“Take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves.” Campers at the Putnam County Middle School are exploring this old, but not outdated, principle at the unique Budget, Save and Bank camp.
“My camp is about banking and teaching kids how to save money,” said Bernice Grant, camp leader and a paraprofessional for the seventh grade in Science and Social Studies.
“If you don’t know the basics, you don’t know how to do it,” she added, sharing a story of someone she knew who had to pay a few thousand dollars in overdraft fees because that person didn’t understand what happens in case of insufficient funds on the account.
“My mom couldn’t teach me because nobody taught her, so I said, ‘You know what? Let me start a camp to teach kids about budget, bank and saving because their parents don’t know to tell them. When I was in high school, we had personal finance, which taught you about banking and savings, but they took it out of school.”
Grant said the goal of her camp is to teach the campers about types of bank accounts, how to write checks, balance a checkbook, how to use debit cards, the difference between debit and credit cards, as well as investment options such as money market funds and certificates of deposits.
Campers practice filling out photocopies of blank checks and the check registry. Among other things, they learn the importance of attention to detail when entering numbers in the correct columns of the check registry (dollars and pennies, withdrawals and deposits).
On a field trip to The People’s Bank, she used her debit card to show kids it could be tapped, swiped or inserted. “The bank told me that tapping was much better because they can’t get your information,” she said. She also used her phone to explain to kids how to use bank apps and online banking.
“I learned about different fees, the difference between the credit and the debit card, how to cash a check,” said sixthgrader Valerie Ortiz. “The trip to The People’s Bank was actually pretty good. I learned how the bank can be a better place for you to store your money.”
Being at the bank, kids also asked a lot of questions about its operation and security measures. They learned the bank used multiple security cameras and had the chance to see the ATM up close and understand how it worked. They also learned what they could and could not keep in deposit boxes.
“It was fun to go into the vault, to see what’s inside of it,” said eighth-grader David Johnson, who had never been inside of a bank before the field trip, only visiting one at a drivethrough ATM with his grandmother.
Grant said she plans another field trip to Walmart to teach her campers how to responsibly use debit cards and/ or store gift cards.
“I love my job. I love kids. I like helping kids thrive,” she said.