Now that a busy holiday weekend is rolling around again, it’s a great time to have a reading selection at your fingertips. There’s nothing like a few quiet moments as a family or class to press that reset button before, during, or right after a busy festive celebration weekend. To be sure you have a right-sized option for your kids, we’ve got two choices for this big weekend and an extra one for weekends to come.
For the third Saturday of Financial Literacy Month with FUTURES: Financially Literate Kids for a Financially Literate Society™, we’re sticking with the theme of entrepreneurship with a selection for middle grades and another for your younger budding entrepreneurs.
Want to spark curiosity and arouse your little one’s financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and leadership skills? Inspire your future entrepreneurs to follow their passions. Share a glimpse of the world of entrepreneurship with this great story about Jasmine. This easy-to-share book is a great business book to share with your kids to spark their growing interests in someday starting a business or launching a start-up.
This kids’ first business book instills lessons about hard work, creativity and determination, coaching your young, upcoming CEO to acquire the right mindset needed to turn a dream or vision into reality. This story is a great way to pave the way for tomorrow’s blog past, too, where our Weekend What-If post showcases being the CEO of your own business!
In Jasmine Launches a Startup: (Entrepreneurship books for kids) written by Bachar Karroum and illustrated by Jesus Vazquez Prada, kids will be exposed to many of the same fundamentals of starting a business as are covered in FUTURES: Financially Literate Kids for a Financially Literate Society™ and provides a great glimpse into what it might be like to have an entrepreneurial career, including skills like:
Following your passion
How to start-up and challenge the status quo
Focusing on a specific market
Taking risks, moving into action and seeking help when needed
The importance of teamwork and never giving up
Eager to help sick children, Jasmine launches a business with her cousin to help the kids. They encounter lots of obstacles, which is a great lead in to a compelling conversation.
Why do you think Jasmine started her business?
How can a company be profitable and helpful?
A social entrepreneur does both. Can you think of any companies that grow and help others?
What about companies that recycle materials for their products?
What about those who donate a product every time a customer buys one?
What kinds of companies could you start to help others?
You can buy the book here.
Lemonade, Marbles, or Both?
Our second reading suggestion for this busy holiday weekend is well-suited to younger readers. In between holiday events, your littler kids can dive into Peg + Cat: The Lemonade Problem by Jennifer Oxley, ideal for a car ride or to keep kids busy at family celebrations. In this equally entrepreneurial story the beloved duo, Peg and Cat, decide to sell lemonade on a sunny day in exchange for marbles for Peg’s marble company. When life gives them a problem to solve, Peg and Cat make lemonade—and get a lesson in bartering in this flavorful entrepreneurial adventure.
In order to keep her marble company, Peg needs some marbles so she and Cat decide to sell their lemonade for the hefty price of ten marbles a cup. When they learn they've priced themselves out of the market, Peg and Cat keep changing their sign until they hit on a winning price point of two marbles that has the customers lining up. Like any business, though, another problem pops up: Peg and Cat forgot the cups! Can they barter their way back into business? How do they solve this problem? Buy this one here.
Car Ride “CAR-riculum”
If you’re taking a longer car ride, use this book to do a bit of learning along the way. This book is a great front-seat-to-back-seat read aloud. The e-book version is also a great way to read and ride by loading it onto your tablet in advance. Here are a few ways to maximize the drive time when you’re not the designated driver, of course.
Prompt younger non-readers to look at the pictures to predict what might happen next. Do the same thing before swiping to the next page, too.
Stop along the way during the story and ask your kids what they would do next, too.
By putting themselves into Peg + Cat’s predicament, kids can practice some important problem-solving skills, even when all dressed up in their party clothes.
Once you finish the story, give your kids the book and suggest that it is their turn to “read” it to you! Thy can point to the pictures and through the visual cues and their recall from your recent read-aloud, they’ll let you know they’ve grasped the plot and story line.
Once you arrive at your destination, suggest they bring the book inside to read it to others. These rehearsed read-aloud stories can make for video-worthy family memories.
Both of these entrepreneurial books let kids explore ideas about competition, price setting, and supply and demand in fun and light-hearted manners that will certainly get them thinking like young entrepreneurs. We hope these two selections add to your festive or relaxing spring weekend activities.
Add This One to Your Reading List!
In addition, here’s another fabulous entrepreneurial story slated to hit the stores on or about May 6.
Girls mean business in this brand-new middle grade series about friendship and entrepreneurship in this middle-grade book The Startup Squad by Brian Weisfeld and Nicole C. Kear. It revolves around a sweet plot for budding entrepreneurs—a lemonade stand competition. The prize winner receives priority tickets to Adventure Central, and the book’s protagonist, Theresa, wants to win badly. But it won’t be easy, as her middle school nemesis Val proves to be fierce competition.
Theresa also has to figure out how to work with her friends and perfect the formula for success. She learns that success is going to be harder than she thinks. With her three friends, this squad discovers that success means listening, teamwork, and the willingness to take a risk. They also learn that a team of new friends yields big results. Soon to be released, this chapter book makes a great read-aloud.
Weisfeld is not only the author but also Founder and Chief Squad Officer of The Startup Squad, an initiative that helps girls reach their potential by learning about entrepreneurship. Each book in the series features tips from The Startup Squad and a profile of an inspiring girl entrepreneur.
This series is a great way to begin an ongoing reading experience with your kids. In class or at home, this adventure can be a great end-of-day read-aloud or you might opt to have different groups read different books from this series. With any of these choices, the key is in the conversation that follows. In addition to strengthening the financial literacy awareness, this book is an ideal time to stress important social and emotional learning skills. Here are a few questions to take the discussion far beyond entrepreneurship and into the world of powerful friendships.
As Theresa discovered, it can be difficult to work with friends. Have you ever had such a challenge?
Can you think of anything else Theresa might have tried in order to make things easier with Val?
While lemonade requires ingredients like lemons water and sugar, what are the necessary ingredients for a great friendship? (Prompt kids with these words, as needed: trust, loyalty, patience, understanding, listening, keeping a confidence.)
Ask kids what they think this expression means and how it relates to them: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When have you made lemonade from life’s lemons?
Do you think businesses get lemons, too? What kinds of “business lemons” can you think of? (Remind kids about the melting ice cream, broken freezer, and new competitors from recent blog posts.)
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Tune in tomorrow as we continue Financial Literacy Month with this week’s Weekend “What If…?”: What if you were in charge of your own company? In this upcoming post, kids will set up their own hypothetical business and explore key decisions just like business owners. It’s a fun and informative exploration for those business-minded babysitters and car washers you might know.
For more information about FUTURES: Financially Literate Kids for a Financially Literate Society™ for students in kindergarten through eighth grade or to download any of the 29 sections of the program, please click below.
