Starting Young with Lemonade

I think every kid should have a Lemonade stand at some point in their lives. My kids were always asking me if they could set one up by the street and my response was always NO, because it was either too hot or I didn't want them by the street, especially with the ideas of strangers approaching them.

Through out the summer all three kids would be hounding us for new toys or games or electronics. They didn't realize that everything they wanted cost money and certainly didn't take care of anything. I was sick of buying things so a few hours later they would be broken. There had to be a way for them to learn the value of things including money.

So one day when they asked about having a lemonade stand I finally agreed to let them. They were so excited, but didn't like the idea that I wasn't going to do the work for them. They were to do it all on their own so they would know that work was sometimes hard but could also be fun. The decisions were made by them, although I watched over things to make sure they were safe.

They chose to use the mix lemonade, and they made it themselves. I helped them bring up a table from the basement and drag it outside by the street. They put a table cloth on it. They made all the signs on their own and basically did everything.

At the end of they day, they had made $150 which was really good and they had a great time doing it. And to teach them about money, they had to pay us back for the ingredients they used, then they split up the money between the 3 of them.

Sometimes customers would ask if they had cold water, so after a couple weekends they decided they would add water to their lemonade and took the profits they were making and bought the bottled water on their own to add to it.

They loved that they were doing this on their own and were able to make their own money for what they wanted. After a few weeks we opened them up a savings account and told them they were to save 40% in their accounts and could spend 10% on themselves if they wished and the other 50% could be used however they wanted, whether it be back into the lemonade stand, or savings or spending but that they were responsible for any expenses the stand would need.

We eventually moved to a dead end street so they were now forced to think of new ways to make the money they were able to make from their lemonade stand.

How would they make money at their ages? Kids can't work and they would like to make money too, so what can they do? They asked me these questions all the time. So we brainstormed and they each discovered their next venture. Which we will discuss in another post. :)

How do your kids make money? What are some of your ideas? What types of things would you allow your little ones do?