Thinking of a creative way to keep your kids busy? Give them a chance to practice their business savvy? Help them learn a new skill? Consider a kids marketplace!
What’s a kids marketplace you say?
It’s an event where multiple kids get together to sell handmade goods.
My kids just participated in our homeschool co-op’s second annual kids marketplace. They were counting down the days until the big day arrived. They were very excited to set-up and sell their products. The kids are even happier when they got home and counted the money they earned. The next day we went out and they each purchased something with their money. I often hear them saying “this is what I bought from my market day money”.
Some benefits of having a kids marketplace include:
- Entrepreneurship: A kids marketplace is a great place to teach kids some business skills. They have to work within their budget for supplies. Decide the price of their product for in order to make a profit. And factor in quantity and time commitment.
- Creativity: Choosing the product they want to sell can time take some time and research. Children make something they’re good at or something completely new and interesting to them. They also learn to choose something unique so it would peak interests and bring customers to their table.
- Social skills: Customers come along to browse and the children have to be ready to speak up. Plus, be ready to answer questions about their product in order to sell it. My kids learned very quickly if they don’t speak up the customer might pass them by! One of the children (5-year-old) started going around with her product (butterfly-shaped crayons) and asking people if they’d like to buy.
- The value of money: Usually when we are at the Target dollar spot my kids want to simply buy everything! I’ve noticed that when they brought their own “market day” money they were very careful in the choices they made. Learning the value of hard earned money is such a great life lesson to instill in childhood.
- Learning a new skill: Many kids participated with items that they had to learn how to make for the first time. My daughter learned to make trivets from clothespins. Other kids were selling a wide variety of items like handmade jewelry, bookmarks, paintings, plants, and one very popular table had a “make your own slime” station!
I was touched by the kindness the kids showed towards their peers. They made it a goal to buy one item from each station. To me, that was the icing on the cake!
