I'm always looking for ideas to help teach my kids about money. Since most kids learn how to handle finances from their parents, I consider it an important part of my job as a mom to help them along. In today's day and age, it's important not only to teach them to save their money, it's important to teach them how to make it. However, when they're not old enough to get a “real” job, their options for earning are somewhat limited, and creative thinking is often required. In the spirit of entrepreneurship, my kids recently added some new product offerings to the traditional kool-aid stand — and it was a huge hit!
Besides Kool-aid, they also sold “loom” pot holders for $.75 and decorative hair accessories they created with bobby pins and buttons for $.25 at their stand. I suggested they mark them up a bit more, but I think they knew what they were doing. They actually collected more money in their “tip jar” than they did on actual merchandise. If their profit margin had been higher, who knows if that would have been the case. Collectively, The five kids made over $30 in the course of two afternoons. That's not a huge hourly wage, but as a crash course on small business (along with a little neighborhood fun) it was priceless.
The ideas for the hair accessories came from my daughter's book, .
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I think it is great that you are teaching your kids about handling finances. I started by having my boys put their birthday money in a savings account. Unfortunately, we really have to watch the Kool-aid and Lemonade stands as some officers are telling kids to shut them down because they don’t have a permit. One just happened near here in Coralville, IA where a 4 year old and her father were told to shut it down. Just be careful when doing these things as you’ll never know as well as the stranger danger.