Dollars and Sense

by Carrie Derossett

Major Program: Family and Consumer Sciences 4-H Core Curriculum

Logan County 4-H Dollars and Sense

Program Year: 2017-18

By: Carrie Derossett, 4-H Youth Development Agent, Logan County 

   4-H aims to engage youth through hands-on experiences in order to build life skills. The 4-H It’s Your Reality (Dollars and Sense) Curriculum focuses on engaging youth in real life, age appropriate budgeting scenarios. Each student is given an allowance and how many pets they have to take of financially. In the orientation, they learn about budgeting his/her money. Students then have the responsibility of purchasing needs and wants in accordance to their budget at the Dollars and Sense school enrichment program. 

   All 5^th graders at Olmstead School in our county participate in the It’s Your Reality Dollars and Sense 4-H school enrichment program. This program combined with our 4-H It’s Your Reality (Reality Store) school enrichment program that we do for all of the 8^th and 10^th grade students in our county should havea long-term impact on our students.

   According to their 2018 evaluations, 94% of students reported that after the Dollars and Sense Program, they will think about the cost of an item before they purchase it and they plan to think ahead about his/her budget before they make a purchase.