In this past Sunday’s Chicago Tribune, our award-winning app for kids, Savings Spree, was featured in an article about apps to teach kids the basics of savings and spending wisely. Here’s a link to the article: “Thrift? There’s an app for that”
Thanks to our friend, Lou Carlozo of Reuters, for including our app in this great resource article for families. If you haven’t tried Savings Spree yet, here’s a brief video demo to see how kids can learn about money choices and the impact of those choices with the Money Savvy Pig as the host:
If you want to see more, here’s the long version of the demo:
Over 5 years ago I met Chicago City Treasurer Stephanie Neely when we both volunteered as Principals for a Day at a south side elementary school in Chicago. I gave her a Money Savvy Pig so she could give it to her then 4-year-old son so they had something visual at home to help them talk about money. Over the holidays, the Treasurer shared her story with the Chicago Examiner of the impact the Money Savvy Pig has had on her son becoming a “determined saver”. Here’s a link to the article: http://www.examiner.com/city-hall-in-chicago/federal-program-teaches-youth-about-money
Since that first meeting, Treasurer Neely has become a wonderful partner and advocate to help reach young Chicago Public School students with lessons of financial literacy. With the Treasurer, through The Money Savvy Generation Foundation, we created a truly unique and rewarding program called the Financial Education Initiative for Students and Families. To see a video of the impact from the 2011 program, click below.
Thank you, Treasurer Neely, for sharing the Money Savvy Pig with your son – and for making financial literacy a priority in Chicago. Because of you, and the other program supporters, over 200,000 Chicago Public School elementary students have learned about the basics of personal finance over the last few years. Lessons that will last a lifetime. Thank you!
Last month I had the opportunity to share my top 5 money smart tips to help teach kids about money via a phone conference with the professionals at Beverly Financial Group. Here’s a link to the audio of that call including some Q &A at the end. The audio lasts about 45 minutes, but offers 5 great tips with some of my own personal stories and experiences along the way.
We’ve been getting some great feedback on our new Savings Spree App that I just had to share. I hope you and your family decide to try it out too! If you do, tell me which level you like the best.
Here are the new reviews:
REVIEWER: Common Sense Media – 4 of 5 stars – Educational value – A+ : “SAVINGS SPREE is a playful game that demonstrates basic sound financial concepts to kids. The important lessons of being responsible with money will seep through as they play the six game-show rounds. Once kids have played a few times, they may have absorbed all of the included information, but the more they continue to play, the longer they will remember the lessons. ” Click here to read the full review on Common Sense Media
REVIEWER: The iPhone App Review – 5 of 5 stars – “The art of saving is really an art and education in this practice needs to start from a young age. Savings Spree helps with this by encouraging and teaching children the importance of saving with fun-filled games, cool cartoons and excellent graphics. Savings Spree is definitely one of the best educational apps I have seen on the iOS yet!” Click here to read the full review on The iPhone App Review
