So what do you do when your kids seem bound and determined to be fiscally irresponsible? Some kids are real pros at finding ways to avoid learning about money. Fortunately for you, I have found a few sneaky work-arounds to their little tricks.

For the kids that just won't sit down long enough to get what is good for them, here's a few ways I have found to sneak some peas and carrots into their financial dinner.

Don't do this with the exceptionally unruly ones, but you can help your kids feel loss by handing them your entire wallet when you go shopping to let them count how much money you have. Then give them your entire wallet at the checkout line to pay for your purchases, and have them count the money one last time once you are outside the store.

Let them have a sense of ownership over your money. Show them your paychecks (or something that looks like one), take them with you to cash it, and take them with you to pay the bills. Feel free to let them know all this boring monotony is punishment for not doing the budget ;)

Tell them how you struggled to get where you are today, make it a bed time story if you wish. Make money the topic at dinner when the “so what did you do at school today?� question falls flat. And most importantly – talk to your kids about your financial goals and responsibilities, how you plan for the future, and any quirks of money you've learned over the years.

Throughout it all you will eventually land on something which intrigues them – capitalize on it and focus on that area in order to get them interested in money and the way it works. However, there are a few methods and topics to avoid whilst on your journey to discover what interests them, and I'll get into those in part 5 of this series.

You can find out more about Patricia Mayo and her other projects at Mayobrains.com or ComHacker.org.