreadsheet; organize receipts into categories; enter in spreadsheet.

You can see all I’ve included in my one-page Personal Finance lesson plan. If you haven’t delved into custom lesson planning for your homeschool, download this simple template to try it out for yourself!

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About the author

Pursuing her calling to help parents enjoy the responsibility of educating their children, Steph works with select clients in the home education industry and helps entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses from home. She and her family are perfectly placed in the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada. She loves being a homebody and building up her permaculture property. Learn more about Steph at: www.CreatingWorkandPlay.com.

Is your preteen or teen ready to dive deeper into the Bible? 52 Weeks in the Word: Student Edition offers an accessible way to help tweens and teens read, understand, and love God’s Word. Instill a love for God’s Word with 52 Weeks in the Word. https://www.moodypublishers.com/52-weeks-in-the-word-student-edition/

Alexandria Letkeman

Teach Thy Children to Prosper

My financial journey began when I read George Clason’s The Richest Man in Babylon. It explains the fundamentals in a fun, story-based way. Teaching our kids about money can be incredibly daunting, but it’s so crucial to pass on. If you aren’t sure where to begin, I’ve pulled three simple habits from Clason’s work for you to adopt and pass on to your teens. 

Budget Thy Expenses

Budgeting is the cornerstone of good stewardship. Understanding your income and where your money goes allows for informed decisions. Clason advises, “Budget thy expenses that thou mayest have coins to pay for thy necessities, to pay for thy enjoyments and to gratify thy desires without spending more than nine-tenths of thy earnings.” ​Translation: plan it out and stay within your means. 

Distinguish Necessities vs. Desires

Clason warns, “Confuse not the necessary expenses with thy desires.” One of the fastest ways to take control of your money is learning to separate wants from needs. Needs—like food, housing, and transportation—take priority. Wants, while enjoyable, can derail progress if not managed carefully. 

Start Saving Early—Grow Your Tree

“Wealth, like a tree, grows from a tiny seed. The first copper you save is the seed from which your tree of wealth shall grow.” You don’t need a large income to start saving—just consistency. Putting away even a small amount from each paycheck builds security over time. Clason emphasizes, “Gold cometh gladly and in increasing quantity to any man who will put no less than one-tenth of his earnings to create an estate for his future and that of his family.” 

Just like wealth, financial stewardship develops over time. Mastering these three habits can build a strong foundation and confidence for years to come. Clason reminds us, “In those things toward which we exerted our best endeavors we succeeded.”

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About the author

Alexandria Letkeman began homeschooling with her family in middle school and has recently graduated with honors in 2020. Together with her husband, she has developed a passion for financial literacy, classical writing, and the freedom that homeschooling provides. In pursuit of those passions, she and her husband aim to continue the legacy of The HomeScholar and continue helping homeschool parents homeschool with confidence. One day, Alex plans to start a homesteading farm in Texas featuring mini cows.

Heidi Mosher

The $78 Bangs

You read that headline right. I actually spent $78 on bangs earlier this week. I am not proud of this. I did not intend to spend that much. I did not know one could spend that much for bangs. I did learn a valuable financial lesson however. 

Here’s what happened. My 14-year-old daughter wanted bangs. I agreed to her idea but insisted she set the appointment herself with a nearby salon we like. She made the call, rather reluctantly. I was proud of her for that adulting skill. 

I drove her to her appointment, thinking I likely had enough cash in my purse to cover what I assumed would amount to a $15 service. When the stylist suggested a root lifter to maximize the cuteness of the bangs, things escalated quickly, and I was forced to grab my credit card instead.  

I paid, rather reluctantly, a total of $78 (bangs: $55; product: $23). I was not proud of myself for failing to advise my daughter to inquire about the cost of acquiring bangs before the service was rendered. I was also not proud for foolishly assuming pricing structures had remained frozen in place like an application of Aqua Net hairspray back when I was the 14-year-old seeking bangs.

My girl came out grinning though. On the way home, we wondered how many hours each of her three older siblings would need to work at their jobs to finance those bangs. How much did the salon just make per minute? Per scissors’ snip? And, how soon could my daughter sign up for cosmetology school to launch her own lucrative career?  

The $78 bangs will endure unrivaled in Mosher family history and will make us laugh—someday. How do they look? Absolutely darling, but worth nearly $100? Well, the lesson just might save us money. Plus, it came with a free smile. 

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About the author

Heidi Mosher is honored to write for The Homeschool Minute, as it was a lifeline of her early homeschooling years. She is thankful to be the mother of four—two recent homeschool graduates and two who are currently homeschooled.

Shelby Hand

Faithfulness in Finances

Recently a rough-and-tumble moment between two of my children ended with tears as I was approached with a pair of broken glasses. As I steeled myself to figure out how to respond, the child who felt most responsible for the situation offered, “If you can tell me how much they cost, I might have enough birthday money saved to buy her a new pair.” In that moment, I saw my six‑year‑old reflecting multiple aspects of faithfulness: considering the cost of her poor decisions, being willing to sacrifice in an effort to do the right thing, and desiring to be restored to fellowship with her hurt sister.

Faithfulness in finances affects many other areas of a Christian’s life, which is what we homeschooling parents are helping shape in our children. When we teach our children any other life skill, financial skills can be taught alongside them. For instance, when teaching how to do laundry, there are many financial aspects to consider. Which product is the best for the price? Is it better for electricity and water consumption to do three small loads or one large one? Is a stain worth struggling with, or is it better to toss the garment? Is it really best practice to continue to tumble the dryer five more times until you’re ready to fold it? Another example is vehicle maintenance. Help your child think about the benefits of keeping a vehicle running and being able to save money by doing some things themselves (as well as realizing the cost that comes from trying and failing before ultimately needing to bring the car to a mechanic).

As you approach life skills lessons with your children, I challenge you to consider the financial skills that will be embedded in them and ensure that your child is prepared to problem solve with consideration to financial faithfulness.

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About the author

Shelby Hand is the wife of Cody and mother to four daughters. She has a doctorate of education in new learning and is passionate about homeschooling her children to the glory of God. She is the interactive content coordinator at SchoolhouseTeachers.com.

Is your teen eager to learn more about managing her own money? Money 101 on SchoolhouseTeachers.com offers students the opportunity to listen to a variety of seminars from David Kimball who presents on the following topics: the difference between a job and career, how one can start a business, taxes, budgeting, investing, and more. After listening to the seminars, students will then answer questions to help them master the content presented in Money 101.