Academy for parents

How it is arranged

Part 1 · How we talk about money at home

The main point: children learn about money from us whether or not we talk about it. If we stay silent, they learn from the tension they see.

What helps [P, consistent with research on financial socialisation]:

• calmly and concretely: "This month we're saving for the seaside, so no ice cream out today — we'll make some at home.";
• show how you decide, not only what: "We wanted a new TV, but first we put money aside for the reserve.";
• say "we can't right now", not "we have no money" — the first teaches choice, the second teaches fear;
• praise the effort and the waiting, not only the goal reached;
• allow small mistakes with small amounts — it is cheaper to get it wrong with €5 at 9 than with €5,000 at 25.

What doesn't help:

• adult worries in front of the child — debts, fear of losing a job — without a solution ("we'll be fine" + what we are doing);
• shame: "we don't talk about money";
• money as a reward or punishment for everything (marks, chores, love).

A conversation at the table (for every age): "How do we decide what to spend on?" — once a month, five minutes, and the child has their say too.

Part 2 · Ages 3–7 — money is something you exchange

What the child can do (the EU/OECD-INFE framework starts at age 6, so for ages 3–7 this is our own educational arrangement. It follows the OECD's recommendation to start "as early as possible" ✔):

• recognise coins and banknotes;
• understand that things cost money and that money is given in exchange;
• wait a short time for something they want;
• choose between two things.

Experiences (not lessons):

• a shop at home — price labels, real coins, the child is both seller and buyer;
• a see-through piggy bank — they see the money grow; we count it together at the end of the week;
• "this one or that one" — in the shop they choose one of two; the choice is theirs;
• waiting with a picture — they draw what they are saving for; we hang it next to the piggy bank.

For the adult: abstractions are not learnt at this age. "The bank", "interest" and "credit" can wait. What matters is exchange, choice and waiting.

Link with Pecuvo: Module 1, Chapters 1–3, level 👧 — as stories to read together.

Part 3 · Ages 8–12 — choosing and waiting

What the child can do:

• plan a small budget (pocket money for a week);
• save for a goal;
• tell "I want" from "I need";
• understand that money in the bank and on a card is real money;
• do a small calculation — how many weeks the goal will take.

Experiences:

• pocket money with clear rules — how much, when, what it can be spent on. Without pretending that pocket money teaches by itself — it is the conversation around it that teaches;
• the three jars: save · spend · give (Module 8, principle 1; Module 13);
• their own goal with a picture and a deadline — how many weeks, how much a week (Module 7 — a simple calculation);
• the lemonade stand — the five cash flows as a game (Module 10, Chapter 1);
• "who profits?" — in front of an advert: who wants me to buy this, and why?

For the adult:

• let the child make mistakes with small amounts and don't rescue them straight away — talk through what happened;
• games with in-app purchases are teaching something right now — look together at what they cost.

Link with Pecuvo: level 👧 in Modules 1, 3, 7, 8, 10, 13; the 3D scenes as games.

Part 4 · Ages 13–17 — the first real decisions

What the young person can do:

• keep a budget for a month;
• understand a card, an online payment, a subscription;
• see the real cost of "buy now, pay later";
• recognise a scam online;
• understand the first pay — gross, net, social security contributions;
• think about risk.

Experiences:

• a monthly budget — they manage part of the family budget themselves (clothes, phone, going out);
• a first job or a fee for work — Flow 1 or 2 (Module 10);
• the scam detector — "2% a day" and the rule of 72 (Module 7, Chapter 9);
• subscriptions — what they cost over a year (Module 8, principle 4);
• crypto and "quick money" — honestly and calmly, at the end of the path (Module 5, Module 17).

For the adult:

• by now you listen more than you explain;
• ask "how would you decide?" before you give your own view;
• research shows that compulsory financial education courses at school reduce the use of "quick loans" among young people (Harvey, 2019 ✔) — but home remains the strongest influence.

Link with Pecuvo: level 🧑 in all modules; a "Person" space for their first own money.

Part 5 · Which module chapters for which age

Part 6 · Family money in Pecuvo

• A "Family" space with a "Children" basket — what children really cost and where the money goes.
• Children's goals — the child sees their goal grow: a picture, a deadline, how many weeks are left.
• A "Giving" basket — the family gives together.
• Five minutes a week — the shared review, in which the child takes part from about age 10.
• No personal data of the child outside the family. We do not record IP addresses and we do not use third-party fonts or scripts on the children's pages.

Part 7 · The difficult topics

How we talk when there is financial strain in the family — job loss, debt, divorce, illness, inheritance:

1. Tell the truth in a child's language: "Dad is looking for a new job. Until he finds one, we'll be more careful with money. It's not your fault."
2. Say what you are doing: a plan, not only worry.
3. Don't pass the worry on: the child does not carry the decision. Worry belongs to the adults.
4. Keep the routine: the small, reliable things (dinner, the bedtime story) are worth more than expensive ones.
5. Don't make the child a go-between for the parents over money (maintenance, presents as proof).
6. Seek help for yourself — counselling, local social services. Worry about money can narrow thinking — how strongly, scientists disagree (Module 14, Chapter 7, with the sources).

The boundary — neglect of the child's needs. Money may not be enough. But the child's needs cannot be postponed: food, health, safety, school, attention, time with the adult. When the strain pushes them aside — through lack, through a busy or distracted adult, or through "let them learn" — it is no longer a lesson about money. Then we first take care of the child and seek help: local social services, a psychologist, a doctor.

Part 8 · When to hand the budget over to the child — the ladder

The common mistake: we miss the moment. We hand it over either too late — at 18 the child suddenly gets a card, a pay packet and credit offers all at once, without ever having managed anything — or too much at once — a large sum without the skill behind it. Then, at the first mistake, we take it back.

The rule: we hand over the budget step by step. The step is set by readiness, not only by age. The ages in the table are a guide [P] — there is no strict evidence for the exact age.

Ready for the next step? Four signs:

1. They can wait 2–4 weeks for something they want.
2. They know how much they have without asking.
3. They have made it to the end of the last two or three periods.
4. They can say what they will do if the money runs out before the end of the period.

How not to spoil it:

• Move up a step after 2–3 well-managed periods, not earlier.
• A mistake holds the step; it doesn't take it away. We talk through what happened and the child tries again in the next period.
• Don't check every purchase. What has been handed over has been handed over. We look together at the end of the period, not in the middle.
• Don't give an "advance" from the next period out of habit. Once, by agreement — yes; every week — no.
• The amount grows with responsibility, not with age on its own. With a new category, the child also takes on the costs we used to pay.

In Pecuvo: every step is a basket in the "Family" space. The child sees their basket, and the parent sees when it is time for the next step.

Part 9 · When and where to step in with money

The two extremes:

• Rescuing — we pay for every consequence and the child learns nothing.
• Neglect — we leave the child without something they need, in the name of "the lesson".

Both do harm. Stepping in with money is a question of what we support.

We always step in, without conditions:

• basic needs — food, health, safety, school;
• real trouble — illness, an accident, a scam against the child. We help, and afterwards we work out together what happened.

We step in as a co-investor — "we add as much as you save":

• things that help the child grow: a course, a sport, an instrument, a first computer for learning, a camp;
• their first own project — a stall, a fee for work, a small business (Module 10). The child puts in their own money, we add ours. That way they learn that support comes with effort, and they still get what they need.

We don't step in (or we step in late):

• with the consequences of their own choices involving small sums: the pocket money ran out on Wednesday, they lost something bought with their own money, they bought something and regret it;
• with "everyone has one" — that is a conversation about values (Module 13), not a reason for money.

How we step in when we do:

• A gift or a loan — we say clearly which it is.
• The family loan for teenagers: a small sum, written terms (how much, by when, from which money). No interest, or a symbolic amount. It is the cheapest lesson about debt they will ever get (Module 7).
• We don't pay secretly behind the other parent's back.

When the child has grown up:

• we support things that grow — education, a down payment for a home, starting an activity — more than the current lifestyle;
• acting as guarantor on a loan for a grown-up child is a big risk for the parent — it is decided with all the information, not out of guilt;
• support for one child is talked about openly in front of the other children, so that it does not become a wound in the family.

Sources

• ✔ EU/OECD-INFE (2023), Financial Competence Framework for Children and Youth in the EU: https://finance.ec.europa.eu/publications/commission-and-oecd-infe-publish-joint-framework-children-and-youth_en — ✔ checked against the PDF: https://finance.ec.europa.eu/document/download/7540153e-7d3b-4d81-8bed-0cf8a80be53b_en?filename=230927-financial-competence-framework-children-youth_en.pdf. The age groups in the framework are 6–10, 11–15 and 16–18, and ours are 3–7, 8–12 and 13–17; the framework does not cover children under 6. The skills in Parts 3–4 have matches in the framework: banknotes and coins (1–2), "want/need" (47), pocket money (76).
• ✔ Shim et al. (2010); LeBaron & Kelley (2021); Harvey (2019) — see 04_Akademichna_osnova (the academic basis file).
• ✔ Watts, Duncan & Quan (2018) — waiting is a skill, not fate.