They have been up since the 6:45 wake-up call and flag raising, and they stayed up late at a campfire the night before. Most would rather be hiking or horseback riding, like their friends in other cabins.

Instead, they'll spend the next three hours learning about saving and spending, debit cards and credit reports.

"Three hours of boring," says 10-year-old Josh Jeffries, who promptly puts his head on the table.

Summer camp, it's true, isn't meant for lessons on personal finance. But this is Camp Challenge, which has all the normal trappings of summer camp but also requires that each camper take a three-hour financial literacy course.

The grownups behind Camp Challenge, including members of the N.C. Bankers Association, know that middle schoolers prefer roasting marshmallows and telling ghost stories to learning about finance. But they know the importance of teaching people -- even 11-year-old-people -- how to balance a budget.

A little bit of financial education, they say, could have gone a long way in preventing the country's current subprime-mortgage mess and other credit crises.

"Not an uphill battle," is how Will Blackston, 28, describes his job as the camp's financial instructor. "More like climbing a very tall mountain."

Camp Challenge, a partnership of the N.C. Bankers Association and the state's 4-H clubs, is held at a 4-H camp in Stokes County, which is north of Winston-Salem. The campers are gifted, low-income middle schoolers recruited by 4-H and organizations like the YMCA and the Boys & Girls Clubs.

Camp Challenge hosts six weeklong sessions this summer, with a total of 600 campers, up from 100 when it started 15 years ago. About half are sponsored by members of the bankers trade group, who pay about $350 per camper.

This year, the bankers group has asked members from across the state to lecture at camp each morning. This is also the first year that the financial classes have their own building. Fifth Third Bancorp, which recently bought First Charter Corp. of Charlotte, donated the money to renovate a former maintenance building.

Live within your means

On this morning, Josh Hanes and Kathy Jarrell from Bank of the Carolinas of Mocksville teach from a children's curriculum created this year by Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the government agency that insures bank deposits.

Don't spend more than you have is the lesson's theme. They talk about deposit slips, withdrawals, balances, fees, how to write a check.

Most of the campers know something about credit scores, because they have seen the commercial in which a waiter dressed as a pirate sings about free credit reports.

"Are you supposed to take your check register wherever you go?" asks 11-year-old Torrian Wynn of Durham, who is headed to sixth grade. "Like, when you go to the store, are you supposed to write down what you bought before you leave the store?"

"That's the best way to do it," Hanes replies.

During a break, Laura Mills, a 10-year-old from Reidsville, says she likes the class.

"I watch my mom write checks all the time," Laura says. "But I didn't know all the words for it."

Derric Gregory, a 10-year-old from Durham, says basketball and computer class are his favorite parts. Finance class, he says, ranked somewhere in the middle.

Buy for need, not want

After the break, Blackston, energetic and animated, talks about the difference between needs and wants. He has campers fill out household budgets and talks about unexpected events that can throw off a budget, like losing your job or, say, being invaded by "space bears."

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