A Santa Clarita mom looking to spread a wider message about financial responsibility is offering a creative back-to-school challenge for parents to teach their kids about money.

Through the family’s carpentry business, Heter Family Woodworking, Noah and Brendie Heter have sponsored a course for the Hart district, which teaches high school students about things like personal finance, budgeting, insurance and other basic life skills.

However, Brendie also created a challenge for parents on her blog that can be taught to an even younger audience: Specifically, children and their parents engaging in the annual stress of back-to-school shopping.

(Saugus Union recently announced its back-to-school night information. A Saugus Union official also noted any necessary school supplies for students are provided by the school site, but supplementing those supplies at a store is always an option.)

From a previous story: Saugus Union Back-To-School Night Dates Announced

Heter’s system takes some of the responsibility for purchasing from parents, she said, and starts to put some of that accountability in kids’ hands.

“If they can be taught how to budget early, they can avoid some bad situations,” Brendie Heter said, noting the challenge can be boiled down for younger kids, but it essentially works for most school-aged children.

“If your child has the ability to use a smartphone,” Heter notes, “they have the ability to use a calculator.”

From Brendie Heter’s blog:

“Do you accept this challenge?    GREAT!

• Get your school supply list early.
• Give each child a specific cash budget for their supplies. Depending on their age – they might have their own money.
• Block out time for “School Supply” shopping.  If possible, don’t combine this with other household shopping so you can focus and be ready to help your new shopper.
• Bring a calculator. Not your phone. Give them an actual 1995 calculator.
• If you’d like – tell them anything they don’t spend they can KEEP or put towards a specific goal. Or whatever you have left, we can go get ice cream! It’s great motivation!”

For Brendie, the challenge is part of a more important lesson, teaching children (and, in some cases, parents) about fiscal responsibility and the importance of being able to budget.

The course sponsored by the Heter Family and Real Estate Agency Neylan Group International is taught at every comprehensive high school in the William S. Hart Union High School District except Valencia High. (Course offerings are decided by the administration at the respective school sites.)

To date, more than 800 students have taken the course, and several hundred more are already signed up, she said.

And the information isn’t just useful for fiscal smarts, she said, an understanding of how to budget, the value of money and smart spending habits also set people up for happiness later in life. Money is a leading cause for stress in a relationship, according to numerous studies, Heter noted.

“Kids are like, ‘Just use your magic card,” she said, reiterating one of the reasons why her challenge calls for using cash over a credit card. “From my experience, children (and some adults) do not associate plastic with actual money. It’s just magic to them.” she said, reiterating one of the reasons why her challenge calls for using cash over a credit card.  “This challenge starts to make money applicable and real.  It’s something that all kids can do in various degrees.”

The idea is to teach a connection between cash, value and having to budget things, and the lesson just isn’t as effective with a plastic card, she added.

“The school challenge is something basic,” Heter said. “It’s an easy way to start the conversation and gives kids opportunity to touch actual money.   The challenge addresses a variety of areas and is an excellent teaching opportunity.”

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