Snack shop kicks off summer projects

Thanks to the internet these days the ideas run wild. For a motivated momma, teacher, preschool coordinator and babysitter/Aunt this inspires me, motivates me and distracts me all wrapped into one. If you are anything like me you will appreciate the ongoing list of projects I enjoy writing/completing too! For my first I will define my latest project which is my own creation NOT inspired by anyone at all. I am so proud of how well it worked out last summer and the updating this year tops that. A little information about my life is that I have 6 kids here with me all summer. By that I mean my 4 children and my niece and nephew ages 11 (soon to be 12), 10 (soon to be 11), 9, 7 (soon to be 8), 7 and 4 years old. Food intake is constantly increasing and snacking simply must be limited. Any parent gets that I am sure!! How does one do that without being a food Nazi, or Catholic school nun with her ruler on the hands kinda personality?? Well, open a snack shop is how you do just that. Snack shop is my own creation where the kiddos are given an allotted amount of money to buy 2 snacks a day throughout the summer. Squeeze in some banking skills by "depositing" that money in a check register requiring them to make withdrawals in small increments at a time, subtracting and totaling. Budgeting is key because this momma intentionally puts temptations such as soda, candy and doughnuts in the available items priced slightly higher so they have to choose wisely. Last year ice cream was purchased at such a huge rate that supply and demand caused prices to go up too. Another life lesson learned by all.

 The hardest part is pricing, and determining how much to give them per day. I do not share that amount with the kids though because I don't want them to use my amount to budget but learn through experience. These are the days to make money mistakes. Of course, fruit and vegetables plus water are free anytime of day. The snack shop is only open at 930 and 230. There is a sign stating who the cashier is as that rotates giving them all time to practice making change (something most people don't have to do these days). I previously was the sole banker in the past but I told them I would consider overseeing the withdrawals and updating of registers since they seem to be intrigued about that job too. I love their excitement, the joy on their faces when one of them announces to the others, "Snack shop time!" The bounding of feet can be heard from miles away as everyone crowds into the room. Now if you promise to keep a secret I calculated the number of days in the Mon-Fri rotation of summer then factored in a few days when we would be gone/holidays etc and multiplied by my approx budget of 1.40 a day. I randomly priced items so they would overspend and then later have options still to manage when they figure their mistake out. You can do it however you choose.

 I also used colored sticker dots to show the price on the boxes and then made a price list too. If you do something like this I would recommend NOT letting them outside of ear shot just so you can stay on top of the goings on but so far everyone has stayed legit. I put the items out of reach for all so no sneaking could occur. The only thing that does effect the day in and day out is the items in the fridge like string cheese, yogurt, bagels. On the weekends my kids eat those up. Either way we all enjoy the structure, kids included. I do hope these kids will never ever forget just how hard I work at ensuring they never stop learning.