Let's Play Money

What Is a Zine? A Simple Tool to Teach Kids About Money

• Coach Mara • Season 1 • Episode 9

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In this episode, Mara introduces a brand-new tool for families: the Let’s Play Money Zine.

If you’ve never heard the word zine before, it simply means a small mini-magazine; something simple, creative, and fun to read. Mara created this zine as an easy way for parents and kids to start conversations about money, creativity, and entrepreneurship without needing a full lesson plan.

In this episode, Mara walks through the zine page by page and shares how families, homeschool parents, and educators can use it in simple ways at home.

You’ll hear:

  • What a zine is and why it’s such a fun learning tool


  • Why small, playful learning moments work so well for kids


  • How each section of the zine helps kids think about earning, creativity, and business ideas


  • Easy ways parents can use the zine at the kitchen table, in homeschool, or as a weekend activity


The goal isn’t complicated lessons. It’s helping kids begin to see money as something they can create, understand, and talk about with confidence.

If you'd like to try the Let’s Play Money Zine, you can download it free on the website.

TheLittleBooksOfBigBusiness.com



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SPEAKER_00

Welcome back to the Let's Play Money podcast. This season we've been talking about simple ways families can help kids grow up confident with money through stories, play, and small real life experiences. Today's episode is a little different because I want to share something new I've been working on called the Let's Play Money Zine. Now, if you've never heard the word zine before, don't worry, you're not alone. We'll talk all about it. I created this zine as a way for families to have an easy starting point for talking about money and entrepreneurship with kids. Something you can print, flip through together, and use right away. So in today's episode, I'm going to walk you through it. We'll talk about what a zine is, why I created it, and actually go page by page so you can see how families might use it at home or in a homeschool setting. Think of this episode as a little guided tour. Alright, let's jump in. Welcome back to the Let's Play Money podcast. I'm Coach Mara, and today I want to share with you something really exciting that I've just created. It's called the Let's Play Money Zine. If you're watching it on video, I'm holding it up and I'm gonna describe it for you if you're driving and listening or walking and you can't see the image because I'm super, super excited about how it looks and how it presents. So, first and foremost, what the heck is this thing? I keep calling it a zine. Z is in zebra, I-n-e. It's kind of like a magazine, or we used to have in the 80s or 90s the E zine. So this is a zine, just a quick, easy way to say it. My zine is printed on bright yellow paper for the cover, and the inside is all black and white pages, so just regular old white printer paper with a bunch of really fun content. We're gonna go through in section by section so you know exactly what's in here, but I'm really excited. I got this idea from someone else that I'd seen online, and it's that throwback idea from the 70s, 80s when things were paper, everything wasn't technology. I like it when kids have something low-tech that they can learn from, reducing some screen time, but also it has to be fun. It has to be something that engages them, that they want to do, that they want to learn from. So today I'm gonna talk you through a little bit more about what it is, but first and foremost, I just I created it because it was fun and I wanted to give families a new little tool to learn about money, just to engage with the conversation about money. So, what is it exactly? Like I said, it's a little mini magazine. A zine is described usually as something that's short, it's creative. That was a really fun part for me. It's easy to read, so this isn't like a book where you have to sit down and read chapter by chapter and take the time and learn no vocabulary. This is one where you can literally flip to the page and start looking. You know, you're having your bowl of cereal in the morning and you pick a page and you look through it. That is just kind of something fun for the counter. It's often handmade and it's simple to print. And I'll talk about at the end how you can get a free version of this. This is free. All you have to do is go to my website and I'll tell you about how to do that and how to print it. I've got a couple different formats depending on what kind of printer you have or don't have and how to make it super easy. So we're gonna talk about that. A zine is meant to share ideas quickly, so it's just something that I can get my ideas straight to you right away. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about kids' learning and how it connects to the philosophy behind what I do at the Little Books of Big Business. I want kids to have small, playful ways that they can learn about money rather than sitting down and having a serious talk about money and the one time and the this and the that and the rules. Money is something that happens our entire lives. It's something that expands and contracts depending on the season of our life, and we need to have a relationship that flows and ebbs and really can change as we grow and our relationship with money. But kids need to start with something. And I say one of the most common things I get asked when I'm out at conferences or meeting with parents is they ask me about how to teach their kids about money when the kids are already teens or young adults. And so I always try and offer some ideas, but what I know in my heart is when we can start to teach kids when they're younger, those things start to really get into their hearts, into their heads, and it becomes playful and joyful and not so much stress. So that's really what this zine is all about: playful learning and a way for parents to talk about it. Uh okay, so why I created it. I really wanted something that was story-based, that was playful. People don't know where to get started. So when I say start when their kids are younger, they're like, Well, where do I go? Do I have them start paying the bills? What do I do? And of course, that's not at all what we're starting. We're talking about that lemonade stand, that impulse that they want to buy something at the store, and how are they gonna earn an extra$10,$20,$100 to buy it? I just went into a school and was doing a reading in my local elementary. I was in a third grade class last week, and I asked them, how many of you have jobs? And they half of them raised their hand because they're already working, they're already mowing the lawn or folding laundry or doing something. And then I asked them, how many of you have something that you want? And I was relating it to the book I was reading, Max England Turns a Pet Project into Pay, the third book in the Little Books series where Max wants to buy a bike, but he can't afford it. And so they had so many things that they wanted to buy, I want to buy this, I want to buy that, and they want to explain it all to me. Half of it I don't even know, video this and all kinds of stuff. But they want to buy something, which is the perfect time to talk about earning and how they're going to get what they want. It's just a natural little dovetail moment there. So as those conversations start to happen at your house, this would be a great tool, this little zine, to say, hey, there's something that we could do and learn about making money. I wanted it to be for parents, for grandparents, for teachers, whether they're teaching in a school setting, public, private, or a homeschool setting. It doesn't have to be formal. We're gonna sit down and we're gonna do this lesson on money. This is just a quick spark, just you know, get us going. I wanted it to be a conversation starter, I wanted it to be a small activity that didn't have to last forever, and I wanted it to be something kids could hold. I really wanted them to be able to touch it, feel it. I believe, especially when kids learn about money and numbers, anything that's tangible, if they can even hold play money in their hands, and I've got something secret inside there, so stay tuned for what that is. When they hold that money, it adds value and weight. So when they get ten dollars for doing something, they want to put it in their pocket and just adds a little bit of weight to that money versus a digital currency that tap and pay that all the kids see all their parents and grandparents doing. So I want to give you a guided tour of my zine, and I want to first and foremost thank Michelle Galliert of Michelle Gal Studios. She took all of my vision and she turned this into something really, really easy to approach and, in my opinion, very beautiful. So the very front cover is a bright, it's printed on bright yellow cardstock. You could print it if you go download it on any color you want, but little books colors are yellow, so I printed it on yellow. And in big bold letters, it says, Let's play money, a family money zine. Simple ways to use everyday moments to raise capable kids. And by the way, at the bottom of the cover it says includes a free book download, Cat Casey Turns Brownies into a business. So it's kind of a twofer. If you download the Let's Play Money zine, you also get access to a digital PDF copy of book number one of the Little Books of Big Business series, Cat Casey Turns Brownies into a business. So it says that right on the front cover. Okay, and then I'm gonna open it up, and it's kind of like a little booklet. So if you think of printing out a little booklet on a home printer or there's a booklet setting, this is what it looks like. So first is a message from me, a message from the author and creator. That's me. And I just talk about why I created the zine, basically, what we've been talking about in the podcast. Money lessons don't need to be stressful, ain't that the truth? And just a little welcome. And then on page three is a table of contents. I'm gonna shift here if you're looking at this on video. There's the table of contents. We're gonna talk about it on this podcast. I've got three money moments, so we're gonna talk about those, the activity pages and the little bit of information on the back low on the back side about the little books of big business themselves. Then it talks about how to use this zine. So I'm gonna I'm gonna go through this because I think this is really key. So you're gonna pick one money moment that feels fun or doable today. You don't have to do all of them, just pick something out of that feels fun. Try it when you have 10 to 20 minutes. No special prep required. You don't have to go buy a bunch of supplies. Just whatever one speaks to you, whatever whenever you have 10 to 20 minutes, this is a great time. Let your child lead the conversation and follow their curiosity. This can be playful and fun, right? Celebrate the effort, not the outcome. I was once in a setting with a group of kids and a staff leader, not a school, but an organization, and one of the kids led a thought forward, and it was kind of tamped down by the staff, a bit critical, that what they said wasn't wrong, it was a duplicate of what another kid said, actually. So let's just let them have a conversation about money. There's no right or wrong, it's really just about starting the conversation. And last instructions how to use this zine. Come back to these money moments anytime you want a quick, playful way to talk about money. So ultimately, this zine is light, flexible, and easy to flip through it and start anywhere. Alright, so let's go. I'm gonna start on the first money moment, and there it is. You can see right across the top, money moment number one, the brownie economy with a beautiful picture of a brownie. I won't go through in exact detail on this podcast, all of exactly what you need to do, but ultimately it says how long it takes, 15 to 20 minutes, the ages, 6 to 12. This one is regarding a brownie, like the book that you can download for free. Cat Casey learns about making money through brownies. And you can make up a you can buy a store bought batch of brownies, you can make one from a boxed mitt, you could measure them out from scratch with the cocoa and the sugar. However, you want to do this, there's no wrong way. And then it talks about why this money moment works and ways to create the moment. So, as an example, notice the cost of the brownies together. What do you think it costs to make or buy things? That's one simple question you could ask kids while you're making a batch of brownies. There's some other ideas about how to make a quick estimate, how to cut the brownies into equal pieces, let your child choose a price per brownie, pretend that you want to sell it to maybe some other people in the household, and then do a simple profit check. So if you want to figure out how much it cost versus how much they're selling it for, you can do a little math on the back of a napkin, on a calculator, on their fingers, however, whatever age is appropriate for them, that's a great opportunity. And right there on the zine it says there's no right order, simply use what fits. So there's no right order of asking these questions. You can simply use whatever feels good to you. And remember, whatever age, whatever developmental stage your kid's in, use it and talk about brownies and costing, and that's it. That's a little money moment. At the bottom of this money moment is a scan, a QR code where they can actually scan, or you can scan it, and go to my Let's Play Money channel for kids, and they can watch the read aloud videos of Cat Casey Turns Brownies into a business. So you will now have access to the digital PDF copy, you can print that out, or you can go on Amazon or bookshop.com and buy the book too. And then they can watch it, they can read along with it, you can put it on the background and play it while they're making a batch of brownies, all kinds of integrated ways just to do that first money moment. That makes sense? Okay, that was super fun. It's one of my favorite money moments to put together. Alright, money moment number two is about Max England. I talked a little bit about Max wanting to buy something. He wants to buy a bike, spoiler alert. And this one is also a 10 to 15 minute project. Kids love, love, love animals. So this has to do with pets. You don't have to have a pet. You can have a play pet, you can have stuffies, you could have pets neighbors have pets or grandparents have pets, and talk about how money would work in taking care of pets. And this moment talks a lot about simple tasks of different ways you can do pet care tasks like dog walking or feeding or brushing or playtime, giving water. You talk this is kind of a service-based rather than the first one was food and product-based. This is more about a service that you might kids might offer about a pet. Maybe they have a pet at home that they take care of that they can see what it would look like if that was a business. And I will say at the bottom, they also get that QR code to scan and watch Max England turn a pet project into pay in the read aloud. So I really want kids to have access to reading because on page 11 here it says reading skills are closely tied to income, opportunity, and long-term financial outcomes. So when kids are strong readers, they are naturally going to be higher in their financial literacy. They can read an email, they can type up something, a resume, they can take inventory and understand instructions when they're starting to work. So it's very clear when they're strong readers how their jobs, whether it's entrepreneurship or their careers, be impacted. We want kids to be strong readers. Okay, now I'm going to open the middle of the book, which I kind of skipped. It is page eight and nine, and this is the pull-out activity sheet. This is the money sheet, and if you're not looking at the video, I'm going to describe it for you. So it has play money on it that's black and white so that kids can color it. There's bills and there's coins. So there's the$5 bill with Lincoln on it, the$10,$20,$100 bill, and a couple of$1 bills, and then there's quarters, dimes, and nickels on here so kids can color and cut them.Anywhere I go when I do kids' activities and they work from my Let's Play Money packets. This is always their favorite. They love play money, they love real money, of course, but anything that they can do to play money. So this can be pulled out, this is right in the middle. That's the way we designed it, and so that's why there's the blank on the back of that page right there. And a little optional tip for you on this is once they cut and color it, they can also do a pop-up shop. That's just a little fun idea. So they, if you have a little cash register set up at home, they can use that and set up a shop. They can also decide on their own shop. Maybe let's say they want to have a bakery. Well, they can just draw pictures of cupcakes and donuts and brownies, and they can sell paper versions of products with the money, and you can copy and color as many pages of this as you want. So maybe you have multiple kids in the household or they want more money, more than 120, 30, you know what I mean. So kids won't like a lot of money that you can do a couple pages. So that is the cut and color section. Alright, let's jump to the last money moment, which is number three. That is called the Farmers Market Project. And the Farmers Market is such an exceptional way for kids to get introduced to money. If you have a local farmers market, take them to the market, bring some cash and together support the vendors and the farmers that are bringing food to our tables as well as artisans that are selling things. I have a partnership with my local farmers market where we have a program that puts kids through actually selling real goods. We have about 50 kids that go through that every year, but this is just a little money moment. This is a simplified version of the farmers market. So this would simply be brainstorming something that you could make at a farmer's market, something like a small drawing, a painted rock, a bookmark, any kind of small craft thing, and then let them make a sample product. When it's done, you can ask them to name the business, choose a price, display it like a mini market booth, have them set it up. This would be fun in the backyard in the summer to have kids have their own little market booths, wouldn't that be fun? Or maybe over spring break you're looking for an activity and everybody in the family creates their own booth, maybe with some neighbor kids, wouldn't that be fun? So I've got a little QR code on here for some inspiration. If they can't think of an idea, there's a video that shows what kids have made in real products at local farmers markets. So it's very inspiring for kids to see other kids doing business. So that is the money moment, and that one comes and is inspired by Tim Young Turns Clouds into Coins, which is my farmer's market book. Alright, rounding out the end of the book, I love this image on page 14. It is a picture of all of the little books of big business, but rather than the bright, colorful images, it's in black and white. And I love that this is, I really wanted to make this zine easy to print. I didn't want to have any color interior so that someone would say, Oh, and I want to print something with all that color. So I found a way to make those all black and white. Didn't that turn out great? And a couple things it says about the books themselves, the series. These are all story-based learning, no screens required, money with meeting, meet the kids, you'll get to learn about the kids and the stories, setting them up for success, and built for busy families. So that is the little books of big business. And as a reminder, that free gift starts here. So here's the QR code so you can get Cat Casey Turns Brownies into a business. And if again you're not watching this, if you're listening and you're driving or walking, I will drop them in the show notes so you'll be able to do it. The bottom line is you simply have to go to the littlebooks of bigbusiness.com and put your email in. I'm not asking for your name, the kids' ages, anything, just a quick email. And what will happen is you'll get an auto-responded email and you'll get three forms of this Let's Play Money zine. So you're gonna get one PDF that has bright yellow on it, and all the rest of the pages are black and white. You can print that on a home printer, it'll print bigger than this. You'd you can print it just bigger as a full 8.5 by 11, or you can do two up per page and print it, that'll work too. There's also a second version that's only black and white, so you could choose what color you wanted to print that front page, whatever color you had, or you could print it and let the kids color it, that would be a fun idea. And then there's a third version, which is the booklet print, and I've given some instructions in the email. There's a different layout if you want it to print exactly like this, with the staples and with the margins going all the way exactly to the edge. So if you want that version, you can send it to a printer. Maybe have a little bit better of a printer that has the different features. That is all. Shown up in there, so that is my gift to you for this zine. I'm really excited about it. I'm gonna look at my notes here and see what I didn't tell you. Okay, I didn't tell you, oh yeah, wanted to tell you about parent moments. So as you're going through this, remember you don't have to do it in one setting, you don't have to do all of it. You could do one little piece, you could pull out that middle and let them color the money. This is really meant for you to use any way you want. But then once you do some kind of engagement with the zine, connect it to something. So connect it to maybe a vacation that you're gonna be taking and talking about buying souvenirs and what they think about that. Just have a conversation. Or maybe you're gonna go to the grocery store and you want to make a list or they're going with you. Connect the idea of what you're buying to money, maybe have them look for something on sale, just something very simple. Or what would be another one? Maybe maybe their allowance, maybe they're already earning money somehow, or maybe you're choosing to have them earn money by doing things, whichever way this would be a great topic, and talking about how kids earn money. So that you can do this in three easy ways. This would be something you could pull out at the kitchen table after dinner or on a Sunday morning after some pancakes and say, hey, I've got something fun, a little activity we're gonna do today. It could be a homeschool starter lesson, it could be just a quick snapshot of something that they could dive deeper into. And it could just be a creativity project. It could happen during spring break or summer or winter break, anytime that works for your family. But really the bigger vision is that it connects to everything that I'm doing. It really ties into the little books of big business ecosystem. The books help them really dive in and get inspired by kids earning and budgeting their money. The Let's Play Money activity packets take them deeper into the seasons and to the different standards that they need to learn about money. But the zine is kind of like just a little fun thing. It's a spark, just like, oh, this is fun. What else you got? That's what we want the kids to feel like as well. What else is can we do? What else can we have that we can play money? So if you'd like to try the zine, you can download it again at my website. It's just a fun little tool to try with your kids, and I can't wait for you to go and grab it, download it, let me know what you think of it, let me know your favorite part, send me a picture of your kid doing something fun on it, and let's keep going teaching kids about money. Teaching kids about money doesn't have to be complicated. It doesn't have to look like a big lesson or formal class. Often it starts with small moments, reading a story together, trying a simple activity, or asking a few questions around the kitchen table. That's really the spirit behind the Let's Play Money Zine. It's meant to be a small creative tool that helps start those conversations and gives kids a chance to think about ideas like creativity, earning, and entrepreneurship in a fun way. If you'd like to take a look at the zine, you can download it on my website. It's free for subscribers and it's a fun little resource you can print and try with your kids. And if you do use it, I'd love to hear how it goes. What ideas your kids come up with, what conversations spark, or even what little business ideas start showing up around your house. Thanks for listening today, and as always, keep playing with money.