The Secret Project... Aron with one A

For the past couple months I have been working 18-20 hour days on a secret project. Not many people knew about it because I wanted to make sure it was really going to happen before I spread the word. As many people know my background is in personal finance. My BA was in consumer affairs, my Masters was in Business Administration and my Ph.D. is in curriculum development. All of this education is finally being put altogether for a Children's Financial Literacy Picture Book Series. My sister-in-law is co-authoring the books, but she really is the creative force behind all the characters and story lines. I add my personal finance influence to them.

The books are written to fit National Standards and Guidelines for Math, English Language Arts, Economics and Personal Finance. The purpose behind the book series is to have a book focus on personal finance that teachers could use in the classroom, but that parents can also purchase and take a proactive step to teach their children money management. Personal finance is only required to be taught in 3 states! Teachers do not have time to add in additional curriculum when they are being pressured to teach to the standardized tests. That's why the book series meets other standards, like reading and math, so teachers can use it for when they are teaching those subject but also squeeze in personal finance lessons at the same time. The books are not meant to look like curriculum/text books. They will be sold at numerous locations. At the end of each book there is a family/classroom activity. This was designed to be a family home evening activity, but is perfect for any group setting. On our website there is free worksheets for parents and teachers to print and use.

The book series is called "Aron with one A" and is about Aron and his HUGE family. Stephanie came up with the name after her brother Aron. Since Aaron is typically spelt with two a's he always has to correct people and say, "with one A".

The K-3 book series consists of 20 books with each book focusing on a different money management lesson. There are 7 kids in the family and each story focuses on one child and their experience learning the lessons. We will expand to curriculum at some point to include a grades 4-8 book series and a grades 9-12 series. The reasons it is separated into these grade groupings is based on the way the standards for personal financial literacy standards are set up.

A question that will most likely be asked is, "How do kindergartners learn about money? They are too young." Research shows that as soon as a child can count they can begin understanding the concepts of money. The hope is that if personal finance is taught earlier than maybe the scary statics such as, consumers have over 1 trillion dollars in credit card debt, bankruptcies are on the rise and mortgage defaults are at the highest levels ever, wouldn't exist anymore.

Here are just a couple images. This only shows 4 of the 12 characters.

Our website will be up and running in the next couple days http://www.aron-with-one-a.com/. Our Twitter, Facebook and Financial Tips blog will be up and running within the week. We are having a HUGE book series unveiling and signing at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana on April 23rd. We will have a booth at the LA Festival of Books at UCLA on the 24th and 25th. I would love the support of seeing my family and friends at these events if possible! Our website lists all the details.

If there are ANY suggestions, comments or tips PLEASE let me know. This company would not have been created if it wasn't for the help I have received already, and I know that I don't know it all. It has been a huge learning curve to set up an publishing company, publish/print our first book and figure out distribution.

My cousin Lisa is setting up a blogging advertising campaign and I would love the support of my blog friend if you put a button on your pages. We will have the buttons ready soon!

THANKS!