Go Bananas Teaching Financial Education! It's Not Monkey Business!

Jane Wolery

Follow my blog at  www.31homeplace.blogspot.com

MSU Teton County Extension

PO Box 130 * 1 Main Ave S., Courthouse

Choteau, MT 59422

jwolery@montana.edu

406-466-2491 Office *  406-590-2492 Cell

www.msuextension.org/teton




Last April (2015), I was able to attend a conference in Spokane hosted by University of Idaho and Northwest Farm Credit Services where they unveiled some of the financial education materials they have been developing.  Regardless of the job description, the reality is that I am a part-time FCS agent and a full-time 4-H agent, so you can imagine how April was poor timing for me to put any new educational materials into action.  With 4-H textile show, 4-H leadership retreat, Teton County 4-H Fair, Montana 4-H Congress, 4-H camp, 4-H interstate exchange and 4-H BioScience taking up much of my summer, I had to put the financial resources on the shelf, so to speak.  The materials are mostly digital, so there really isn’t a shelf.  Nonetheless, it took me until the January to get on the computer and start to use some of the materials.

Reading interactive Marlon the Monkey Borrows Bananas.

I started with Marlon the Monkey Borrows Bananas, an interactive digital story about credit.  I worked with Merrill McKamey from Northwest Farm Credit Services and Jamie Smith, librarian at the Choteau Library.  I read Marlon the Monkey for story hour for youth ages 2-5 and their parents/grandparents.  Jamie then had the students play a bean bag toss into a monkey mouth.  Merrill and I helped students make “monkey tails” as a treat and then they did some coloring.  The whole class was about an hour long, and at the end, I reminded the preschoolers about the Marlon the Monkey story and asked what they learned.  I was charmed when an adorable boy named Charlie
captured the message and said, “You shouldn’t buy things, if you don’t have the money.” 

Making Monkey Tails -- frozen bananas
on wooden treat stick, frosted in peanut butter
and dipped in chocolate.  Roll in granola
while chocolate is soft and enjoy.  

Merrill and Charlie make monkey faces
while making Monkey Tail treats at story hour.

Merrill and I thanked the parents and grandparents for attending and reminded them that money can be one of the biggest stresses in a relationship.  Money matters can really “monkey up” a relationship.  We mentioned that if they wanted a fun, interactive way to speak with their spouses/partners about money, they might use the materials that can be found here that are being developed by University of Idaho Extension and Northwest Farm Credit Services.