A Review of the Smart Money Smart Kids Class
Introduction
The Smart Money Smart Kids classes are intended for parents who want to develop traits like generosity, an appreciation for the value of money, how to save for goals and a number of other good money habits. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Smart Money Smart Kids class?
The Strengths of Smart Money Smart Kids
The age specific lessons are valuable and useful, while saving those interested in only one age group time over watching all of the lessons.
Re-enactments of actions like working a part time job or buying a car make the course more interesting.
The explanations of how teaching kids to give regularly develops generosity and counters the natural tendency to self-centeredness as well as how other lessons develop the traits parents want in their kids.
The Biblical references in the Smart Money Smart Kids lessons are specific to the topics without getting too deep into the religious topics.
The six week format is good because it dedicates enough time to each subject to go into death without taking too long.
Smart Money Smart Kids has good advice on how to tailor lessons for kids to their specific personalities, such as natural savers and natural spenders.
One of the benefits of the class format is that you can take it at home or in a group; the ability to home study is essential when childcare is an issue - and it is for a class targeted at parents.
Smart Money Smart Kids Lessons
Week
| Lesson
|
|---|---|
Week 1
| Work and Responsibility
|
Week 2
| Spending and Wisdom
|
Week 3
| Saving and Patience
|
Week 4
| Giving and Generosity
|
Week 5
| Debt and Honesty
|
Week 6
| Contentment and Gratitude
|
The Weaknesses of Smart Money Smart Kids
Rachel Cruz isn’t as experienced a speaker as her father Dave Ramsey. Her presentation sometimes comes across as speaking down to people instead of to people. Her repeating of anecdotes and jokes her father uses in Financial Peace University are downright repetitive – she needs her own anecdotes and material to teach her own classes.
The chats between Rachel Cruz and Dave Ramsey are supposed to be a highlight, making the discussion on the topics in the class more relatable. However, many of the moments in the discussions, such as the dead pets, are awkward.
The lecture on patience is too long.
Observations About the SMSK Program
The Smart Money Smart Kids classes are much more religious than Financial Peace University. This class has a greater percentage of time devoted to the Christian scriptures that call for people to tithe, the traits Christians should seek to cultivate and so forth. Smart Money Smart Kids content is not as universal as Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University or Entre-leadership classes.
Smart Money Smart Kids, despite the name, isn’t suitable for watching with your children. You can however discuss the deep dive topics and discussion questions in the book with your children.
Smart Money Smart Kids addresses a number of matters other Dave Ramsey courses don’t go into detail on. For example, contentment is not the opposite of ambition. You can be happy with what you have and still strive to be better in some area of your life.
The methods of teaching lessons about money outlined in the course don't have meaning until kids are around 3. With toddlers, it is too soon.
Summary
Smart Money Smart Kids is a good class for parents who want to teach the Biblical principles of saving, investing and giving but don’t know how to do so. It is best for parents to watch these lessons as a couple and then ask their kids the discussion questions over dinner instead of making kids watch the presentations with them.
