Last time I mentioned the 2 reasons my family uses Bomad. The first is the practical problem of keeping track of money for kids - see part 1 for the details of that. Let’s discuss the second: teaching kids about money.

There are many ways to approach this. My Facebook feed is filled with courses to buy. But I’ve come to believe that it’s difficult to teach kids anything. They need to want to learn.

I learned this lesson the hard way. Let me tell you a story about my son Andrew, which helped me come to this realization.

When he was 7, he was really into Minecraft. He used to play it a lot. I used to help him install mods for it. Mods are extensions to the game that make it behave in new and interesting ways.

One day I came across a course that taught kids how to make their own mods. They would learn to code at the same time, which was something I was keen to teach him. This was around 9 years ago, but the site is still active today - learntomod.com:

I floated the idea to Andrew and he seemed pretty keen. The course was a series of lessons which he’d have to work his way through. I figured he’d be more committed if he had some skin in the game, so I suggested to him that he’d have to pay for it. He agreed, but I think it was more because of my enthusiasm than his own.

I still feel kind of guilty about him paying the full $30. Maybe I should have paid half. It’s not like he came to me and said “Dad, please can I get this”. 

Here’s the transaction from the old spreadsheet we used to keep track of his money before Bomad:

I helped him with the first few lessons, then I left him to do the rest on his own. However, he only did a few more. He just wasn’t into it. I decided to step in. Learning to code was a good thing, and he should do it. Plus, he’d committed and spent money that would otherwise go to waste.

So I helped him set up a schedule. Now he had “Minecraft homework” every week. He had to work his way through the lessons at a reasonable pace, and we would keep track. We had a whiteboard in the playroom and he would have to tick off the homework as he did it. 

We’ve since moved house and I didn’t manage to find a good picture of this infamous whiteboard (he still teases me about it today), but you can see it in the top-left of this picture:

The idea of Minecraft homework sounds a little weird, but it made perfect sense to me at the time. He had regular homework, as well as homework from music, chess, and Chinese lessons

The Minecraft homework, however, didn’t get done despite my nagging. I don’t remember all the details, but there were definitely some tense moments, and maybe even a few threats. But in the end I gave up and we scrapped the Minecraft homework.

It was partially this experience that led me to the conclusion that it’s really hard to teach kids anything. They need to want to learn.

That’s why I’m skeptical of this ad, which popped up in my Facebook feed today:

I think that learning to manage your money is a fundamental life skill and can only be learned through experience. Give your kids their own money and let them make their own decisions (with age-appropriate support). This is the easy and natural way to learn about money.

Bomad makes this even easier, and that’s why my family uses it.

P.S. I’m going to put aside my skepticism and check out the course above. Have any of you tried something similar? Please hit reply and let me know.