The Bank Millennium Foundation invites parents to watch guidance interviews on the financial education of preschoolers.

One of the characteristics of pre-school children is their natural curiosity. This is the so-called sensitive period in which children easily, sometimes effortlessly, acquire new knowledge and skills. Children are also curious about what they come into contact with every day, such as money. Therefore, financial education should be an important component of children's education and the process of learning about the world. The Bank Millennium Foundation has been giving tips on how to do this for years; this time, it is inviting parents to watch and listen to a series of guidance interviews.

According to the research conducted for the Bank Millennium Foundation by the GfK institute, three-quarters of preschoolers’ parents believe that the age of 3-7 is the best time to start financial education. Nearly 90% of preschoolers’ parents educate their children to spend money wisely; encourage saving; finance children's small pleasures and fancies; encourage them to read; explain the value of money, to name just a few things. Over 60% of the respondents discuss financial and household budget issues with their pre-school kids and ask them for their opinion when deciding on expenses or trips together. As many as 73% of the respondents say that they are planning to discuss matters relating to finance, saving and entrepreneurship with their children shortly.

Interviews with an expert, Dr Małgorzata Chojak, a mother of three, an educational neuroscientist, a research and teaching staff member at the Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology of the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin and the head of the 'NeuroEduLab' Research Team are available on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ-_m4hH5G1avzd_VWtJUGw. The interviews are run by the Foundation’s representative Paulina Wołosz-Sitarek, a Foundation Management Board Member.

"Our years of experience and discussions with parents have shown that many adults, even if they want to teach their children about finance, emphasize the need to prepare for this task. That is why we are happy to offer another series of video interviews with a renowned psychologist available at the Bank Millennium Foundation YouTube channel. Recently, the Foundation has also launched a guidebook and a set of instructions on how to get started and how to involve children and raise their interest in the topic," says Paulina Wołosz-Sitarek, Member of the Bank Millennium Foundation Management Board. “Our guidance programme for parents is yet another part of the children's financial education programme, which has been carried out for many years under the ‘Financial ABCs’ project. We believe that such knowledge is important from an early age and wise money management helps to achieve success in adulthood," emphasises Paulina Wołosz-Sitarek, a Bank Millennium Foundation Board Member.

"The 'Financial ABCs' developed by the Bank Millennium Foundation is an in-house financial education programme for preschoolers, which was launched in 2016 and implemented under the auspices of the Children's Ombudsman. Under the programme, the Foundation has already delivered 2 200 workshops for over 53 000 children at 630 preschools in Poland. The programme's offer includes a series of 'Financial ABCs’ booklets for financial education for the youngest. It consists of four parts: ‘First shopping’, ‘First savings’, ‘A story of a bank’ and ‘Safe online banking’. The main character of the ABCs and a guide to finance-related topics is a dog called Mr Sebastian.

The Foundation makes all educational materials available in a digital version. Four episodes of the ‘Financial ABCs’ in the form of an animated film and interviews with a psychologist are available on the Foundation's YouTube channel, and a guide for parents on "How to teach children about finance" is available on the Foundation website.

*) The study was conducted by the GfK Institute for the Bank Millennium Foundation in May 2020 on a sample of 1000 Polish parents of children at the age of 3-7, using the CAWI method.