Have any of you ever heard of Junior Acheivement? I was involved in High School. It was a program where we met in the evenings and made a business - a real one. Our business ended up manufacturing emergency car flashlights out of toilet plungers, believe it or not!

We learned about cost of goods, marketing, manufacturing, budgeting, selling, etc. In fact, maybe that's where I got some of my business smarts.

Since I enjoyed it so much when I was a teen, I checked into it again when I was director at an elementary charter school. The have an awesome program for all ages, so I signed up and taught grades K-6 the program at our school.

The packages for the kids are fun yet educational - they all loved coming to class. And it's amazing how much most of them really absorb and understand economics once they are exposed to the principles.

In fact, I think if I ever retire, I would love to volunteer to teach this program again.

http://www.ja.org/

Kathy