“‘What are you looking at?’ asked the boy. ‘Trouble and treasure,’ she said.’”
And so begins our final weekend reading recommendation for Financial Literacy Month with FUTURES: Financially Literate Kids for a Financially Literate Society™. The Bridge of the Golden Wood: A Parable on How to Earn a Living by Karl Beckstrand, is an amazing story that uses the classic structure of a parable to tell a story about finding and making your own opportunities, something every financially-literate child and adult needs to remember! When we make our own opportunities, we can help ourselves to shape our biggest possible FUTURES!
In this story, a young boy encounters an old woman sitting by a stream who explains that a pile-up of branches in the water is blocking the fish from swimming past, and they’re getting hungry—that’s the “trouble” at the heart of the book. The boy uses his ingenuity to solve the problem of the fish and, along the way, develops a useful enterprise of his own.
Book 3 in the Careers for Kids Series, this illustrated folk tale teaches kids how to spot and take advantage of opportunities as they arise and transform their own skills and talents into lucrative activities.
Use the book as an inspiring springboard to help kids find their own “treasure”—of money-making opportunities. The award-winning author, Karl Beckstrand, is a former Silicon Valley recruiter, and the book includes ideas for jobs, money-making activities and online resources for managing money and finding customers. You can buy it here.
Finding Their Own Treasure
How can kids find the hidden treasure in their own lives?
After reading the book, engage kids in a discussion about finding opportunities all around them:
What have you noticed in your home, school, or community that needs work?
How can you help?
What special talents or skills do you have that would pair with a problem around you?
How can you take that idea and turn it into treasure?
Visit Us Every Day in April
Tomorrow check back for another day of Financial Literacy Month for our final Weekend “What If…?”: What if you could invest in your favorite companies? Kids will learn how big businesses are run while taking part in some real-world “investing” of their own.
For more information about FUTURES: Financially Literate Kids for a Financially Literate Society™ for students in kindergarten through eighth grade or to download any of the 29 sections of the program, please click below.