www.roanoke.com

Photos by Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

Highland Park Elementary student Chase Turner, 11, is surrounded with twine during a daylong demonstration about economic and financial literacy facilitated by Junior Achievement of Southwest Virginia.

Dre McLain holds twine during a lesson called "Junior Achievement for a Day" at Highland Park Elementary.

Too often, the first time many people think about how to manage their money, they find they are a day late and a dollar short.

Junior Achievement of Southwest Virginia is working to change that. The organization starts early-- with kindergartners.

Katherin Elam, president of the local Junior Achievement branch, said it's never too early for children to learn about saving, planning and living within one's means.

"More than anything else, the more that our children are seeing what it takes to be in a workplace, what the demands are, it won't be so foreign," Elam said. "But the recent concern is we want them to appreciate what goes on in their families."

Last year, the local Junior Achievement worked with almost 10,000 students in the Roanoke and New River valleys. Of those students, about 60 percent were in elementary school.

The elementary school program is put together at Junior Achievement world headquarters in Colorado. Even though the same content is used across the nation, Elam said the writers of the program stay current with state requirements, including the Virginia Standards of Learning.

Members of the community volunteer to teach classes on basic finance, economics and business skills throughout the year.

Elementary school teachers and principals may then opt for a five-week program in which pupils learn the program for about 40 minutes per week. The other option is the "JA In a Day" program, where all five lessons are taught back-to-back in about five hours -- an in-house field trip of sorts. At 5 or 6 years old, the youngest pupils don't learn about economics and finance the way older ones would. Instead, they focus on the roles they play in the community and the family.

"The first stage we try and look at in our elementary school programs is the opportunity to understand the three roles that [the students] play in life," explained Elam. "That they're going to be a citizen, that they're going to be a worker and a consumer. That's all part of being in the community."

But by the time pupils reach fifth grade, the subject matter becomes directly related to the business world.

At a Jan. 30 JA In a Day program at Highland Park Elementary School, the eldest of the students were learning about international production, job skills and even resume writing -- activities that, in addition to the three R's, are key to a successful life, said Junior Achievement volunteer John Register.

"We teach them to read and to write, but we need to teach them what a resume is, what skills employers are looking for," said Register, who also teaches a six- to seven-week annual economics course at Roanoke Valley Christian Schools.

He said that with the lessons Junior Achievement provides, he is able to help the young people in many Southwest Virginia public schools prepare for their financial futures.

"I've always thought it was important to train and educate children on the basics of financial matters," said Register, a financial adviser at Valley Bank. "I think you start young so that when it comes time for them to come of age, to get bank accounts and jobs, they'll understand the basics."