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Lemonade Stand Math

A couple of weekends ago my husband and daughter spent the afternoon at my father-in-law's house. When they came home, my daughter was so excited to show me this old cash box granddaddy had given her.


He told her he remembers his father (who died when my father-in-law was a young boy) always keeping insurance papers in this box. Well, anyone who knows my daughter well would understand how excited she was about this box - she right away came home and put all of her money in it and declared she had to have a lemonade stand. It was literally almost 100 degrees outside and the last thing I wanted was to supervise this project. (I know, what kind of a mother am I?) We told her to wait until the following weekend and my husband agreed to take charge of the venture.

Later that week, Anna and I went to the Dollar Store and purchased 2 sets of cups and 2 containers of lemonade - an initial investment of $4. She had wanted me to just pick the things up at the grocery store, but I told her it would be cheaper at the Dollar Store and she also needed to use her own money to purchase supplies. That night at dinner, my husband turned it into a mini math lesson, talking about how much she would need to make to turn a profit, pricing per glass of lemonade, etc....

Last Saturday came and it was HOT and people were THIRSTY. Anna helped me measure the water for the lemonade (how many ounces are in a cup? how many servings will one small container make? which containers should we use?) Anna got herself ready at the top of our driveway.




The first person to come was the mailman, and he of course got his for free. After that several people stopped by and after about an hour, Anna had collected $5.50 --- only a $1.50 profit for all that hard work?!?!?


After approximately another hour, she had sold more lemonade and had a total of $8.00, which meant she had made a total of $4.00. Anna and her dad cleaned up the lemonade stand and when they got inside daddy explained to her that she still had all of her supplies and it would be easy to set up shop another day and make money again. Her venture had been a success, and I think dad really had a good time helping her.


And guess what? Monday when I went to get the mail there was a $1 in the mailbox with a note that said, "For the lovely young lady who served me lemonade on Saturday - thank you! From your mailman". What a great lesson for Anna to see that sometimes when you are generous, good things come back to you.

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