How to Teach Kids About Money With a Lemonade Stand

If you haven’t seen it, read The Dog Walkers first.

Not long after we met the dog walkers, my six year old came to me and said she wanted to start a business, too. We decided on a lemonade stand. I knew this would be an excellent opportunity to show her the value of a dollar.

Inspired by The Dog Walkers and their sign with different prices for different sizes of dogs, we bought two different sized cups.

Not only would this allow them to offer their customers choices, but it forced some additional interaction with the customers and introduced different math equations.

We charged $0.50 for a small and $1.00 for a large.

Since my kids are only six and three and we needed to focus their attention on business end, we bought readymade lemonade. I sliced some lemons and the kids put them in this clear dispenser we got at Wal-Mart for $12.

(My husband said that was false advertising, I told him it was merchandising).

The kids used their toy cash register to hold the money.


The kids had fun making signs.

The lemonade stand was a success! We even met some neighbors we hadn’t talked with before.

Total Earnings = $18.50 cents.

Now here’s where I got to make a point – I split the money between them and took them to the toy aisle at Target and told them they could each pick out anything they wanted as long as they could afford it with the money they earned.  I bypassed the dollar bins intentionally. I wanted them to see how much work they had to do for that $9.25 and what it would and wouldn’t buy.

Molly (6) totally got it. She ended up getting a Hello Kitty Diary in which she wrote about her first business experience (future blogger/entrepreneur – just say’n). Charlie, well, he started to ask me to take him to the candy aisle, so I executed a hasty diversion and we left the store. He has yet to spend his funds, but he’s a little too young for this lesson anyway.

Have your kids started any businesses? What kinds of experiences have you had? Did you dabble in business as a child? How do you teach your kids about money?

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7 Responses to How to Teach Kids About Money With a Lemonade Stand

  1. CArt April 21, 2011 at 8:00 am #

    We see Molly as the little entrepreneur “Suzie” on the Verizon advertisment…..from a lemonade stand to the CEO of a large company!
    Glad they had a good time.

    • Heather April 21, 2011 at 9:26 am #

      She’s a really interesting kid. (Of course, I am partial). I can’t wait to see what she does in life.

  2. Connie Holden November 17, 2012 at 2:16 pm #

    Could you please tell me where you got that cash register. It seems to be of good quality.

    • Heather November 18, 2012 at 11:18 am #

      Hi Connie, I got it at Toys R Us.

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  1. » Gift Ideas for Kids Who Like Money - November 18, 2012

    [...] But the rest of it has survived our house, so I would recommend it. We even used it when we had a lemonade stand to teach the kids about money. Related posts:7 Days of Teacher Gifts: Day 67 Days of Teacher Gift Ideas5 Father's Day Gift Ideas: [...]

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