What to Do After the First Block: How to Keep Learning at Home

Finishing the first block is the moment what they learned moves from the screen into life. James Clear, in Atomic Habits, warns that what most often breaks a habit is pausing "until something better arrives." The routine you built is worth more than any new class.

How to do it

The first block, with its twelve classes, printable sheets and practice at home, is the best point to start or to review. From there there are three ways to keep going.

The first is to review with distance. Brown, Roediger and McDaniel, in Make It Stick, show that spaced review, returning to an idea weeks later, fixes it better than repeating it back to back. Pick one class a week, and the quiz shows which ideas need another review.

The second is to go deeper before going wider. The child explains a class without looking at the sheet. If they can, they've mastered it. If not, there's already a next practice.

The third is to take it into real life: a buying decision, an agreement, a savings goal. Learning consolidates when it is used.

It helps to write down the money questions the child asks and what they'd like to know next. Those questions show what interests them and how much they've grown, and they're the best starting point for the week's conversation.

What it's for

For your child, the next step is using what they know in concrete situations. For you, it's a way to keep going without starting from zero.

What you'll see over time

In the first weeks after the block the routine may loosen. Between one and six months you notice whether the child uses what they learned outside the class. In the long run the practice is kept with the same questions and the same sheets, even if the content changes.

Signs it's working

You know it works when the child asks to review a class, when they explain an idea without looking at the sheet and when they ask money questions that relate to their life.