Emily Ball is a sheep farmer.

The six-year-old from Melbourne's Yarra Valley now owns 25 of her family's 300 sheep.

The first-grader's small agribusiness is an example of what one expert says is the best way to teach children about finance.

But not all Emily's livestock are for business purposes — she has one pet sheep, Dora, who comes up to her in the paddock for a pat.

"Her hair feels all curly and weird."

Farming for fun and profit

Emily's father Daniel said his daughter's farming business started when she and her sister Sophie raided their piggy bank to buy some calves.

"I said to them, 'I'm going to buy a few cows, do you want some?', and they said yes, so I bought them a cow each."

They sold the cows at market just under a year later, with the girls each making $860 profit.

Sophie decided to bank her money, but Emily asked her father if she could buy some sheep with the proceeds.

Emily's first 10 sheep, which are marked with an E, have had 15 lambs between them. ( ABC Radio Melbourne: Simon Leo Brown )

"She's now spent $500 buying the 10 ewes off me," Mr Ball said.

Those 10 sheep have since had 15 lambs.

"If they sell at $100 each they'll make $1,500, so she'll have covered her outlay and made $1,000 profit."

Mr Ball said he was not going to cover Emily for any losses.

"If one of her sheep happens to have something happen to it, well, she'll have to understand that it's not always going to make money — sometimes you lose."

Don't pay children for chores, expert says

Mr Ball said he was motivated to teach his two children about business because "schools don't generally cover it".

"They don't teach you how to invest and make money," he said.

Finance expert Scott Pape from Barefoot Investor agreed, saying that if you wanted your child to be financially literate, "don't expect the school to do it for you".

"There's really no systematic lessons of financial literacy in the core curriculum," he told ABC Radio Melbourne's Rafael Epstein.

Mr Pape also cautioned against giving children money for doing household chores.

"My view is kids should actually have to do jobs just for being part of the family, so you should unpack the dishwasher and then you're allowed to eat.

"But they should also be doing other jobs that they get paid for, and you pay them as soon as they do the job so they understand ... that link between work and pay."

Children 'want responsibility'

Emily enjoys working in the paddocks with her dad and dogs Wispa and Denny. ( ABC Radio Melbourne: Simon Leo Brown )

Mr Pape said while some parents despaired that their children had no interest in learning about money management, he believed "every kid wants to have some responsibility and learn and grow".

He said the best way to teach children financial responsibility was to get your own books in order.

"The number one way to have financially fit kids is to be financially fit yourself, because whether we like it or not our kids are modelling our behaviours," he said.

For Emily, the best part about her budding livestock business is the chance to be out working in the paddock.

"I love working my dogs Denny and Wispa," she said, adding that she liked that they did what she told them.