[mom-from-missouri]

Our local school used to have such curriculum. I took it in 7th grade. It was "budgeting", and met the math requirements. We had to take it in either 7th, 8th, or 9th grade-just like the Missouri constitutation test. It lasted 1 semester. We learned to balance a checkbook and took a tour of the bank. We learned about credit cards and interest rates. We toured a new home on the market, and learned about getting a mortgage vs renting. We drew cards that told our occupation and wages, then we got married and had children. Those cards we had to draw. Then it was our option to draw or not to draw the cards that had the fancy stuff-motorcycle, boat, big house....Then, we had to figure our budget based on our finances from the cards we drew and learn where to cut our expenses. We had to budget for utilities, bills, groceries, shoes, clothing, insurance all of it. We did this at the beginning of the semester. At the end of the semester, we had to see who had what in the bank, who owed the bank, who had their bills paid, who was going bankrupt...was real interesting. The class had a display--program set up where our parents could come see our projects and checkbooks at the end of the class. I think a lot of parents learned from it also.