Let’s Chat About Economics

Let’s face it, learning about economics isn’t the most exciting thing out there to sit down and deal with but it’s happens to be an extremely important  skill and lesson you do not want to skip over . Growing up I learned about economics in school. We really didn’t go over it much at home, though hearing my parents speak about it a few times wasn’t unheard of.  As a mother I know it’s extremely important to teach my children, but again- it’s not the most exciting thing to teach,  let alone learn. That’s where Let’s Chat About Economics comes in handy. 

World-renowned economist Dr. Arthur Laffer has made an unexpected pairing with Michelle Balconi, a Detroit mother to target  a much younger audience with some lessons in economics,  that’s right, children! Dr. Laffer has advised presidents, and leaders around the world so you wouldn’t expect him to drop down to a younger group of future leaders, but that’s the thing- kids are our future. Now’s the time to be teaching them the importance of economics and with a power team of a mother herself and a big time economist , you can’t go wrong. 

Let’s Chat About Economics is 48 pages long and comes illustrated , making it a win right away with the kids.  It’s very inviting for the parents, not just the children to start out on the basics of the subject.  It discusses everyday situations, trips to a store, , simple yard sales, managing their allowances,  something that the kids are already well aware of.  Laffer and Balconi make it fairly easier to teach the kids supply and demand- diminishing returns, opportunity costs and taxes, the value itself of a dollar. With colorful graphs, and charts the kids are pulled in and ask more questions making it even easier to take in. Eager minds are always wanting to grasp at more, this book is a great way to introduce them to economic which they need to understand later in life.  

I think the best part of this is, each chapter takes less than 10 or so minutes to get through. It’s that well put together that it gives clear definitions of the situation, of what’s going on and engages the kids to think about the meaning behind it. In one chapter it talks about how a child realizes if he he keeps spending money on milk shakes he won’t have enough to get something else later on- say ice cream later in the summer? What kid wants to go without ice cream during summer break?  When he thinks his parents would just up and give him extra spending money, he’s forced to really think about where his money went as there will be no extra allowances for that ice cream. It’s an easy example of how to balance spending for the kids-  you can do this, but can’t do this later, if you save, you could do this later on.  How about chores? Skipping chores means no money to spend on that nice cold milkshake, or spending it all on shakes leaves you nothing . Spend half, save half and make a choice to not spend all in one place. My kids picked that up fast, no way will they go without ice cream, so they need to put money aside to save for it. 

  There’s a glossary in the back of the book, kids stuck on some of those tricky terms? Easy definitions are right at your fingers, I loved that. When the kids asked what something was and I just got stuck on how to explain it in simple words , the glossary was there.  Very simple, to the point, situations elementary kids have already experienced. It made teaching my kids about economics not just easier but more fun, as a mother I would really recommend having this on hand once the kids are at the point of earning any allowance. Great way to teach them the basics and and get them started making good decisions that involve money.

Let’s Chat About Economics 

by Arthur Laffer and Michele Balconi with illustrations by Mary Kinsora

48 pages, target audeince- 6-12 years of age

Hardcover: ISBN-10: 0990684628 $16.99

Paperback: ISBN-10: 0990684601 $12.99

Kindle: ASIN: B00O7VMRZY $6.99

 *I received the following product(s) to review. I was not required to write a positive review no other monetary compensation was given . Any and all opinions are my own.