Beyond Personal Finance (A Timberdoodle Review)

 

 

Even though Beyond Personal Finance is part of the Timberdoodle Ninth Grade Kit, it can be implemented with any homeschooling high schooler grades nine through twelve. The unique approach to teaching finance to your homeschooler is like none other. I was pleasantly surprised with how well my teenage daughter took to this course. The variety of content learned and the interactive elements involved keeps it from being a monotonous, dry, typical textbook-based course. The Beyond Personal Finance course is one of my daughter's favorite this semester because it is engaging, uses real world scenarios, and prepares students for life in the most practical way possible. 

How it Works

With your purchase you will receive online access to the course. You will also receive a workbook in the mail. The course takes you year by year, from graduation until retirement. You take your future you on a journey to get a glimpse into the reality of how much life might cost. You look at what career you are interested and research the college that would best help you prepare. You continue on and choose a spouse, have a child, get a job, and so much more. Occasional setbacks occur throughout the years, as well as unexpected financial blessings. Your child goes on a journey through time focusing even on the small details of how much a single breakfast might cost for them and their spouse, and how it adds up. Think of the board game LIFE, but as a high school course!

The online portal is easy to follow and my ninth grader is able to work through this course with minimal help. There are three units that can easily be completed within one semester. 

Even though the course is virtually hands-off for the parent, you have the option to monitor their work if you have your child choose to send their work to your email. This is how I have it set up so I can keep track of her progress. Please note that you will need a Google account to access all of the features. A Google form is completed and sent to an email of choice to keep track of what is learned each lesson by way of a simple form. Your child also receives access to a Google sheet that you will need to import into your Google Drive (I imagine it would work in Excel as well) to help keep track of spending. This is a key aspect to this course. 

My older two boys took an online career planning course and it cost much more than this course. I wish I had known about this course then! I could have saved piles of money and I truly believe they would have gained so much more with this course. I highly recommend adding this to your high school routine. Finance is a transcript-worthy course that can count on almost any homeschool as a finance course and this course is the perfect fit to fulfill that requirement!

Disclaimer: Many thanks to Timberdoodle for providing the above product in exchange for an honest review. 

All thoughts and opinions are my own.