Latest / The BIG Home Ed Conversations | Home Education / Topic Challenge: Capital Allocation & Investment with Kids
Transcript
- 0:13Hello everybody, welcome to the big home Ed conversations.
- 0:16My name is Kelly Rigg. I'm a home Ed mom of two and a
- 0:19qualified mindset and ADHD coach.
- 0:22I'm passionate about supporting parents and neurodivergent
- 0:24families as they navigate children not OK at school and
- 0:27ultimately then the transition from mainstream schooling into
- 0:29home education. I'm here together with my lovely
- 0:32Co host Ashley Venerio, A fellow home Ed mum of three and former
- 0:35primary teacher. We created the big Home Ed
- 0:37Conversations podcast with what began as honest, heartfelt talks
- 0:41around the coffee table, and it's now grown into a space
- 0:44where hundreds of listeners now tune in for real, unfiltered
- 0:46conversations about alternative education, mindset and
- 0:49educational philosophies. We cut through the noise and we
- 0:52try and focus on what really matters to home educating
- 0:54families. This season we have been
- 0:56sponsored by Strew, a home education logging app that's
- 0:59been developed by a home educating mum and her brother.
- 1:03They have given us access to the app to play around with and to
- 1:06enjoy over the next few weeks and we are basically then
- 1:09reviewing it and letting you know what we like about it.
- 1:12We have really been noticing both myself and Ashley were
- 1:14chatting before we got on that. We really particularly enjoy the
- 1:17feed. So you get to kind of upload
- 1:20photos. You can write a bit about what
- 1:22you've been up to as well, can even scan, scan things and stuff
- 1:25like that to kind of put in there.
- 1:27And ultimately then it kind of runs through an AI kind of
- 1:31profile, which helps to figure out whether or not it's kind of
- 1:34covered reading, literacy, mathematics, etcetera, and gives
- 1:38you these study points. But what's really fantastic
- 1:40about it is when you've logged it all, you've clicked down and
- 1:42it's all kind of put it into the system, you then got this really
- 1:45great feed that you can scroll through.
- 1:47So if you're sticking photos in there, it's a really lovely
- 1:49opportunity to actually look back on the memories of what
- 1:52you've been up to. I know that I do take photos
- 1:54quite a lot of what you've been up to.
- 1:56And they sit in my phone with no comments attached to them
- 1:59whatsoever. And ultimately my, I'm then
- 2:01relying on my brain to remember what was so great about that
- 2:04activity? What was it that we did and why
- 2:07did we enjoy doing it so much and why did we feel like it was
- 2:09worthy of noting? And so I really love the fact
- 2:12that I can go back through and have a have a scroll and see
- 2:15kind of just these lovely images, but then also some text
- 2:18and information that I've written, but also that the AI
- 2:21and it has helped kind of glean from it as well to help me
- 2:24really know what we've been up to.
- 2:27I'm loving the look of it as well.
- 2:29I think opening the app and seeing the feed full of pictures
- 2:33is so helpful in just visualizing what we're doing in
- 2:38our day. I think it's really great, isn't
- 2:40it? I mean, I think we're definitely
- 2:41going to uncover lots of other things we like about this over
- 2:43the next few weeks. So we'll tell you more about it
- 2:45next week. For now though, I'm sure you're
- 2:46all absolutely dying to hear how on earth we managed to cover
- 2:49capital allocation and investing with our children.
- 2:52Now we've absolutely done ourselves a number this time
- 2:54because we recorded one episode and now we've literally given
- 2:58ourselves what is that, five days between episodes before
- 3:01we've actually been recording again because our schedules are
- 3:03a little bit wonky with Easter holidays.
- 3:05Not even because we like 4. It feels like 4 days.
- 3:09So I don't know. Felt really short.
- 3:12It has been really short. We have been a proper like mad
- 3:14dash to try and actually cover this, which I think even a week
- 3:17is going to feel like a mad dash sometimes.
- 3:18But we're going to have fun with it.
- 3:20So you'll have to bear with us. We've done some other things
- 3:22we're going to talk to you about and we're also going to do some
- 3:24more in the future. So what is really great though,
- 3:27is what we're going to do alongside this is make sure that
- 3:29on our blog, if you head to our website, bighomeedpodcast.com,
- 3:32we have a blog. We will be doing a blog every
- 3:34week which will list the resources that we've ended up
- 3:37using. So do remember to go in there
- 3:38and grab that and make your life easier.
- 3:40So don't feel like you've got to scribble down everything that
- 3:42we've said. We will be putting it out there
- 3:44so that you can obviously read up on what we've been up to.
- 3:46But yeah, so I guess my initial reaction to this topic was man,
- 3:50like this is hard work. Like even this is like a new
- 3:54thing for me as a grown up that we were literally laughing just
- 3:56before we got on about my, as I started looking into this, it
- 3:59made me go, I've got a pension pot somewhere.
- 4:02Where is that pension pot? Who, who's it with?
- 4:05I can't remember where it was now.
- 4:06And I found myself just going and having a little look at it
- 4:08because I kind of wanted to show the kids like the investments
- 4:12and allocation that I've done with my capital and see kind of
- 4:15to sort of explain why those things are important.
- 4:17This is like an initial chat about it.
- 4:19And I was really like, like, my goodness, I have not got my
- 4:23stuff together. Like this is not great, is it,
- 4:25to be honest? So it's actually been quite
- 4:27insightful from that perspective as well.
- 4:29Like it did make me stop and think like, where am I doing
- 4:31well with this? Where am I not doing so great?
- 4:33Are there anything else that I'd like to be doing?
- 4:35And actually there's there's lots.
- 4:37And I think there's a really great book I found called Why
- 4:40Money Matters. I think it's written by Deborah
- 4:42Meadon, but I've ordered, we haven't got it yet, but it looks
- 4:45really good to help kind of explain to kids and why money
- 4:48matters and, and what to start doing with it.
- 4:50And there's some really other like loads and loads of books
- 4:52out there about investing and sort of helping young children
- 4:56to start investing their money, even to the point of like going
- 4:59to the charity shop and finding a kit that teaches them a skill,
- 5:04which that skill could then one day translate into obviously
- 5:08opportunity or in a career. And so actually every time we
- 5:11develop a skill, we're investing in ourselves and that sort of
- 5:14time that we invest in ourselves is super important because it
- 5:16does equate to money later. So even just some of those sort
- 5:20of attitudes was really, really good.
- 5:21But to kind of stop myself from jumping around too much, I guess
- 5:25my initial reaction was this is going to be quite difficult.
- 5:27But actually I didn't really find it all that difficult.
- 5:31Once I got started, it was actually OK.
- 5:34And I did manage to find some fun stuff to do with them.
- 5:36But but where did you start, Ashley?
- 5:38How did you feel about this when we first started?
- 5:41When we ended the podcast and I was thinking about it a bit, I
- 5:47was pretty excited because we have been having ongoing
- 5:52conversations about setting up the kids bank accounts so that
- 5:55they could actually see their money and have a better way to
- 6:00keep it versus like the baggy system they've adopted in their
- 6:04bedrooms. I never have cash on me, so it
- 6:06would be much easier to actually transfer money into their bank
- 6:11accounts than to sit here and be like, OK, well, here, you know,
- 6:14you have $10. Remember that.
- 6:19It still feels like my money when we're out.
- 6:21So I don't want to actually necessarily have them spend it
- 6:24on the things they want to spend it on.
- 6:26So I think this will give some clear separation and also not
- 6:29have my daughter carrying around bags of money that then get left
- 6:32in the car and it just feels unsafe.
- 6:37So I was pretty excited from that perspective because this is
- 6:40the fire that we needed to actually get some action going.
- 6:43And I've wanted to have deeper conversations around.
- 6:49While this is important and even though the kids always think
- 6:53it's boring, it's actually probably a may be one of the
- 6:57most important skills we could teach them because it will
- 7:01impact them every day of their lives going forward, especially
- 7:04as adults. So I think it's it's a good
- 7:07thing I had had some resources tucked away and it was OK.
- 7:13Now we're going to bring them out and we're going to see how
- 7:16we can actually start doing this because it's so easy to say, oh,
- 7:22we're really busy with these other things.
- 7:23I don't want to add something else to this like schedule where
- 7:27we'll just wait. And now it's like, no, now's the
- 7:30time. So is it good?
- 7:32Yeah, I think it was really interesting as well because I
- 7:34mean, I know that it is such a kind of age-old issue now, but I
- 7:39literally went straight to the lovely AI friend that we all are
- 7:43a bit obsessed with to get me a little bit of guidance on this.
- 7:47Because whilst we do have obviously a game of Monopoly in
- 7:50the house, I was a little bit stumped.
- 7:52I was like, I don't want this to be too dry.
- 7:54I don't want them to just, I don't want to just be a lecture.
- 7:56I don't want to just sit there and be like, look at all of our
- 7:58money apps and this is how you move stuff around.
- 8:01I really wanted to make it relatable.
- 8:04And I had a kind of a concept in my head and I just wanted to
- 8:06kind of flesh it out a little bit more.
- 8:07So I was sort of saying like, right, using kind of household
- 8:09things, how can I teach my kids how kind of savings and
- 8:14investments are similar but different and all of that kind
- 8:17of side of things. Like how can I get them to
- 8:19understand that obviously when we get paid every month or
- 8:22whatever we've earned every month, that all gets allocated
- 8:25out into different things. Like we have a budget, important
- 8:28stuff gets paid for first, blah blah blah.
- 8:31I really didn't want it to be really dry.
- 8:32And I was like, how do I make this fun?
- 8:34And so basically between me and the AI delightful thing that
- 8:39basically solves all my problems, we came up with the
- 8:42concept of like a toke, a family token currency.
- 8:45So we basically created our own currency to use for the weekend,
- 8:48which is Lego blocks. And they had a spend or spent
- 8:52part. They had a save part that for
- 8:54every 5 tokens that went into it, they would get one more
- 8:58every morning. And so after breakfast every
- 8:59morning, one more would go in for every five that went in
- 9:01there and an investment part. So they could put 1 into the
- 9:04investment part. Then they had to roll a dice and
- 9:07that might either lose, stay the same, or gain 1, which meant
- 9:11that obviously the investment had the potential to grow
- 9:13faster, but also had the potential to be lost.
- 9:15So it's always a risk putting the money in there.
- 9:17You didn't want to lose it if you didn't have to.
- 9:19And then we had a family pot. So I insisted on having a family
- 9:22pot where they had to everyday put at least two tokens into the
- 9:25family pot. And if they managed to reach 20
- 9:27by tomorrow, then they're able to get a movie night and we're
- 9:31going to have Domino's and have like a proper family movie
- 9:33night. But they had to get 20 in there
- 9:35because they had to cover the, the mortgage, the bills and the
- 9:38food and everything else. Then we decided on some stuff
- 9:40they could spend their tokens on and the stuff that they would do
- 9:43to obviously earn tokens. And we decided, they agreed on
- 9:45it. We had a big chat about it and
- 9:46we agreed on what they were going to have to do.
- 9:48And they had to do if they did a worksheet, for example, or read
- 9:51a few chapters of a book or something like that, they got 2
- 9:54tokens. And so I am not kidding, my kids
- 9:57have done about 50 worksheets this weekend because I should
- 10:01have kept it because the stuff that they could spend the tokens
- 10:04on was like an extra hour on the VR, like a bit of chocolate,
- 10:08like whatever else. And it's like they literally
- 10:10have done so much school it is not even funny.
- 10:13I am just absolutely bowled over by how many things they have
- 10:16actually actively done. Like they've been checking
- 10:19constantly. They've been keeping an eye on
- 10:21it. Have I done my 2 into the family
- 10:22part? Yes, I have.
- 10:23OK, that's good. I've got 9 left.
- 10:25That means if I if I get one more than I could have an hour
- 10:27on the VR lace. Like they've been really working
- 10:29hard and it's been really lovely to see them so motivated around
- 10:33the concept of working hard, contributing to the family.
- 10:36So they're helping out with things around the house, doing
- 10:38more kind of helpful things like loading the dishwasher, moving
- 10:41the washing over for me, like all of these things and, and
- 10:43tokens. Obviously this is not how we
- 10:45would normally run our day. It would be exhausting to do
- 10:46this all the time, but it was a really great exercise to show
- 10:50them the effort in equate to money out.
- 10:53That money can then be saved or invested or spent.
- 10:57And so ultimately when we kind of refinalize this and talk
- 11:01about it tomorrow, we kind of look at the whole experiment as
- 11:03a whole. I am going to sort of say to
- 11:05Mike, right, what were some of the things that had a higher
- 11:07token value, but you spent all of them on the lower token stuff
- 11:10because it was a quick win that actually maybe you would have
- 11:13wanted to earn those bigger ticket things and you would have
- 11:16really enjoyed getting to go to like soft play, for example,
- 11:18forgot 30 tokens. They were going to, they could
- 11:19choose to get a soft play or something and they never got
- 11:22there because they just kept spending it on chocolate and
- 11:25chocolate every time. But ultimately that's fine.
- 11:28I was like, if you want to, if that's how you want to use your
- 11:30money, that's how you use your money.
- 11:31But we all learned this lesson, right?
- 11:32Because we become adults and we suddenly got money coming in.
- 11:35It's like, oh, it's just so exciting.
- 11:36I could go on holiday or I can go to the pub or I can like go
- 11:39out for dinner and I can just buy all this fun stuff.
- 11:41This is amazing. What all these money that I
- 11:42didn't have before and it is very fun and freeing at first,
- 11:46but actually very quickly we realized that if we want to have
- 11:48anything big in life, like if we want to get married or go on a
- 11:51big holiday or buy a house, then we're going to have to save some
- 11:54serious Mueller. And that kind of comes later.
- 11:56So I think if we did this experiment for a while,
- 12:00eventually they would start to want to save up some of those
- 12:02tokens for the things equally, they might diversify the way
- 12:05they're earning their tokens because they'd get bored of
- 12:07doing it that way or whatever, right?
- 12:09And it's, I think it's really fascinating as an experiment.
- 12:11And my son did risk the the investments a few times, but he
- 12:15did find that quite tricky because obviously it's the
- 12:17frustration of losing a token just just because.
- 12:21And as I said, that this is the problem, this like all it takes
- 12:23is for a certain president to say something at the moment and
- 12:27my stocks lose a couple of 100 quids.
- 12:29Like it's very frustrating, but you sometimes just have to hold
- 12:32tight and it will recover. But you just, it can be quite
- 12:35worrying sometimes, especially if you don't know an awful lot
- 12:37about it. And so, yeah, that was really
- 12:39fun. Anyway, I'll let you kind of
- 12:40like share some stuff that you've been up to now.
- 12:41But that was my first day. That's what we did first and the
- 12:44kids really bought into it. It was actually really good fun
- 12:47and I think really did help to demonstrate that initial
- 12:49grasping of understanding that things do grow if they're left
- 12:55in pots and left alone for a little while.
- 12:58Yeah. Not for very long.
- 13:00Short attention spans and all that.
- 13:01I think also like another component of that, again, if you
- 13:04were continuing to do this or even not, but just like if one
- 13:07of those items was like if you reach however many tokens, like
- 13:1130-40 tokens, then you'll get to go to soft play in four months.
- 13:16Like because that patience that you were talking about and
- 13:21having to, to wait to get the reward is also a component.
- 13:26So it's not even the saving up. It's like, I'm not going to get
- 13:29like, if you think about saving for retirement, putting all this
- 13:32money away, but like, we're not going to see it for years.
- 13:35And that's a really hard thing when even even as adults, if
- 13:38you're like, well, I really want to redo my kitchen kitchen.
- 13:42Not bad, but I'd like to redo it because I would like it to be
- 13:45more modern or functional or clean or with the, you know,
- 13:48updated, whatever the case may be.
- 13:50OK, but do I really need to do that?
- 13:52No, my kitchen's perfectly fine. I could put that money in
- 13:55retirement, but that's pretty far away.
- 13:57And so it's, it's almost something you can ignore a
- 14:00little bit because it does feel really far away, but like
- 14:04there's a, there's a risk or there's a not a risk, but
- 14:07there's a downside to that, right?
- 14:09Because you're missing out on potential interest.
- 14:11So anyway, it's really, it's really interesting.
- 14:13That's a, that's a really fun concept.
- 14:16I like that. I think I might implement that
- 14:19on our side and see see how they do.
- 14:22I'm sure they would end up doing the same thing you can.
- 14:24Just see, get an easy school week.
- 14:26I mean, seriously, I guess if you just do want to trade tons
- 14:29and tons and tons of written school just so you can get your
- 14:31folders filled up so that you can just relax for a week, then
- 14:34by all means, do this game. It's hilarious.
- 14:35They honestly loved it. They thought it was great fun.
- 14:38Yeah, I think that's really cool.
- 14:39I like that. Yeah, we started on a feels much
- 14:44more academic, less fun introduction where we just sort
- 14:50of said like, OK, what is money? Like what even is it?
- 14:54We talked about how it's sort of this mix of choices and
- 14:56opportunities and you can break it into the categories, which we
- 15:01see over and over again. And anything that you look at
- 15:04that's basically like personal finance or whatever you want to
- 15:08invest in, whatever for children, which is those
- 15:10categories of spend, save, investor or grow and give.
- 15:15And you often see it with like these cute little jars on the
- 15:17table and all the Instagram posts about the kids putting in
- 15:21whether it's like actual money or like tokens, kind of to
- 15:24remember seeing like little felt balls and like how they would
- 15:26divide it up. So we talked about that.
- 15:29And I think that at least my thought was like, let's sort of
- 15:36put some words around what they already know because they know
- 15:41you need money to get stuff and they know that money doesn't
- 15:45grow on trees because I say that all the time.
- 15:48We started that way. And then I found what I thought
- 15:50was a really cute YouTube video to watch cuz they like to watch
- 15:53stuff over breakfast. I think it's a good way to just
- 15:55get in like a 5 minute whatever. We do it for math concepts and
- 15:59things like that as well. But I so I found this YouTube
- 16:02video I thought was good and they were like not impressed.
- 16:06I thought was really good at like breaking things down and
- 16:10presenting it in a really great child way.
- 16:12Even that speaker was speaking to the children like not to me
- 16:14clearly. And they're just like, whatever,
- 16:17this is so boring. And they usually say that about
- 16:20TV. So it's so funny how like
- 16:22automatically they're like, so I was like, all right, cool.
- 16:26We'll we'll not do any more of that.
- 16:28So I did quickly hop on to sort of like the same as you.
- 16:32I mean, I went to to AI and I said, give me like a breakdown
- 16:36of what you would do to teach kids my children's age about
- 16:41capital allocation, investing for a week, like unit study.
- 16:46And I honestly didn't get anything like that
- 16:47groundbreaking. And then so I was like, well,
- 16:49what activities could I do? And I still didn't get like a
- 16:53anything more than like create a fake allowance and like create
- 16:57your buckets. And I was like, I want to do
- 16:59that. So I did go over sort of
- 17:02teacherspayteachers and I did go through a bunch of resources on
- 17:04there because I do like to have my notebooks.
- 17:07I'm very big fan of Montessori style notebooking.
- 17:10And so do you like to have that? So I did go and find something
- 17:13that was really good about that. It was this resource called
- 17:16Personal Financial Literacy and it's a third grade math unit.
- 17:20So I feel like that kind of slots right in the middle of my
- 17:22kids age groups and it's the topic we needed.
- 17:25So it's perfect and you just basically use it to create this
- 17:28little notebook that breaks down like the major aspects of
- 17:32basically personal finance. So I thought it was really good.
- 17:34You can take a look at it through the samples on
- 17:36Teacherspayteachers. It's it's sweet.
- 17:38It was not expensive. So we're going to, we have not
- 17:41gotten through that. I haven't even printed it yet.
- 17:43I did like download it and go through it myself, but I need to
- 17:46print the pages we want to do. And so that's basically where
- 17:50we're going to start from like a true school perspective.
- 17:52I think of anything that like goes into our notebook as being
- 17:55like super schooly because they'll have to like sit down
- 17:57and actually write something. But that, that was the first
- 17:59piece that I did. And then I think that since
- 18:02since that we've, we've done some other stuff, but I'll, I'll
- 18:05let you talk more about what you've done.
- 18:09Yeah. I mean, that's things.
- 18:10I mean, we, that sounds lovely. At the end of the day, there's
- 18:13lots of different angles you can come at this from and we're
- 18:15going to try some stuff with them and they're just going to
- 18:17go, it's kind of going over my head or it's not that
- 18:19interesting or whatever. But that's what's great about
- 18:23these topics sometimes is it actually just gives you an
- 18:25opportunity to say, OK, this isn't relating to you for some
- 18:27reason, why not? Let's help you understand, like
- 18:30how did, how do you already do this?
- 18:32Like how are you already aware of this?
- 18:34When you guys choose to put some stuff in the food bank box at
- 18:37Easter or Christmas or whatever, or when you guys choose to that
- 18:40you're giving, when you have your pocket money and you say to
- 18:44me things like I really want Domino's for dinner.
- 18:46Like are you paying? You're like, yeah, OK, I'll give
- 18:48you £10 my pocket money towards it.
- 18:49Like I really want to have Domino's for dinner.
- 18:51Like obviously I would never, I never make them do that.
- 18:53But but ultimately, I would say that's really kind of you.
- 18:56That's really generous and that's really considering the
- 18:58family needs. And I really appreciate that.
- 19:00Like that there isn't all just about having fun money to just
- 19:03spend on cuddly toys. It's absolutely what they want
- 19:06to do every time they go to the shop.
- 19:08My son, for example, has gotten much better recent years at like
- 19:10when we do go to souvenir shops, like at the zoo or whatever, if
- 19:14there's nothing that really kind of calls out to him that he
- 19:15wants, he doesn't spend his pocket money.
- 19:17He does actually save it because he wants to get bigger things.
- 19:20And they both wanted to save up for their pets last year, which
- 19:22will kind of contribute towards it as well.
- 19:23But yeah, but the only other thing I did really.
- 19:25So far with two things. One is I sat down with my Plum
- 19:28app. So that is where I do all my
- 19:30savings and put my savings pots. And I explained to I only sat
- 19:33down with my son because my daughter's a bit young.
- 19:36She's only 6 and she was honest. She was mostly just enjoying
- 19:39trading her worksheets for chocolate.
- 19:41So I wasn't really reaching that one all that well.
- 19:43But my son is 9 and he was way more involved in this.
- 19:45He thought it was really interesting and so he was happy
- 19:48to sit down with me and go through my savings app kept
- 19:50asking me to give me all of my all of my money.
- 19:52Apart from that, he's like, can I have half of that?
- 19:54I'm like, absolutely not. You have any idea what all this
- 19:57stuff is going to pay for? But it was really great to show
- 19:59him like how I budget and how I keep track of how much we spend
- 20:02every month and. Like where we reprioritize
- 20:06money. So like if we do need to spend a
- 20:08bit more on say getting a washing machine, then we'll
- 20:09reprioritize it from someone, something else like the
- 20:12frivolous pots, like going out for dinner or whatever.
- 20:15But ultimately we've got the the Plum app, which has all my
- 20:18savings pots where I structure our savings and have it
- 20:20automatically take money from the account.
- 20:22So I don't really think about it.
- 20:23And it just helps to go into savings all the time.
- 20:25So I'm not even having to consciously choose to do it.
- 20:28It's just saving it for me and that stops me from feeling like
- 20:32I've got to constantly analyze like what we need to save money
- 20:35for and whether we can and figure that out myself.
- 20:38It does it all for me. And within that I then also do
- 20:40investments. So I showed him how all that
- 20:41works and like the charts, like he was really good.
- 20:44I showed him some of the charts with some of the stocks that I
- 20:46hold. And I said, what can you tell me
- 20:47about the chart? Like what's going on there?
- 20:49And he was like, it went along really flat and they went up
- 20:51really fast And I was like, right, So what does that mean?
- 20:53And we, we had a really great chat about kind of how I had
- 20:56bought some stocks when it was on that nice flat low bar and
- 20:59how over the course of this year, it's now up to like 150 of
- 21:03stock or whatever share. Sorry.
- 21:05And then obviously he was able to go, oh, wow, So that means
- 21:07that you made X amount of money. So like if I bought it at that
- 21:09and it's now worth that, then I've made that difference.
- 21:12So he was really comprehending the concept.
- 21:14And then today we've literally just just before we came on do
- 21:17the podcast, we've started playing a game with Monopoly.
- 21:20So we've, we've literally got about half an hour in and I
- 21:22don't think I've ever actually completed a game of Monopoly.
- 21:25Like it's, it's the kind of game.
- 21:27Very long. Like goodness, it can go on for
- 21:29days. So I suspect that's exactly what
- 21:30will happen with this one. Like it will not be done and
- 21:32dusted today. It'll probably take us days to
- 21:33finish it. But I'm going to try and hold on
- 21:35and actually finish it with them because I do think it's really
- 21:39interesting to see how eventually obviously makes one
- 21:41person win. But ultimately they were both
- 21:43showing really strong skills with adding up the dice, adding
- 21:47up the money like different combinations of notes to be able
- 21:50to buy the things they wanted to buy.
- 21:52They were grasping the concept of trying to collect all the
- 21:54colors so they can stop and the buildings on they were, they
- 21:57were really getting the rules very, very quickly, which was
- 21:59really positive for me to show that kind of the math skills,
- 22:01but also their incentive. Like they were both really
- 22:04intentional, but like I want to invest in the ones that are
- 22:06worth a lot because then I get more money and but really got
- 22:09the idea. And so actually that just all
- 22:11fills me with hope that one day they will actually know what to
- 22:14do. But in this sort of scenario
- 22:15when it comes up in the real world.
- 22:16And that the only last thing I've really got is Monopoly
- 22:19deal, which apparently is a much faster game and is much better
- 22:22for just this kind of so much quicker kind of Monopoly games
- 22:25with them. So but we're going to give that
- 22:27a game when it arrives. But got him in Amazon.
- 22:29Let me down. It was meant to come yesterday
- 22:30and it's not going to come until Wednesday, darn it.
- 22:32So never mind. You just have to be patient.
- 22:34We'll have to tell you about that one on the blog.
- 22:35But yeah, that's that's basically what we ended up doing
- 22:37with ours. I thought it was really
- 22:39interesting. Yeah, I love Monopoly Deal.
- 22:41We actually have the Harry Potter version, so it's a little
- 22:43bit different, but I'd be curious to see like the original
- 22:46and every person that's played it has given positive feedbacks.
- 22:50I'm sure you like it. So we finally, this was like the
- 22:55kick I needed to get the girls bank account set up.
- 22:58So I was hoping we could have done it before we recorded but I
- 23:02couldn't get appointments until later in the week.
- 23:04So that is going to happen, which they're very excited about
- 23:07because I probably put it off for about 6 months now and we'll
- 23:11do that. And then we did listen to a
- 23:16finance podcast. I searched for a few and I
- 23:21didn't listen to all of them, but I ended up starting with the
- 23:24one called Finance with Kids podcast.
- 23:28And I have kind of some pros and cons to it.
- 23:31But essentially it's a father daughter duo that are talking
- 23:35about different concepts. They have 24 episodes out and
- 23:38they're all from 2023. So I don't think this is an
- 23:41active podcast, but I specifically chose to listen to
- 23:45episode 24, which is called practicing Smart Spending Habits
- 23:48and Avoiding Impulse Buying because I thought this would
- 23:51hopefully help calm the chaos of bringing kids shopping with you.
- 23:55And then be like, can I have this?
- 23:55Can I have this? I want this, I want this, I need
- 23:57this. Please, please, please, please,
- 23:58please like the craziness. And I hate saying no all the
- 24:02time. And I was sort of researching
- 24:05this a little bit and I was, I forget where I heard this, but
- 24:09some of this thing, instead of just saying no, you should say
- 24:12to your kids like, if this is important to you, we can develop
- 24:15a plan to get it. So I'm not going to buy it for
- 24:19you today. But if you really need this new
- 24:22pony stuffed animal, then let's take a picture of it.
- 24:25And when we get home, we can put a plan together to save up for
- 24:28it and what that will look like. And I can tell you it usually
- 24:32works in the moment. Actually, it's always worked for
- 24:34me so far. And never once have we had to
- 24:37develop the plan. So they forget about it so far
- 24:41straight. They don't care by this time we
- 24:43get home. So I think it's really good.
- 24:46And it's like someone was saying it's more respectful because
- 24:50they to that like their perspective is so different from
- 24:52ours, obviously. And to them, it can mean a
- 24:55really big deal. And to constantly be told no
- 24:58without a valid reason that makes sense to them is not a
- 25:01really easy concept. It just sounds like a no because
- 25:04I said no. Yeah.
- 25:05And so I'm trying to do that a little bit more.
- 25:08And I think that I was hoping that this podcast would help to
- 25:14talk a little bit about impulse purchasing and why that's not
- 25:18necessarily a good thing. And I will say I really liked
- 25:21it. It was a good message.
- 25:23It was delivered in a very short podcast.
- 25:25This is like maybe 13 or 14 minutes.
- 25:27It has a kid on it. So that already sounds like
- 25:31someone on their level. And I thought they delivered it
- 25:34well, like with a good back and forth.
- 25:36And obviously it's meant for kids.
- 25:38So it was a good like age appropriate podcast.
- 25:44But definitely go listen to episode 23.
- 25:45It's the only one I've listened to, but I am going to go and
- 25:49listen to the other ones because I think they break down like
- 25:51pretty big topics in a way that makes sense.
- 25:54And so then coming out of it, I said, OK, let's do a challenge
- 25:57as like the four of us who had just been at a couple charity
- 26:00shops before we listen to those podcasts.
- 26:03Let's not make any impulse purchases for the rest of April.
- 26:09So for the like half a month left.
- 26:11So for the rest of the month, we are not going to purchase
- 26:16something that we didn't go to the store intending on buying.
- 26:20And if we do want something that we see, we will have to go home
- 26:23and figure out if it fits into the budget, if it's something we
- 26:27truly need and all of that. So the podcast kind of broke
- 26:31down what the criteria are for wanting to purchase something.
- 26:35I thought they did that really well.
- 26:37So yeah, really like that and thought this would be just a fun
- 26:40challenge. So we're going to be doing that
- 26:41and based on the sort of advice from this podcast around
- 26:46practicing smart spending habits, we are going to track
- 26:51their goals. So we'll get the bank account
- 26:53set up. We're going to track their goals
- 26:55and basically say like, what is it that they want to save for
- 26:57right now? And what is our plan to get
- 27:00there? Do you want to be able to
- 27:01purchase this next month? Are we talking about 5 months
- 27:05from now? Because that will impact how
- 27:06they, how they save, how much they have to tuck away and if
- 27:09it's even realistic. So we, I really liked that
- 27:11podcast. I thought it was just perfect
- 27:13for sort of tackling an aspect of it.
- 27:16At the end, I did ask my middle daughter, well, I asked all of
- 27:20them, what do you think about it?
- 27:22And my middle daughter said boring.
- 27:25That sounds like her, yeah. I was like, but did you, did you
- 27:29like it? And she's like, yeah, I was OK,
- 27:31OK, OK, I'm going to call it. Tough not, to be fair.
- 27:36I'm going to call it a win. Yep.
- 27:37So I did find another one that's called FI for Kids.
- 27:41And the FI stands for Financial Independence.
- 27:43And this is an active podcast. It started in 2024, like the end
- 27:47of 2024. And it still has active ones
- 27:49from I think last one was from March.
- 27:52So it is still going from what it looks like.
- 27:55And it seems like a good place to start for parents.
- 27:58So it talks. I don't know that this would
- 28:01necessarily be something that a kid would listen to.
- 28:04But in reading all the descriptions for the episodes,
- 28:09it sounds to me like a really great place because they keep
- 28:11saying what what you would want to tell your child about this
- 28:14topic, what they need to do to set themselves up to be
- 28:16financially independent in their 20s, thirties, 40s, Like what
- 28:20does that look like sort of preparing them?
- 28:22So I think if you're not really sure where to start or even if
- 28:25you are and you just want to like check yourself, these
- 28:28episodes seem really interesting.
- 28:30And it's definitely something that I'm going to listen to.
- 28:32If it ends up being something I think my kids would be paying
- 28:35attention to, I'll absolutely do it for them as well.
- 28:39But at least for me, so those were kind of from the podcast
- 28:42perspectives. I think as well, like I love
- 28:45what you said about the budgeting and the concept of
- 28:47kind of actually explaining to them when they want to get say
- 28:50on Lego set, that's 20 credits. And you're like, OK, but you've
- 28:53got this kind of a budget in your mind of what you wanted to
- 28:56spend that day or that month. Or like you've already kind of
- 28:58gone a bit nuts and you've you've gone for a few days out
- 29:00or whatever and you actually really haven't got that extra
- 29:02spare. And you feel a bit mean for
- 29:04saying no because you've obviously prioritized money
- 29:06elsewhere. And this matters to them.
- 29:08But I love that kind of concept of asking them to budget and
- 29:10think about it and actually come up with their own way of getting
- 29:13there. I think it is a really
- 29:14respectful way of saying it's like, if you really want it,
- 29:16that's fine. But we've got to save up for it
- 29:18and go and get it ourselves. And also, I think I really love
- 29:21the idea of, I think what you're saying about them not really
- 29:24caring sometimes have just been a bit like, this is kind of
- 29:27going over my head or it was a bit boring, whatever.
- 29:29When it's their money, it stops being boring, right?
- 29:32And I think this is when my son really wanted to get a snake.
- 29:35I mean, we sat down and we had a chat about it.
- 29:37We're looking up how much the terrarium costs and the snake
- 29:40itself and their food and blah, blah, blah.
- 29:42And I was like, well, this is kind of how much it costs to run
- 29:44and this is how much it's going to cost to get one and like all
- 29:47this sort of stuff. And he was like, can you get it?
- 29:49And I'm just like, no, I can't afford that right now.
- 29:52And I was like, if this is what you really want, then we've got
- 29:54to save up for. And he's like, I can't save up
- 29:56that much money. That's huge.
- 29:57And actually he did it in under 6 months.
- 29:59Like he did really, really well doing some extra stuff to earn
- 30:01some extra pocket money. And it kind of built up really
- 30:03far to like birthday money and Christmas money and stuff.
- 30:06But I kept saying to him like, it's you will appreciate this so
- 30:10much more when you've put the effort into making it happen for
- 30:13yourself. And I also think it's just so
- 30:14important for them to understand that when they're given pocket
- 30:18money, they can spend it on a quick win, like a cuddly snake
- 30:22from a shop that you're going to play with for 5 minutes.
- 30:24Or you could save that 10 lbs and that 10 lbs could go towards
- 30:27something that really matters to you.
- 30:30And actually, even my 6 year old was able to save the same amount
- 30:32of money to be able to get her kitten that she wanted, which to
- 30:35be honest, cost us a small fortune since we've got them.
- 30:37But apart from that, the I could take it all from my pocket
- 30:40money. But that would be mean, wouldn't
- 30:41it? But the, the kind of idea behind
- 30:44it is really strong. And it really helped them to
- 30:45understand that there is ongoing cost and there is something
- 30:48which they need to take care of. Yeah, when when they're given
- 30:50that responsibility, they definitely care about it a heck
- 30:52of a lot more. Yeah, absolutely.
- 30:56And I think that was actually one of the messages in the
- 30:59podcast we did listen to that was saying I think the girl had
- 31:03saved up for an E bike. And it was like you feel much
- 31:06more of a reward when you reach that milestone.
- 31:11And it's the same for big purchases as an adult when you
- 31:13buy your first home. Yeah, and I think that's a
- 31:16really good message. And it is really hard to
- 31:20understand that until you've done it.
- 31:22And I thought the dad made a good point because he was like,
- 31:24I'm not buying you an E bike for your birthday because clearly
- 31:26that's way too high of a price point for a birthday gift.
- 31:29But it was something that she was able to save up for over a
- 31:33long period of time, it sounded like.
- 31:35So I think that's, I think that's really cool.
- 31:38And that's why I do want my kids to come up with something if
- 31:41they're going to say a horse. I've already said like, I would
- 31:46buy you a horse if it was just the cost of the horse.
- 31:48Yeah. So until you can afford it's
- 31:51been month to month you can't have one, but hopefully it'll be
- 31:55something less. Lofty goals and all that.
- 31:58Yes, and then we did find good. To save up for a great holiday.
- 32:01Like ask him to take you to Hawaii or something.
- 32:03They can. Save up for that.
- 32:04Oh my gosh, Did you listen to the podcast?
- 32:06Because the dad actually asks the daughter to save up to take
- 32:08her to Hawaii. It's.
- 32:09Just my go to. I say that to but all the time,
- 32:12just like if you've got any spent pocket money, pop it in
- 32:13the Hawaii pot. Yeah, I.
- 32:16Love that. I love that.
- 32:17I think, I think that the other piece that worked for us was
- 32:22books. My kids, I think for a heavy
- 32:24topic like this, they just want to be read to make, I don't know
- 32:27if it sounds more personal or it's less easy to like have your
- 32:31mind drift when you're listening to something.
- 32:33And so I of course, have my husband lift the flat questions
- 32:39and answers about money, which is perfect for my youngest who
- 32:43is also six. And it's it's super cute, easy
- 32:48to go through interactive. That's one that we I pulled out.
- 32:52We will we've read it before, but we'll go through it again.
- 32:55I have another one that's like a kids version of it's the no
- 33:00nonsense being like KNOW like no nonsense guide to money.
- 33:06An awesome fun guide to the world of finance.
- 33:08And what I like about this is each, each concept is a page and
- 33:12there's all these great topics, income, profit and loss,
- 33:15crowdfunding, banks, investing. And it takes one page to show.
- 33:20So it's very short. Yeah.
- 33:23And it's colorful and it's broken into the topics of what
- 33:27is money and then earning, saving and spending and
- 33:34borrowing. So it's kind of broken into
- 33:36those concepts, which are really cute.
- 33:38Then I have like older ones. Investing for kids.
- 33:42This was recommended by someone on on Instagram and I like this
- 33:46one because it's really colorful and it shows a lot of just like
- 33:51fun diagrams. Nice and.
- 33:54It talks a lot about the history.
- 33:56So it'll go into like money, who invented money?
- 34:00How is it manufactured? How do we end up with our
- 34:02monetary system anyway? And it goes into the history,
- 34:06historical notes, the history of money.
- 34:08So it talks about how the money has changed, how we've gone to
- 34:10where we are today. It talks about stock.
- 34:12It talks about financial bubbles and it definitely is not
- 34:16something for my younger to, I don't think at this point, but I
- 34:20think parts of this we could start to get into.
- 34:24I don't think it's ever too early.
- 34:26And then I have another one investing for kids from piggy
- 34:30banks to portfolios, which is super cute as well.
- 34:33This one is black and white, so it's less colorful, but it does
- 34:36have like a younger tone to it. It also has history in it, which
- 34:41I think is really cool. And then it has all these like
- 34:43fun facts. And so for example, one of the
- 34:46first fun facts says that like currently the highest
- 34:49denomination of the US dollar is 100.
- 34:52However, there were denominations of 500, a
- 34:54thousand, 5010 thousand. What's really cool is that they
- 34:57are still considered legal tender and might still be out
- 35:00there in circulation. That's.
- 35:01Cool, so it's just like all these fun little facts.
- 35:05Yeah, I knew you'd have some good books because Ashley is our
- 35:09bookworm. She's always got some good
- 35:10books. We'll have to definitely list
- 35:12all those on the blog because I think there was a couple there
- 35:14that I was looking at. Yeah, I love that in the basket.
- 35:18So I'll certainly kind of look those out and and go back and
- 35:21find those because I wasn't sure looking at the sort of front
- 35:23cover, I wasn't sure if they were the right ones or not, but
- 35:25I like the look of those. That's really cool.
- 35:27Yeah, they're really cute. And I think what's really
- 35:30important to recognise for these subjects as well is that
- 35:33ultimately where I don't think I got a lot of this education as a
- 35:36child, I definitely was obviously taught math and I had
- 35:40those sort of grasping in concepts of addition and all the
- 35:42rest of it. But I business studies was a
- 35:44whole separate thing that you chose, you could opt in or out
- 35:47of at GCSE level. And so I never got any of the
- 35:50business understanding and I went into employed work thinking
- 35:54that that was the only real way to make money and that's the
- 35:56only way to be stable and all the rest of it.
- 35:58And ultimately that wasn't, and I should have known if I'd have
- 36:01known a lot more about kind of the concept of growing my own
- 36:04portfolio or investing in things or like I didn't invest in
- 36:07anything. No stocks, no nothing.
- 36:09I had savings accounts, but no investing apart from my property
- 36:13until about 3 or 4 years ago. And it's just all this stuff
- 36:16that I just was never taught about.
- 36:17It was never on the conversation topic list at school, at home,
- 36:22nowhere. And so ultimately, I know that
- 36:25that has left me like if I'd been able to invest in some
- 36:27stuff when I was, I don't know, 18/19/20, then goodness knows
- 36:30how much those things would be worth now and ultimately would
- 36:33have helped to potentially kind of dig us out some of the holes
- 36:36we've ended up in. So I have definitely found
- 36:39myself feeling more intentional since starting this.
- 36:42I know it's only been a weekend and I get that we all going to
- 36:44kind of like we have dip in and out subjects all the time, but
- 36:46it has definitely made me think that this is something that I do
- 36:49want to ensure we keep a part of our learning.
- 36:52But I talked to them about it doesn't have to be a constant
- 36:54project and a constant like drilling into them, but it's
- 36:56certainly something that we can bring into conversation.
- 36:59Talk about budgeting, talk about why we don't spend all our money
- 37:02on Domino's, why we spend our money on books to learn more
- 37:06things, to be able to invest in ourselves, to grow and to do
- 37:08more things like I've spent money on, for example, like a
- 37:11DHD coaching course. It was a massive investment into
- 37:14myself, but it's worth it because that will equate to me
- 37:17having a bigger, stronger business going forward.
- 37:19And I can help more people. And it's it helps me to to
- 37:22succeed in life. And obviously the time that they
- 37:24spend investing in their learning and the topics that
- 37:26they put their energy behind and all those moments when they are
- 37:30developing their social skills and all of it, it's helping them
- 37:32to understand that all of that does equate to what their life
- 37:38over the expectancy they can have of their life and what
- 37:41they're going to kind of get out of it later.
- 37:43All those things are investing in the future.
- 37:47And so I do think it's really important to kind of bring this
- 37:49conversation up from time to time as they're kind of wanting
- 37:51to impulse buy something or when they when they just want you to
- 37:54be frivolous or when you know what I mean.
- 37:56All these moments when you kind of go, well, I know you want me
- 37:59to spend £10 on ice cream, but if I go to the shop, I can buy a
- 38:02packet of ice creams for £2 and then everyone gets an ice cream
- 38:06for 2 lbs versus if I buy them here, which will be 10 lbs.
- 38:10And it's like helping them to understand that there is
- 38:12actually an importance in saving that money and that saving it
- 38:16means we get these bigger, better things later.
- 38:19And that is a really important skill.
- 38:21And it's something which I think so many people, I knew people at
- 38:24age 18 who were already blacklisted who literally just
- 38:28for credit, they literally they'd gotten credit cards a
- 38:30second, they're allowed one, they'd Max them out.
- 38:33They couldn't keep up with the repayments and all of a sudden
- 38:35their payday loaning and getting themselves in a massive hole.
- 38:39And yeah, just shocking, like absolutely shocking.
- 38:42Was myself and my partner at the time.
- 38:45I'm still with today. Like we met when I was 17.
- 38:47We had a we had a place, we had money in the bank.
- 38:50We were saving really hard to buy our own home.
- 38:52We were, we did all the things and we, we had to go, we got to
- 38:56go on holidays and all sorts because we were really very,
- 38:58very frugal and we kept a lot of our money and we saved a lot of
- 39:00our money. And it really shocked people
- 39:02that I worked with at the time because obviously everyone was
- 39:04so young. We're like 1819 years old and
- 39:06they're like, how are you going on a holiday?
- 39:08It's like, because I don't come to the pub every Friday night
- 39:11and spend my entire pay packet. You guys literally spend the
- 39:15whole thing every Friday afternoon.
- 39:17Like that is nuts to me. It's like, fine, you've had fun,
- 39:20but have you actually? I've like, got anything to show
- 39:23for it? No, and I'm not a very
- 39:24materialistic person. I much prefer experiences and
- 39:27life lived, and I'm hoping to draw that into my kids as well.
- 39:30But we remember that the memories we make are the
- 39:32moments, not the stuff. Yeah.
- 39:35And that's so like most of the time that is the case.
- 39:38Maybe you might remember a car or you might remember a house or
- 39:41something, but not so much like that particular cuddly you got
- 39:44from that zoo that one time. It's like it's just not going to
- 39:47stick with you forever, is it? And I think that the piece to
- 39:51this too, that's really important is like, they're going
- 39:53to make mistakes. And so to the, the story that
- 39:55you said of like friends that were already in financial
- 39:57trouble at such an early age, like we, I want my kids to make
- 40:01those mistakes now when it's like 30 lbs of their pocket
- 40:05money versus like they now owe like 30 grand to a credit card
- 40:08company. Yes, so exactly.
- 40:11I, I think like that's the piece where I, I really want to say
- 40:15like, you have this much money in your bank and if you want to
- 40:18spend it all on that, that is your choice and you're going to
- 40:20feel the repercussions of that. Possibly really, really cheap
- 40:24plastic toys that break 5 minutes they really gutted.
- 40:27And you're like, you don't want to say I told you so don't just
- 40:29be cruel about it. But you'd certainly have had
- 40:31moments when I've been like, it does, yes, you keep buying these
- 40:33things and they break every single time and you're sad.
- 40:36It's like, remember, quality investments get us quality
- 40:40outcomes. If we're buying something which
- 40:41we know is going to fall apart, Please remember that you're
- 40:44going to be sad. Like, don't buy another one.
- 40:47You know, it's a waste. Yeah, I think it's really
- 40:50interesting. It is and one of the things that
- 40:52I think it's really interesting, just like sort of tapping into
- 40:55our last season and like changing perspectives and like
- 40:59thinking about the other side of things.
- 41:00I am much like you and saying that I love experiences.
- 41:03It's super important for me to travel.
- 41:05That is just something that I really, really feel strongly
- 41:08about. But there are individuals who
- 41:11don't think that at all for this fascinating book, and I can't
- 41:17remember the name of it, but I could look it up to get it.
- 41:20But that speaks about a couple, a couple who didn't have a lot
- 41:24of money, but it was really important for the wife to
- 41:26travel. And she really wanted to go to
- 41:28Paris and they only could afford to send her.
- 41:32And so the husband stayed at home and she went and got to do
- 41:35this travel. And then I don't know, 10 years
- 41:38later or 20 years later, he got to go.
- 41:41And it was really important like that they were able to do this
- 41:45trip and but they couldn't do it together because financially
- 41:48they couldn't afford to send two people.
- 41:50That said, part of the story talks about how I don't remember
- 41:54if it was like a their son or just someone else, but how he
- 41:58was saying that he doesn't ever travel because he's like it.
- 42:03Then you just end up coming home and you have nothing to show for
- 42:05it. Like you, yes, you went
- 42:06somewhere and you saw something different, but there's no
- 42:08physical component. And so for that person to spend
- 42:12money on something that you don't get to hold for more than
- 42:16the week that you travel is a waste of money to them.
- 42:20So like they, they don't value travel because it is not a
- 42:25permanent thing. Yeah.
- 42:28Physical thing to nothing that they can hold.
- 42:31Yeah. And that's really interesting.
- 42:33So like for that person, they might prefer to have a newer car
- 42:37or upgrade their TV that they see like every day because they,
- 42:42they feel like that's more important than spending a ton of
- 42:46money for a week experience that then you have nothing, nothing
- 42:49left. Like you've done it and it's
- 42:50over and that's it. And so I think that's really
- 42:53interesting because that's not how I feel.
- 42:55No, yeah, it's, again, it's important reflection that you
- 42:58consider why people might prioritize spending on certain
- 43:01things. And I suppose it depends as
- 43:03well, sometimes what you lacked or what you didn't get to have a
- 43:05lot of. 100% you're, you're like, is 100% going to drive?
- 43:09Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah.
- 43:11So I think like talking to kids about like their goals and
- 43:14what's important to them obviously could be different
- 43:17from what's important to us. And that's fine.
- 43:20It's totally fine. But yeah, at least just allowing
- 43:22them to experiment with it and hopefully make some mistakes now
- 43:26that they can learn from for when it really matters.
- 43:29Will be will be good I. Think this has been really
- 43:32fascinating. I hope everybody else's will
- 43:34agree. I know we've talked to you about
- 43:36it for quite a long time, but it's it's a really great subject
- 43:40and I think it's definitely one to explore.
- 43:43And I'd be really fascinated to know like if you're now
- 43:45listening to this and you've done some stuff too, like you're
- 43:47joining in with this as we're going along, or if you're kind
- 43:50of listening to this and you're now going to go away and do some
- 43:52of our ideas, we'll try some stuff out.
- 43:53Please, please, please come and tell us.
- 43:55Come and comment on one of our posts on Instagram or tick tock,
- 43:57whatever and tell us what you've been up to.
- 43:59But obviously now we basically get to pick for next week, so
- 44:03whilst we kind of wrap up all the fun stuff that we're still
- 44:06doing without this subject, this is going to get hilarious by the
- 44:08end of this, I know we're going to teach.
- 44:10Like so many things. Honestly, me and Ashley are
- 44:12going to be a mess. Forget math and language arts,
- 44:16it's all the extracurricular. That's fine.
- 44:18We've done monopoly, we've done some maths, it's all good.
- 44:20So yeah, so we're going to pick another one.
- 44:21So we've got another one in here.
- 44:24I wonder what we're going to get.
- 44:25Hopefully we'll get something slightly more fascinating than
- 44:28this one felt to start off with. Yes, it is a completely
- 44:31different 1. Yay.
- 44:32I was really hoping we would. So we've got food around the
- 44:35world. OK, so this is a tricky one in
- 44:39our house because obviously we are a neurodivergent family,
- 44:42which means that we have come some quite specific eaters.
- 44:45And this, this does frustrate me.
- 44:46I'll be perfectly frank. Like, I feel like I spend an
- 44:49awful lot of my time trying to make my kids try foods that they
- 44:53absolutely are not going to want to eat more than this tiny, tiny
- 44:55mouthful at the end of the day. It doesn't stop us learning
- 44:58about it and experimenting with things.
- 45:01And I mean, they had bow buns for the first time of the day
- 45:04and sure, OK, they had just like plain shredded beef and a bit of
- 45:07salad in it. But they really liked them.
- 45:09And I was like, Oh my God, for the win, something new.
- 45:12Trust them to be something like really expensive.
- 45:15But it's fine. We'll find some new things.
- 45:20But I love this one. I'm a massive foodie and
- 45:21obviously like we're just talking about travel.
- 45:23This is one of the main reasons why I travel.
- 45:25I love eating the food from different countries and seeing
- 45:28and experiencing and smelling the spices and the flavours.
- 45:31It is just the best. Where do you like, what are you
- 45:34feeling thinking about this so far?
- 45:35Like if you does your brain instantly go anywhere with this
- 45:37subject? Well, first, it's like a bit of
- 45:40panic because I don't love cooking with my kids.
- 45:45No, it's something that they they'll do.
- 45:48They are happy to do it, They really are.
- 45:51But I hate cleaning up after and often I will let them get
- 45:55distracted and like, yeah, I'll finish up.
- 45:57Don't worry about that. I'm.
- 45:59Going to say no run off, you can just finish the dog.
- 46:01And chocolate chips. Yeah.
- 46:02But I think this is it's important to let them learn how
- 46:06to do these things for themselves because what it makes
- 46:08it easier for you and if you can just say, hey, go make these
- 46:10muffins. But two, it's it's important for
- 46:13them to have the confidence to be able to do that.
- 46:15So this is good. I don't know that will
- 46:18necessarily make a ton of food from around the world, but I
- 46:19imagine definitely will do a couple things.
- 46:22Yeah. And then we will maybe even try
- 46:27a couple places out, like there's a Korean place near us,
- 46:29like maybe we could try that, study a little bit about it and
- 46:33those kinds of things. We did recently have tacos and
- 46:37so and the girls like them, so that worked out really well.
- 46:40Yeah, I was shocked by that. I think they like constructing
- 46:43their own food. That's what I got.
- 46:45Yeah, that does always work quite well, doesn't it?
- 46:46You put it on the table and they can just tell.
- 46:48Yeah. And they get to, like, make
- 46:50their own little thing. So, yeah.
- 46:51So I think that would be good. And hopefully we'll find
- 46:53something else that they like because, yeah, I mean, we we get
- 46:55in the food rotation rut and it's like, how many times can we
- 46:59eat pasta in a week? I think what's quite handy as
- 47:02well if you have got specific heaters like me, I was just
- 47:04found myself sitting here thinking, well, OK, they liked
- 47:06the Bao buns and they also my son like sushi and my daughter
- 47:09would eat like versions of sushi she was making.
- 47:13She's making Mashed potato in spring greens into sushi last
- 47:17night. She's a strange little creature
- 47:18sometimes, but the one dish isn't this good.
- 47:20Excuse me? I can visualize it wrapped in
- 47:24like potato wrapped in lettuce. Which is so random.
- 47:27Yeah. I'm just thinking like, you can
- 47:28always do it retrospectively. As well as like foods that they
- 47:31have liked is that we can learn a lot about Japan and we can
- 47:35learn about why they eat so much rice and seaweed and like, why
- 47:39is that a thing? Like where do those foods come
- 47:41from? Why do they have so much of it
- 47:42there, the climate, etcetera. I think there's also some like
- 47:46some really fun but gross things like was they can't try it
- 47:51really, but they're Cupid or something.
- 47:54It's a type of small catfight creature that eats coffee beans
- 47:58and puts them out. And then it's made into this
- 48:00special delicacy over in Bali that we that we tried.
- 48:04I can't remember exactly what it's.
- 48:05Called trying to do that. I can just see your daughter
- 48:08trying to feed your kittens coffee beans.
- 48:12Could you imagine? Don't talk about that with her.
- 48:14No, maybe not. Fucking certainly We can talk
- 48:16about some of the like, really weird foods that people eat
- 48:18around the world. That could be really.
- 48:20You're quite funny. Yeah.
- 48:22And also like, places where there aren't a lot of food,
- 48:24like, we're reading a book right now that takes place in China.
- 48:28And it's talking about like, the family works all day just to
- 48:31have one bowl of rice at the end of the day.
- 48:33And they got a goldfish, and they had to feed the goldfish,
- 48:38obviously. And the mom was really upset
- 48:41that the daughter bought the goldfish because she's like, we
- 48:42don't have any extra rice to feed your fish.
- 48:45And the girl ended up giving her fish, releasing it really,
- 48:49because she said, I don't want my dad to have to give away his
- 48:53four pieces of rice. Yeah, even 4 pieces of rice
- 48:57because it's. They have so little like that.
- 49:00Yeah. So I think there's even ways to
- 49:02talk about food waste and like, also like places that what what
- 49:09restaurants in our area or what shops in our area donate food
- 49:12that isn't used. Like are is there a way to kind
- 49:15of get a sense for what that looks like?
- 49:16So yeah, I think there's a lot of opportunity to kind of take,
- 49:19listen many angles actually. Yeah, that's really, really
- 49:22important. I think.
- 49:23And I think definitely kind of going into the like where things
- 49:26grow well and where things don't grow well.
- 49:28And therefore why certain areas tend to and also being able to
- 49:32just like if you look at back at like the way that we have made
- 49:34food historically, we should have been hunter gatherers and
- 49:37we've gradually become kind of sat down, started to farmland
- 49:41and become agricultural. But actually that was the start
- 49:43of the demise of human beings and the growth rate of disease
- 49:47and all sorts of issues in humans.
- 49:49There's lots of history behind it as well.
- 49:51OK, this was interesting. As soon as we start talking
- 49:54about it, we're just like lots of things we could possibly
- 49:56cover. So it'd be interesting.
- 49:57So like last week, me and Ashley have to go away now and do this
- 50:02task without talking to each other.
- 50:04We're not allowed to tell each other what we're doing.
- 50:06So we don't want to give each other ideas.
- 50:07So then we come back and we share what we've done at the end
- 50:09of the week. And yeah, so we will obviously
- 50:11be catching up on it ourselves in a week's time.
- 50:13But if you guys are joining in with this food around the world
- 50:17is your topic, go have fun with it.
- 50:19Come up with some great ideas. Come and share with us what you
- 50:21end up getting up to on TikTok and Instagram or send us an
- 50:24e-mail, whatever you want. And then we'll obviously tell
- 50:26you what we did next week. But thank you guys for listening
- 50:29as always, and we'll see you again soon.
- 50:34You've been listening to the Big Home Ed Conversations podcast.
- 50:37Thanks for tuning in. Don't forget to subscribe, leave
- 50:40a review, and share with a friend.
- 50:43Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Big Home Ed Podcast
- 50:47for updates. Also, check out our new website
- 50:51at Big Home, edpodcast.com. We'll be back next week to talk
- 50:56about our experiences bringing the topic of food around the
- 50:59world to our children. We hope to hear your experiences
- 51:04as well, so come talk to us about it on social media.
- 51:07Thanks for listening.