Lemonade is a wonderful, refreshing summer beverage and is best enjoyed on hot days. Lemonade is also a fantastic opportunity for children to learn about money and responsibilities. To run a lemonade stand successfully a child must work through a budget, talk with customers, and demonstrate organizational skills. These skills are hard for a child to understand without recognizing the reason why they are important. A lemonade stand is a fun way for a child to develop the skills they will need for the rest of their lives. While the summer lemonade stand is an iconic image, setting one up can take some planning. Our step by step guide outlines both child and adult tasks to make this adventure easy!

Step 1: Come up with a game plan. Talk to your child about what a lemonade stand is and what they want to get out of it. Will they be working from your drive way or a public location? This is also the time to learn about the legalities of a lemonade stand. Some cities are very restrictive about selling consumable items and need permits. A good idea would be to restrict the sale of lemonade to your local area for safety reasons.

Step 2: Figure out finances. Setting up the stand with take some initial investment. Lemons, sugar, and glasses will need to be purchased. Let your child choose if they want to use recyclable cups or washable ones. Also give them the opportunity to design their marketing material. Hand colored posters are a cute way to draw in customers. Where the profit will go will also be a big talking point. While a number of lemonade stands now donate their money to charity, the child will best learn the value of money if they get to keep a portion. Talk to them about what percentage they want to keep and where they want the donated money to go. Also decide at this time what the price for each glass of lemonade should be.

Step 3: Set up the stand. There will need to be a table for the pitchers of juice and the glasses. Arrange posters around the neighborhood on power line posts. Remember to take them down after!

Step 4: Remember to keep safe. Depending on the age of your child, you may want to closely supervise the lemonade stand. Let your child know what the appropriate conversation should be, so that they know what is unacceptable behavior from customers. Always be close so that your child can call you if there is a problem. Letting your child run the stand with friends will help them be more confident and stay safer.

Step 5: Keep their promises. Once the lemonade stand is over, make sure your child keeps their promises with cleaning up and where the money will go. It will be a huge temptation for a child to renegotiate the percentage they will keep and what will go to charity. A good idea is to bring the child to the charity they chose and donate the money together. That way they will feel a sense of accomplishment and pride over their work.