VALLEY WEEKEND : Teaching Youngsters Some Sense on Cents : Author Neale S. Godfrey to discuss educating children on value of money--and that it doesn’t grow in bank vaults.

January is “National Financial Literacy for Youth Month,” a day that quite possibly got by the average parent without notice. But there is one thing that escaped no one’s attention this month: the arrival in the mail of credit card bills from the holiday season.

The sort of pressure on parents from little ones--who, we all know have no idea of the value of money--cost American parents $3 billion, the number market researchers are citing as more or less the collective tab for holiday gifts to kids under 13.

“Oh,” many parents are beginning to lament, “if only someone would teach kids some sense about cents--and how expenses mount up--they’d be more reasonable next year.”

Well, folks, that someone is you. California isn’t one of the states that mandates teaching schoolchildren about checkbooks and credit cards. You have to move to someplace like Illinois for schools that do that. But you can do it in your own home, according to financial writer Neale S. Godfrey, even if your kid is only 3.

A former president of the First Women’s Bank, Godfrey is now author of “A Penny Saved: Teaching Your Children Skills They Will Need In the Real World” and “From Cradle to College: A Parent’s Guide to Financing Your Child’s Life.” These delightfully readable books have caused some members of the media to dub her “the Barry Brazelton of family money matters.”

On Feb. 8, Godrey will be at Bookstar in Studio City discussing the importance of introducing children to finances as soon as possible.

She may recount a story that she said happened during a board meeting at her bank: “My secretary interrupted [the meeting] to say that my daughter Kyle was on the phone saying it was an emergency. I took the call in the meeting. The emergency? Kyle had seen a toy on TV and needed money to buy it.”

Later, Godfrey asked her 4-year-old if she understood where money came from. The answer--it grows in bank vaults and Mommy picks it up and brings it home--was an important one in the Godrey family. “It hit me that my kids didn’t understand money--so I set out to change that.”

Her experience was not that different from that of Chuck Malouf, an economics teacher who lives in Burbank. During his classes for high school and junior college students, he asks students, “What can you do with money?’ Invariably, they respond: “Spend it!”

So, to pound a stake in the heart of the problem, he has put a sign on the wall of his Muir High School classroom in Pasadena: “Can I pay my Master Card with my Visa Card?” His point is that “You’ve got to be better at budgeting credit than you do cash.”

The author of a widely used school textbook, “Consumer Education and Economics,” Malouf laments that California authorities have not moved to require what he calls “financial education,” as part of normal math, economics or civics classes.

Meanwhile, parents must step in, Neale Godfrey suggests. “Teach them that money must be earned” she said. “Teach them to save their money. Teach them to respect things that money can buy and that part of appreciating money is taking care of your possessions and your environment.”

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DETAILS

* WHAT: A discussion by Neale S. Godfrey, an expert on teaching children about money management and author of “A Penny Saved: Teaching Your Children Skills They Will Need In the Real World” and “From Cradle to College: A Parent’s Guide to Financing Your Child’s Life.”

* WHERE: Bookstar, 12136 Ventura Blvd. Studio City

* WHEN: Feb. 8 from 3-4 p.m.

* HOW MUCH: Free.

* CALL: 505-9528.