Beech Tree News Network

The Butler County Family Resource Center and the Butler County Extension Office held a "4-H Dollars and Sense" program September 17th at North Butler Elementary and February 4th at Morgantown Elementary School.

The 4-H Dollars & Sense Program is geared toward teaching youth in grades 3-6 about smart spending choices and how to budget money.  Students participated in three 30 minute classes prior to the ‘shopping day’. The three classes were “Needs vs. Wants”, “How Much Do I Cost” and “Financial Goal Setting”.

This program is a spinoff of the Reality Store, which is held for middle school students. "Dollars and Sense" focused on the 3rd grade at NBES and 4th grade at MES. On “Shopping Day” students received an allowance for a given month and then had the opportunity to spend that allowance at the booths provided.

Students were given an equal amount of money to spend during the time of the program. This would be considered their allowance for the month. Each student was required to visit 15 booths including pet care, toy store, department store, and candy store. Each booth represented what students at that age level would most want. Of course, the students did not have to pay for their housing as students at the "Reality Store" did, but they were able to change their room decorations and belongings at a cost. Most students were given the responsibility of a pet. Some did not have any pets.

At the end of the program, students were to have realized that proper budgeting is not always an easy task, there is a difference between needed items and desired items, wise financial choices make it easier to stay within their budget, and what they have to show for the amount of money they spent.

We used play money that way they had a visual and it made the whole situation more real. If they were in financial trouble there was an SOS booth for financial help.

The SOS booth did not loan money. Instead the volunteer who ran the booth, would explain to the student what items on their list was necessary. In some cases, the student had to return an expensive item and purchase a cheaper one.

The MES students who had visited all the booths and had the most money left received a prize. Homeroom winners at MES were Michael Luyet (Hampton), Zachary Limlingan (Donaldson), River Hunt (Porter), Chloe Cook (Amos). Chloe was the overall winner at MES.

NBES students in conjunction with the “Dollars and Sense” program had “Piggy Bank Beauty Pageant.” Students made their own piggy banks and they were judged by a panel of teachers. Winners received a prize.  Prettiest – Alexis Shepherd, Scariest – Harlie Jo Embry, and Funniest – Tripp Phelps.

We feel that it is never too early to impress upon our students the importance of sound financial management. To expose them to early exercises of money management and decision making skills, such as the 4-H Dollars and Sense program, will lay the foundation they will need to learn wiser financial practices in the future. Of course, such educational events could not be possible without the efforts of our many wonderful volunteers.

We would like to offer a great amount of gratitude to those that helped to make this program possible:
Morgantown Bank & Trust – Mindy Mason, Amie Smith and Carol Sutherland
Butler County Extension Office – Lloyd Saylor & Greg Drake
Youth Service Center – Karla Coles and Melissa Glass
Community Education –Pam Pendley
Butler County Board of Education Member - Dr. Amy Hood
Food Service/Programs Director – Kaitlyn Harrison
Community and Parent volunteers -  Dawn Miller, Annie Hawkins, Stacy McCrady, Kyle Moore, Brittney Embry, Debbie Coots, Andrea Johnson, Jonnica Belcher, Jamen Childers, Patty Glass, Bill Limlingan, I-Eshea White, Sandi Chism, Elizabeth Kimmel and Julie Hundnall

Also a big thank you to the teachers that helped with this program: Mrs. Linda Tyree and Mrs. Jan Embry, Mrs. Linda Amos, Mrs. Tonya Hampton, Mrs. Tina Porter, Mrs. Megan Donaldson, Mrs. Leslie Choate, Mrs. Stephanie Parrish, and Ms. Shelbi Martin.