For the Sake of the Call

For the Sake of the Call

Jun. 16, 2007 - Ice-Cold Lemonade

Today was the day for our community garage sale, so the kids came up with the idea of having a lemonade stand. Since we're all overachievers in this house, we couldn't just mix up some Country Time and serve it in Dixie cups for a dime. No! If we were going to sell lemonade, then we were going to do it right, and we can't just have one kind; we need four different types!

First dh and 1ds9 had to build a lemonade stand

Then we had to make a list and go shopping at Sam's Club. Dh thought that the 8oz cups were too small, so we went with 16oz cups instead. After all, it was supposed to be hot and people would be thirsty. We also had to buy lemonade mix (regular and pink), oranges, lemons, limes, paper towels, poster board, markers, and ice. Last night we sat down and calculated how much it would cost us to make a cup of lemonade. It was an excellent learning exercise; bringing together many of the math concepts that 1ds9 has learned this year in a very practical way. I must say that I was astounded at the cost! It soon became evident that it's no longer possible to sell real lemonade for 25 cents (why is there not a cents sign on my keyboard?!?). We ended up having to set a price of 75 cents and I was skeptical that we'd be able to sell many. (would you spend 75 cents on lemonade?) We also bought some Starbucks Mocha Frappuccinos which I thought would be a big seller.

So we made our signs, and then the kids all raced to bed, anxious for morning to come. You would have thought it was Christmas Eve! As my Uncle Frankie would say, "They were wound up tighter than a tick."

Morning came all too soon as dh woke the two oldest kids up at 7:30am. Our young entrepreneuers set up quickly while I pulled my pillow over my head and longed for a few more hours rest. All to soon I joined the fun and the kids have been out there ever since. It is now past 2:30pm and I'm ready to shut down the operation. It's hot out there, and I don't anticipate any more garage-salers. I actually rode my bike around the neighborhood in hopes I might have luck finding something of worth myself. The last house at which I stopped was selling books for a quarter or 5 for a dollar; much cheaper than my kids' lemonade. I found a few classics which we didn't already own and enjoyed reading a couple of chapters from Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle to the kids while they manned the stand.

We have yet to tally the day's earnings, but I'm pleased that they did have quite a few customers; all of whom were served with a smile. I was wrong about the Frappuccinos, they only sold 3 or 4 of them, but they served about 30 cups of lemonade; not quite the 60 or so they anticipated, but still very respectable for the first attempt. It was a nice day and a valiant effort! I even met a homeschool mom of 9 (one graduated from college) who was very encouraging. I asked her what she had learned and what advie she had for me and she told me that the best thing to do was to relax and not trust books for all of the learning. "Even cleaning the house can be a wonderful learning experience," she assured me. I'm glad to hear it because that's exactly what I'm doing, and selling lemonade is just another way to get an education beyond textbooks.

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Jun. 16, 2007 - Untitled Comment

Posted by 2peter318

Sounds like it was a great time and learning experience. That was a great deal on the books. :)
JoAnn