NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Minyanville Publishing and Multimedia, (http://www.minyanville.com), a leading financial media company, has partnered with Kaboose (www.kaboose.com), an online family-oriented portal, to launch MinyanLand— the first free financial virtual community to teach kids and their families the fundamentals of finance.

With the current economic uncertainty affecting the financial health of millions around the world, this immersive community uses educational games and an economy simulating the real world to teach kids – at a very early age – the four cornerstones of finance – earning, saving, spending and giving.

Furthering its mission to educate and entertain audiences on fiscal responsibility, MinyanLand features Minyanville’s iconic critters Hoofy the Bull and Boo the Bear and can be reached atwww.minyanland.com and Kaboose’s www.funschool.com.

Visitors can create a personalized MinyanLand “Critter” and are set up with a home and bank account with $5,000 in MinyanMoney. Kids can work to earn more, invest, shop and re-locate to new neighborhoods just as in a real economy. As a special launch promotion, the first 50,000 registrants will get $50,000 in MinyanMoney to start the game.

“The gap between what people know about finance and what they need to know has never been greater,” said Todd Harrison, founder and CEO of Minyanville. “MinyanLand teaches kids at an early age the basic responsibility of earning money, spending and saving wisely, and the meaning of charity.”

MinyanLand encourages parents to participate through a weekly Virtual Allowance, tying chores performed in the real world with MinyanMoney usable in MinyanLand.

“Key aspects of MinyanLand include enabling kids to understand the value of what money is and what they can do with it,” said Kevin Wassong, Minyanville’s President. “Parents play an important role, too, in this learning process. They help reinforce the responsibility and encourage the practice of good financial sense for the future.”

“Parents today need the right tools to engage their children especially when it comes to teaching them the basics of finance,” said Jonathan Graff, vice chairman of Kaboose. “By partnering with Minyanville, we’ve provided a digital and interactive platform that entertains and teaches their children, without preaching to them.”

Minyanville partnered with the National Council of Economic Education (NCEE), a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to improving economic and financial literacy, for the site’s educational content.

Irvine, Calif.-based VPI.net helped design and develop the site.