The following are book based curriculums in economics and personal finance. This list is for informational purposes and should not be taken as an endorsement of any particular curriculum as I have not used all of these options.
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Classical Conversations
Economics: A Bluestocking Guide
Grade level: 9 (Challenge I)
Publisher’s Description:
This helpful guide provides further study, answers, and activities to accompany the popular book Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?, allowing for more opportunities to read original stories from authors who value hard work and service. Economics by Jane A Williams is an approachable conversation about the free market – where citizens are free to work and exchange with others who are free to do the same.
The Money Mystery
Grade level: 9 (Challenge I)
Publisher’s Description:
Discover the hidden force affecting your business, career and investments, and what you can do about it. During the 1980s, the velocity of the circulation of the dollar became erratic; now the whole country is affected. Why do Federal Reserve officials remain so afraid of inflation? Learn about the financial trigger, and precautions you should take. Not one analyst in a thousand understands what velocity is doing to us, but you will.
Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?
Grade level: 9 (Challenge I)
Publisher’s Description:
This small book about economics is a remarkably easy and fun explanation of investment cycles, velocity, business cycles, recessions, inflation, money demand and more. Fascinating and revealing; facts you can’t be without; essential for every investor; a fine gift, too. The updated and expanded fifth edition contains “Beyond the Basics,” which supplements the basic ideas in the book and is included for readers who choose to tackle more challenging concepts.
My Father’s World – Economics
Oikonomia: Economics for Life and Flourishing
Grade level: 12
Publisher’s Description:
Oikonomia: Economics for Life and Flourishing is a high school, honors-level course built on the idea that the economy is more than cold graphs and numbers. Economics is about how we interact with one another and how we steward God-given resources to glorify God and promote human flourishing.
In 16 weeks, students will explore how incentives influence our choices, how governments influence prosperity, and why some nations flourish while others remain in poverty. They will learn how to decipher the latest headlines and be inspired to transform their own communities.
Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Should Know About Wealth and Prosperity
Grade level: 12
Publisher’s Description:
The authors of this book, James Gwartney, Richard Stroup,Dwight Lee, Tawni Ferrarini, and Joseph Calhoun, are all life-long economic educators who know how to use the tools of economics to illuminate why both individuals and nations prosper and how they can be more successful.
The book is concise, thoughtfully organized, and reader-friendly. Whether the economy is growing, stagnating, or declining, there are basic economic principles that are always operating, such as gains from trade, opportunity cost, ability of prices to communicate information, the importance of diversification, the power of incentives and how they create fundamental differences in market and political decisions.
Common Sense Economics is written to provide comprehensive and understandable explanations of key principles that will help everyone make better personal and policy choices. Already a classic, the third edition is fully updated and more relevant than ever for a world starved for sound economics.
Money, Greed, and God
Grade level: 12
Publisher’s Description:
A prominent scholar reveals the surprising ways that capitalism is actually the best way to follow Jesus’s mandates to alleviate poverty and protect our earth.
Christianity generally sees capitalism as either bad because it causes much of the world’s suffering, or good because God wants you to prosper and be rich. But there is a large, growing audience of evangelical and mainline Christians who are deeply uneasy about how to follow Jesus’s mandate to care for the poor and the environment while living with the excesses of capitalism.
Now, a noted Christian scholar argues that there is a middle view that reveals Christianity cannot only accommodate capitalism, but Christian theology can help explain why capitalism works. By highlighting the most common myths committed by Christians when thinking about economics, such as “capitalism is based on greed and over consumption” or “if someone becomes rich that automatically means someone else will become poor,” Money, Guilt, and God equips readers to take practical steps in their own lives to conduct business, worship God, and serve others without falling into the “prosperity gospel” trap.
My Father’s World – Personal Finance
Money Matters for Teens Workbooks
Grade level: 11-12
Publisher’s Description:
Now that they’re on the brink of adulthood, are your teens ready for financial independence? Burkett’s Bible-based workbook will help them buy what they need while avoiding debt; get and keep a job; understand how banks and creditors work; manage a savings/checking account; pay for college; give wisely; and more.
Money, Possessions, and Eternity
Grade level: 11-12
Publisher’s Description:
It’s time to rethink our perspectives on money and possessions. In this thoroughly researched and extensively updated classic, Randy Alcorn shows us how to view them accurately—as God’s provision for our good, the good of others, and his glory.
Alcorn presents a biblical and comprehensive view of money and possessions, including the following:
- Why is money so important to God?
- Is prosperity theology right or wrong?
- How can we be liberated from materialism?
- What should we do about debt?
- How much does God want us to give?
- How can we best help the poor and reach the lost?
- What about gambling? investing? insurance? saving? retirement? inheritance?
- How can we leave our children a true heritage?
- How can we use money in ways that God rewards?
This practical and refreshing theology of money contains topical and Scripture indexes, a study guide, and five helpful appendices.
Personal Finance Daily Lesson Plans
Grade level: 11-12
Publisher’s Description:
Personal Finance Lesson Plans developed by My Father’s World: Easy-to-use lesson plans help keep the student on-track as he completes this course. Relevant Bible passages are also assigned, in which Jesus spoke about money and possessions.
Sonlight – College and Career Planning
College and Career Planning Kit
Grade level: 11-12
Publisher’s Description:
Planning for your children’s future doesn’t have to be stressful. This course is designed to help you and your teens make the most of their high school years.
Authored by two Sonlighters, Kelly Lutman and Barbara Walsted are homeschool veterans. Both have walked this path with their children. They offer you a wealth of wisdom and practical tips that will help you and your students make the transition to college and career with grace, ease and success.
Finding the Career that Fits You
Grade level: 11-12
According to Lee Ellis and Larry Burkett, you can find the career that fits you. You can enjoy your work. It’s just a matter of assessing who you are, knowing your strengths and interests, and discovering the kind of work that will utilize those talents.
In this new edition of Finding the Career That Fits You, you will discover the person God made you to be through insightful looks at your personality, skills, life values, and vocational interests. All statistics and resources have been updated and the latest information on using the Internet in your job search has been added. Ellis and Burkett will walk you through the job-search process and give you the confidence you need to start or change your career—and your life!
Sonlight – Economics Program
Economics Program
Grade level: 12
Publisher’s Description:
Demystify the world of Economics (macro and micro) far beyond any textbook.
Sonlight combines dynamic online multimedia videos, excellent notes and interactive exercises with the Bible and modern literature for a clear, critical view of the subject with this course in Economics. From basic theory to “Political Instability and Trade,” get your student ready for success in college placement or AP exams.
Virtually all students in the U.S. are required to pass at least one course in a high school economics curriculum. Many who do well in this subject can leap ahead in their college studies with a great score on the Advanced Placement exams for Economics. Now you can use Sonlight to get there!
Your students will take an in-depth, balanced tour of the world of Economics—and find out what this challenging concept is really all about. To create the broad, approachable course in Economics we wanted for you, we’ve combined the next-generation internet-based multimedia Thinkwell Economics materials with Randy Alcorn’s biblically-based Money, Possessions and Eternity and a delightful “economic romance,” The Invisible Heart by Russell Roberts. And yes, students will use their Bibles, too!
Money, Possessions, and Eternity
Grade level: 11-12
Publisher’s Description:
It’s time to rethink our perspectives on money and possessions. In this thoroughly researched and extensively updated classic, Randy Alcorn shows us how to view them accurately—as God’s provision for our good, the good of others, and his glory.
Alcorn presents a biblical and comprehensive view of money and possessions, including the following:
- Why is money so important to God?
- Is prosperity theology right or wrong?
- How can we be liberated from materialism?
- What should we do about debt?
- How much does God want us to give?
- How can we best help the poor and reach the lost?
- What about gambling? investing? insurance? saving? retirement? inheritance?
- How can we leave our children a true heritage?
- How can we use money in ways that God rewards?
This practical and refreshing theology of money contains topical and Scripture indexes, a study guide, and five helpful appendices.
The Invisible Heart: An Economic Romance
Grade level: 12
Publisher’s Description:
The Invisible Heart takes a provocative look at business, economics, and regulation through the eyes of Sam Gordon and Laura Silver, teachers at the exclusive Edwards School in Washington, D.C. Sam lives and breathes capitalism. He thinks that most government regulation is unnecessary or even harmful. He believes that success in business is a virtue. He believes that our humanity flourishes under economic freedom. Laura prefers Wordsworth to the Wall Street Journal. Where Sam sees victors, she sees victims. She wants the government to protect consumers and workers from the excesses of Sam’s beloved marketplace.
While Sam and Laura argue about how to make the world a better place, a parallel story unfolds across town. Erica Baldwin, the crusading head of a government watchdog agency, tries to bring Charles Krauss, a ruthless CEO, to justice. How are these two dramas connected? Why is Sam under threat of dismissal? Will Erica Baldwin find the evidence she needs? Can Laura love a man with an Adam Smith poster on his wall? The answers in The Invisible Heart give the reader a richer appreciation for how business and the marketplace transform our lives.