Business Skills for Children

Homeschool Review Crew

My husband is a self-employed business owner.  When we were offered a review from The Kingdom Code I knew it would be a great way to help teach business skills for children to our crew.  We received the Complete Starter Kit for our review plus a few fun bonus products.  Those bonus products include The Kingdom Code Coloring Book and a JR Budget Kit.

The Complete Starter Kit Contents

As I mentioned we received two products in addition to the starter kit.  Those are the coloring book and budget kit.  The actual starter kit contains the following items.  

1. a spiral bound textbook
2. student packet.  This is hole punched and ready for a binder.
3. Teacher’s guide.  Again hole punched and ready to be put in a binder. 

All pieces can also be purchased separately as well as extras to go with the curriculum.  Besides the two pieces we received, a receipt book is also available.  The complete starter kit can also be purchased as a PDF file.  But since you know me you know the physical is what we’d get and it is also what we received for the review.  

About the Curriculum

Business skills for children aren’t all that will be learned while using The Kingdom Code complete starter kit.  Thrown in with the money management and business skills are studies on Biblical character and the view of money through the eyes of the Bible.  This whole concept was new to me as a homeschool curriculum course and I was intrigued by it.  

I knew that it was something I wanted to try out with my children and we’ve not been disappointed.  The age range for this is upper elementary through middle school.  For us, that means ages 8-14 using it together in a joint effort.  

This is a biblical money management program just as much as it is about teaching children how to be entrepreneurs.  They state the target range as grades 4-8.  That sounds about right to me as my 8-year-old is doing 4th and 5th-grade studies and my 14-year-old just finished 8th grade.  Though really, I would say high school students could still use this course if you wanted to.  You might have to add some extra work to keep them interested, but the meat of the program could still be beneficial.  

The program is designed to last 34 weeks so an entire school years worth of instruction.  The year includes 27 lessons.  Knowing the lessons and weeks helps you understand that each lesson takes at least one week if not two to complete.  This is not a rushed curriculum.  The schedule calls for working on the curriculum two days a week with 45 minutes sessions.  Nothing too intense and gives lots of time for the child to work on their business outside of the lesson if they want as well.  

Contents

Every step from business idea to business up and running is covered. Basically, it walks them through the whole process with you by their side to answer questions.  

Some steps include:

• developing the idea
• creating the plans to put their business in motion
• filing notices
• budgeting
• customer communication
• market research
• and so so much more!

Our Thoughts

First, I want to say that the Complete Starter Kit is meant to be used by one child.  We used it as a group for the purposes of this review because I wasn’t sure how it would work or what we would need.  Plus we had special permission from the company to do so.  After having worked on it for a few weeks I can say that if you’re going to be using with more than one student you should purchase extra student books for them.  They can share the textbook but ordering a second and third, etc, student packet would be what you need.  If each child likes to have their own textbook then you’re going to want to purchase separate starter kits.  

The curriculum is colorful and eye-catching. It entertains while also teaching.  The theme of having a knight teaching codes of honor (Bible verses) as well as the codes of business is wonderful.  My boys have always loved knights and the medieval time period so this was especially fun for them.

I really liked the enrichment parts of each lesson.  Some had you look up other businesses and how they got started.  Very interesting!  Very informative and really cool!  I think I probably liked those more than the kids but hey that’s okay.

As you probably know I’m a lover of three-ring binders or spiral bound products.  The teacher’s guide and student guide both come hole punched and ready to go.  Love this!  The student guide has a gorgeous cover though and it’s not hole punched so I had to find a binder with a protective sheath around the outside to put that in.  I did not want to punch it!

The textbook is spiral bound.  Within the textbook the pages aren’t just a paper but rather seem to be glossy or coated for less wear and tear.  Always a good thing when you have lots of children who are going to be using the textbook.

I love the coloring book!  It is definitely not meant for little kids though.  It includes lots of information as well as detailed pictures to color.  I love the theme of using knights and ladies throughout and find it super cute.  My middle schoolers also love the theme and are now reading books about King Arthur and his Knights.  

The budget kit is amazing!  I love it so much.  Really it has some great ideas to use with your kids whether they are doing a business of their own or simply getting an allowance.  Knowing how much to save versus spend or tithe is definitely a great thing to learn from an early age.  

The curriculum makes your child think.  It’s not just a simple here let’s start selling lemonade and quit when we get hot, type of business we’re talking about.  This teaches business for the long haul.  How to save for months of less business, how to predict when busy seasons will be and how much inventory you’re going to need not to mention whether your business really even stands a chance in the location you’re in.

It includes economics, character building, Bible verses, and so much more.  I was pleasantly surprised with all that it does teach.  When we first agreed to review I thought without having really held and seen the curriculum that it wouldn’t take us a full year to go through it.  I mean surely it could be condensed?  Nope.  It can’t. Plan for a full year.  Use that time to teach your child money management and skills that will help them succeed in life even if they don’t end up being self-employed. 

Whether you think your child might want to start a business or not give this a try.  They can make up a business and never actually implement it if that’s what they want.  But I do think the learning and knowledge that they get from this curriculum is going to be something they will keep and use throughout their life.

I recommend this curriculum.  My kids are loving it.  Give it a shot!

For our purposes, my kids decided to sell dandelions.  Not super great business wise and not something we’re actually implementing.  This was just for fun one to learn how to run a business.  We really did more work talking to their dad about how he applies each of these to his business as an electrician.  

I think we might do it again but use it for a “home” business.  IE learning to care for the home and such.  We could find out how much they’d charge someone to do each task and then work up from there on what their work and effort is really worth.  Maybe.  I’ve not worked all that out yet. 

I think my favorite piece of the entire curriculum is the budget kit.  That may sound weird but I just like it!  It’s cute and teaching how to manage money.  Okay, so it doesn’t really teach it all but it has such cute little graphics and I really like it.  It speaks to my minimal artistic side and I like how easy and laid out it is.  

It has different breakups of money than I’m used to which I do like.  I’m not sure I’d say quite so much in the You section though.  Something for me to think about.  I’m already comparing it to the budget I have for my household so I’d say it’s a hit around here.  

Through this program, I’m seeing ways of teaching household management as well.  That’s something that needs to be taught as so many go into marriage or even just living on their own with no idea of how to manage their money to make it work.  They end up at the end of the month with more bills than money. 

Learn More

Learn more about the fun businesses that other families have come up with and what they think of this fun business skills for children program.  You can find all the reviews linked up on the main blog post for The Kingdom Code on the Homeschool Review Crew.  While we all received the same products for review we each as a family and as students are different and will have different things to share about the program. 

The Kingdom Code can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.  Business Skills for children is definitely a component of most educations that I don’t think is covered.  I’m personally glad to see such a fun curriculum available for kids to learn this before they need it.  In our small community, there are lots of entrepreneur kids running around and I love it!

I am recommending this curriculum to other homeschool families with children who might want to run their own business someday.  I’d also love to see The Kingdom Code produce a series that is just money management without running your own business for those kids who might not want to be entrepreneurs.  Just more of a simple save, tithe, spend, etc type curriculum.