Elementary Financial Literacy Curriculum for Kids (Grades K-5)

How it works

Ten minutes on screen. Then out into the real world.

The pace: 16 lessons. One a week is a semester. Two a week is a nine-week grading period. It's fully self-paced, nothing expires, and there's no subscription clock ticking behind your family.

Your kid drives.

Short interactive missions built for independent work. Stories, games, and puzzles starring kids with real money problems, like a $7 hole in a $24 budget. No lectures. No worksheets pretending to be fun.

The money gets real.

Every unit ends offline: a real budget built on their real allowance, a savings goal with their name on it, a signed Money Plan on the fridge. The course finale is a working mini business with an actual profit report.

You get the highlights.

A 60-second note after each lesson plus one dinner-table question. Your total weekly commitment is two minutes. When their budget breaks in week three, you'll know exactly what to ask instead of what to fix.

What's inside

The Grade 5 course

16 interactive lessons your kid completes without you (10-15 minutes each)
Kids take the 15-question Networthy Score before Lesson 1 and again after Lesson 16, so you see the growth as a number. In between:

The eight units: Money Choices · Earning · Spending · Saving · Budgeting · Borrowing & Credit · Sharing & Protecting · The Capstone.

See all 16 lessons and the standard each one teaches →

Units release in order; the final units ship ahead of your kid reaching them. Every unit includes the digital lessons, the printable kit, the parent guide with answer keys, and a real-money mission.
The printable kit: budget sheets, a 4-week money log, and Budget Rescue, a family game your dinner table will argue about
Real-money missions after every unit, so the skills stick to actual dollars
Badges and a certificate kids work for without being asked
Parent notes so you always know what they learned and what to ask
Progress saves automatically on the device they use, so they pick up where they left off

A Networthy lesson on a tablet: a pay stub showing $100 gross pay minus $8 income tax and $7 payroll tax, asking the student to work out the net pay. — Lesson 4. Gross pay, the taxes, and what actually lands.

A Networthy lesson on a tablet explaining compound growth: $100 at 10 percent a year becomes $110, then $121, then $133. — Lesson 8. Why year two is $121, not $120.

The Decision Grid printable worksheet, a five-step sheet for choosing between things you want. — Lesson 2. The Decision Grid, one of the printables.

By lesson 16, your kid has built a budget, rescued a broken one, kept four weeks of money records, dodged three kinds of scams, and run a business with a profit report to show for it.

Then they can teach it back to you. That's the test.

Proof you can watch

You won't need a report card. You'll see it at the grocery store.

Most courses ask you to trust a certificate. This one produces behavior you can watch for, on a schedule:

Within 2 weeks:your kid calls out an ad trick by name. "That's the clock trick" during a commercial is the course working out loud.
Within a month:they compute a unit price at the shelf and tell you which box actually wins, with the math to prove it.
By mid-course:a signed budget hangs on your fridge, a savings goal chart is filling in, and someone at your table asks "whose money is moving right now?" at checkout.
By the end:a before-and-after score you can see. Kids take the 15-question Networthy Score before Lesson 1 and again after Lesson 16, so the growth is a number, not a feeling.

What parents are seeing

The proof isn't a score. It's what the kid does next.

"My daughter made her first budget and it didn't go very well. She spent too much at the beginning and didn't have enough left for something she really wanted. I thought I'd have to step in, but she went back and changed the budget herself. Then she started asking how she could earn more money and decided on her own what she could spend less on.

That was the moment I realized she wasn't just learning what a budget was. She was learning how to make one work."

Paola

Parent of a 9-year-old · Founding family

"After the compound-interest lesson, my son was actually really excited to explain the doubling-penny challenge to me. He walked me through the numbers and could hardly believe that starting with one penny could end up beating the person who saved the same (bigger) amount every week. Then he explained why: the money wasn't just growing, it was growing on top of what it had already earned. I was kind of mind-blown that he understood it well enough to teach it back to me."

James

Parent of a 10-year-old · Founding family

"I've watched my grandson go through every one of these lessons. Two weeks in, he stopped me in the grocery aisle to explain that the bigger box wasn't the better deal, and then he did the math to prove it.

Now he calls out the commercials. 'That's the clock trick, Grandma.' Last Sunday he explained opportunity cost at dinner. He's ten!"

Stacy Hagar

Grandmother of Networthy's first student

Our founding families had early access while the course was being built.

The difference

Most money programs for kids get one thing wrong. All of it stays pretend.

Cartoon coins. Quizzes about vocabulary words. Games where kids earn virtual dollars to spend on virtual avatars, and nothing is ever at stake.

Kids see through pretend.

Networthy runs on a different rule: every dollar in the course needs a job, and the dollars are real. The budget is their actual allowance. The savings goal is their skateboard. The business at the end earns real profit, theirs to keep, split across save, spend, and share.

When a virtual budget breaks, a kid shrugs and restarts the level. When their real budget breaks in week three, they learn something they keep for life.

Real money means real autonomy: their dollars, their calls, their consequences, at an age when a mistake costs $4 instead of $4,000.

Game money teaches vocabulary. Real money teaches habits.

What schools teach

A few states are catching on. Most haven't.

New York made personal finance mandatory from kindergarten through 12th grade in March 2026, with elementary schools teaching it by the end of grade 4 from 2027-28. Texas writes it into K-8 math a few minutes at a time. Iowa put a named financial literacy unit in every elementary grade. Most other states still wait until high school, a decade after the habits form.

Networthy is built to the standards either way: every strand of Texas TEKS 5.10, all 14 New York elementary objectives, 10 of Iowa's 11 for grades 3-5, five of Florida's six, Utah's K-2 economics strand, and the 2021 National Standards. If your state catches up, your kid is ahead. If it doesn't, your kid is covered.

Sources: Mathematics TEKS, Texas Education Agency · NYSED Personal Finance Education · 2021 National Standards (CEE + Jump$tart)

See exactly what we're built to, standard by standard →

Your state: Texas · New York · Utah · Iowa · Florida

Paying with school-choice funds? Networthy and ESA programs →

A note from the founder

I'm a mom of three. I've spent over five years working in EdTech, and like a lot of parents, I supplement what school teaches at home.

Here's the belief that started Networthy: a financial education is one of the best gifts you can give a kid. Better than money itself. Money gets spent. Skills and knowledge compound for the rest of their life.

And here's what bothers me. Some kids get that gift automatically. In families with wealth, kids learn about money at the dinner table, because there's money to manage and parents who make sure the lessons happen. Kids from families where money is never talked about get the other inheritance: they learn what interest means from their first credit card statement, and what debt means from their student loans. That gap is not about talent. It's about access. Financial knowledge shouldn't be inherited. It should be taught.

I built this course with my 10-year-old son, the first and toughest student it ever had. He vetoes anything boring, confusing, or fake, and his edits ship the same week he makes them. Every lesson your kid takes has already survived mine.

Jordan Velazquez

Founder of Networthy. A mom, building this for her own kids first.

Questions parents ask

How much of my time, as the parent, does this take?

Two minutes a week. Kids drive the lessons independently. You sign one Money Plan, honor it, and ask the dinner questions we send you.

My kid has no allowance. Does this work?

Yes. The Earn It First path has kids launch a small service (dog walking, car washing, helping a neighbor) and budget their first earned dollars instead.

How much screen time is involved?

Ten to fifteen minutes per lesson, twice a week. The rest happens at the kitchen table, the store, and the neighborhood. This is the rare course where the screen sends kids away from it.

What devices does it work on?

Anything with a web browser: tablet, laptop, desktop or phone. Nothing to install, no app store, no accounts, no passwords.

Progress saves on the device itself, so have your kid use the same one each time. Devices, printing and progress →

What ages does this fit? What about other grades?

Built for grade 5, fits ages 8 to 12, and strong 4th graders do fine.

It's the start, not the whole story. We're building the full K-5 arc and started at the top on purpose: grade 5 carries the hardest concepts, and fifth graders are the toughest audience in it. Why grade 5 first, and what comes next →

Will this satisfy my state's requirements?

The course covers every strand of Texas TEKS 5.10, all 14 New York elementary objectives, 10 of Iowa's 11 for grades 3-5, five of Florida's six, Utah's K-2 economics strand, and the 2021 National Standards. Homeschoolers reporting to state programs get the matching crosswalk free.

Six frameworks, not fifty. If your state isn't one of them we'll say so rather than claim it. Standard by standard →

Can I use ESA or school-choice funds to pay for this?

Often, yes. Networthy is an approved vendor in Arkansas, New Hampshire, Texas and Utah, with applications in review across a dozen more programs. Where a listing is not live, most programs reimburse curriculum bought directly: buy the course, keep the receipt, and file it under curriculum or instructional materials. How ESA funding works with Networthy →

Is this ideological?

No. Networthy teaches mechanics and habits: earning, saving, spending with intention, giving, and staying out of bad debt. Your family supplies the values. We supply the reps.

Will my kid actually stick with it?

The course is built alongside real 5th graders who veto everything boring, babyish, or confusing, and their edits are in every lesson. Kids earn badges by doing, quizzes let them retry until they get it, and the missions involve real money, which kids take seriously because it's theirs. The review above is what sticking with it looks like.

Can't I just teach this myself?

You can, and this course makes you better at it. The sequence, the games, the printables, and the dinner questions are done for you; you supply the conversations, which were always the part only you could do. Most parents don't need more intentions. They need the system that makes the talks actually happen.

Is the course refundable?

Yes. Thirty days, no questions asked. Email hello@networthykids.com and we'll refund you. The first lesson is free anyway, so you can see the real thing before spending anything. Full terms →

I'm a teacher. Can I use this with my class?

Yes. No logins, no student accounts, printables that work as group activities, and a crosswalk written for your principal. Classroom licensing is priced separately from the $79 household price. Networthy for schools →

Money habits start forming by age 7. The best time to practice is before the stakes get high.

You can read about it. Or you can watch him do it.

Ten minutes on screen. Then out into the real world.

Your kid drives.

The money gets real.

You get the highlights.

The Grade 5 course

You won't need a report card. You'll see it at the grocery store.

The proof isn't a score. It's what the kid does next.

Most money programs for kids get one thing wrong. All of it stays pretend.

One price. Whole household.
No subscription.

Skipping this lesson has a price.
Here's the receipt.

The window opens at 5 and starts closing at 7.

A few states are catching on. Most haven't.

One block a week. Zero prep.

Questions parents ask

Your kid will learn about money either way.

You can read about it. Or you can watch him do it.

Ten minutes on screen. Then out into the real world.

Your kid drives.

The money gets real.

You get the highlights.

The Grade 5 course

You won't need a report card. You'll see it at the grocery store.

The proof isn't a score. It's what the kid does next.

Most money programs for kids get one thing wrong. All of it stays pretend.

One price. Whole household.No subscription.

Skipping this lesson has a price.Here's the receipt.

The window opens at 5 and starts closing at 7.

A few states are catching on. Most haven't.

One block a week. Zero prep.

Questions parents ask

Your kid will learn about money either way.

One price. Whole household.
No subscription.

Skipping this lesson has a price.
Here's the receipt.