5 Character Lessons in a Lemonade Stand

As summer is coming to a close and the days are getting shorter, my kids are still asking to do a "Lemonade Stand". A wonderful American tradition rises on the corners of your neighborhood evoking memories of days gone by.  We can't just pass by, so we stop by to encourage these young souls in their first entrepreneurial endeavors.

Here in Southern California, our summer heat will continue through September and into October. So it is appropriate for the kids to be asking.

As they squeeze their lemons and bake their chocolate chip cookies, I begin to see God at work.  Our lemonade stand brings about teachable moments on character qualities for my children.  I recognize subtle opportunities for them to grow in their character. For as in everything, a simple pursuit can help us grow in the areas God has for us.

Here are five reasons why I love to say "Yes" to a lemonade stand and why you should say "Yes", too.

1.  They meet our neighbors.  Our house is situated on a busy corner with a horse trail and path to the park.  So there is plenty of traffic. Just like anywhere, we are all busy. So are our neighbors. We have to make an extra effort to meet them and stay in contact with them. Making cookies and lemonade invites them to come over and say "hi" and take a minute to chat. This offers opportunities for further interaction in the future and helps my children know those around them. These moments require a smile, kindness and manners from my children, creating a teachable minute for my kids.

2.  They understand what it means to own something. In a small way, this little lemonade stand becomes their first business. They spend about an hour preparing. They use their creativity to bake cookies to perfection so everyone will want to buy them. After a few lessons from me, they are self-sufficient (I always help with clean up). It takes them minutes now to make homemade lemonade with lemons from our tree.  They think up new ways to decorate their stand and how to attract more customers. Painting signs and picking flowers, while grabbing one of my table clothes drives them to be more creative in their endeavor.

3. They learn new skills and brush up on old ones.  Owning something means being able to take responsibility and leadership. Not only do they have to smile and be kind, but they must make the right change, which requires math and quick thinking. Sometimes they have a crowd and this demands so many skills from them: attentiveness, decisiveness, and resourcefulness. My children are also learning the art of salesmanship. My dad and my brother can "sell ice to an eskimo", so some of them come by it naturally.  However, I notice how they encourage the customers to add something to their order or invite them to come back another day.

4. They are called to work side by side with their siblings. I don't know about your house, but my house witnesses more than a few disheartening interactions between my kids. I ask the Lord for wisdom so often He must be sick of the request. When they are pulled together striving for the same goal, somehow they forget the argument a few hours before and work together. I love to watch them dream up new ideas for cookies or new endeavors, like when they woke up at 5:00 a.m. to do a "Coffee and Muffin Stand" for Election Day. Each day character is built on small moments like these.

5. They are blessed to be a blessing. One of the requirements in our family is if they do a lemonade stand, they are asked to give 10% of their earnings to the church or a charity.  We feel this standard will set them up for life as they learn to give right off the top of what they have received. The conversation it brings with it reminds me that we are all sinners. Learning to be generous is a character quality that develops over time as we realize how much God loves us. Every time they want to keep "their hard earned cash", we remind them, we are all "blessed to be a blessing".

A lemonade stand is a simple, but fun way to learn with our children. I love that God gives us every day experiences to learn so much from Him. We don't have to wait for the big moments to pour in our kids’ character. We can embrace the opportunities He gives.

How do you help build character into your kids?

~Jeanna Young - When Jeanna is not writing, speaking, event planning, or homeschooling, she can be found scrapbooking her life, redecorating her home, loving on her husband, planning fun events for her kids or eating healthy to stay cancer-free!

Making the Most of Every Opportunity?

My life verse is Ephesians 5:15 – 17  “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”

If you know me, I run most of my life through this filter.

Am I making the most of this opportunity?

Am I wasting time or redeeming time?

Is this activity worth my time? 

Is it God-honoring?

There are so many good things in this world to spend my days doing.

But are they the BEST!?

I learned this saying years ago, “Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best!”

So this is my goal.

Do I always get it right? Nah.

But it is what I strive for and where I aim my arrow and shoot.

So as I was planning this summer, I used this filter.  We started off the summer in Mexico on a house build project.  After that the kids had a week of serving and attending VBS at our church.  We packed our bags for two weeks in upstate New York at a Christian camp my husband grew up at. At Camp of the Woods, God is the center each day.  The last two weeks of the trip, we have traveled down the East Coast on a history field trip.  We wanted to live out the history we had learned about this year. A hands on approach to studies about our founding fathers who loved God and built our country upon biblical principles.  Another goal was to fellowship with friends and family along the way.

I don’t tell you this to brag about what we did this summer, but simply to point out the thought and planning that went into each week.  The question asked, “Am I making the most of my time with my kids each day this summer? Am I being wise?”

These last days of summer will be spent at home more, as we are bringing home a souvenir puppy from our time on the Amish farm in Pennsylvania.  The kids will get an opportunity to raise and train another being.  Right now, he is very sick with "Puppy Strangles" so we are nursing him back to health.  God knows what our family needs. 

As I am looking to the fall, how can we make the most of every opportunity?  Looking at my children's schedules, why are we doing this activity?  Are the days too full?  Do we have at least 5 family dinners a week? Where are my priorities? 

The grid of Ephesians 5:15-17 helps me put things into perspective.

What about you?  How do you make the most of every opportunity?  I would love to hear different ideas on this topic.

When Jeanna is not writing, speaking, event planning, or homeschooling, she can be found scrapbooking her life, redecorating her home, loving on her husband, planning fun events for her kids or eating healthy to stay cancer-free!

How to Host a Princess Camp, Day 5

The following post is part 5 of a 5 part series by guest blogger Aimee Mae Riley. Aimee held a princess camp for her church. Aimee used the Princess Parable Series in her camp curriculum and shares the details of the camp below for our benefit. Enjoy!

Friday- Princess Joy’s Birthday Blessing

Our last day of camp was almost like a first day, since we had to switch rooms to accommodate another unanticipated event.  We stayed after camp for an extra hour and a half on Thursday, transferring all of our decorations and setting up our princess party room.  Here is a picture of the new room, which we ended up loving even more than our first room.  One thing that made it better was having a water fountain- or bubbler as we say here in WI- and bathroom right outside the door instead of down the hall.

Don’t you love the display shelf for our Parable Princesses books?

All week long, the girls had been anticipating our special dress up party day. All the girls were invited to wear their prettiest dresses, and we planned to paint their nails and faces and eat cupcakes and ice cream.

As they entered, we took pictures of each girl in front of the castle decoration.  Once everyone had arrived, we played Pin the Gem on the Crown.  We simplified our approach by drawing a crown on a big piece of paper and having the girls design and cut out their own gems.  Then, we blindfolded each girl and had the other girls safely direct her to the crown, where she stuck her jewel on with double-sided tape.

After our game, all the girls sat in the middle of the room for our story time.  Today’s story was about Princess Joy; it is actually the first Princess Parables book, but we saved it for last because of our party plans.  Joy is a lovely princess, and she is so looking forward to the party her sisters are planning for her, only none of the guests can come!  At first discouraged, Joy instead decides to invite all of the children from the kingdom, be they poor or rich.  She finds that it is indeed better to give than to receive.

As a group, we discussed how we can give without expecting anything in return, and the girls offered up answers about helping around the house, giving money to those less fortunate, sharing their toys, and the like. In that moment, I realized how much I would miss these special girls and their sweet hearts.  It was a busy week, full of fun and activity, but on this last day, I determined to slow down and just take time to enjoy the girls, and that is what I did.

We directed the girls back to the tables and distributed our party food.  The girls chatted happily as they ate their cupcakes and ice cream, fruit salad, and apple juice.  This Wilton Princess Cupcake Stand Kit (which includes the cupcake liners and crown decorations) was perfect for our party, and it is affordable and reusable.

After we got the girls all cleaned up, it was time for the beauty treatment!  Kira, Caitlin, and I divided up: Kira and I painted toenails, and Caitlin became the master face painter (I found a Princess Face Painting kit at Michaels on clearance from $24.99 to $9.99-hurray!)  Here are a few pictures of our pretty princesses:

The face painting took longer than our camp was scheduled, but the few remaining girls and parents were happy to stay a little longer.  As the girls left, we gave them each a gift bag (I just used clear cellophane bags with pink and purple tissue paper) filled with foam stickers, play rings, Ring-Pops (I got them for 30 cents on clearance at Walgreens!) , balloons, and these Princess Stationery Sets.  Those that remembered also took their fancy drinking glasses which I found for 50 cents each at Goodwill; it was so cute to see them acting so dainty with these as they drank their water and juice throughout the week.

Final Thoughts

So much of our week involved doing and organizing projects with the girls that it wasn’t until Friday that I finally knew everyone’s name without hesitation and got to really relax.  The one-on-one time I got to spend with each of them as I painted their toenails was a special blessing.

My highlight of the week came when we talked about Jesus being our best friend, and a few of the girls called out, “Jesus is my best friend!”  My prayer is that He will continue to be just that as these precious girls grow into godly young women who love and serve Him.

I hope you enjoyed this series and that it sparked some inspiration for your own princess party or camp plans.  I highly recommend the Princess Parables books.  Be sure to get one, or the whole set, for your special princess. They are a wonderful way to introduce them to being a daughter of the true King.

For more ideas that I didn’t get a chance to use (but wish I had), check out my Pinterest Princess Camp board.

Aimee Mae Riley is a mother of 5 children from Wisconsin. You can read her blog at Whispers of Worth. 

How to Host a Princess Camp, Day 4

The following post is part 4 of a 5 part series by guest blogger Aimee Mae Riley. Aimee held a princess camp for her church. Aimee used the Princess Parable Series in her camp curriculum and shares the details of the camp below for our benefit. Enjoy!

Thursday- Princess Charity’s Courageous Heart

When the girls arrived, they found a plain princess dress on card stock to decorate as they liked.  We then helped to cut out the dresses and provided them with princess cut-out dolls and more cut-out dresses to play with. Let me say that these were a huge hit, but they are also the most time-consuming thing we had to prepare.  Cutting out dolls and assorted dresses for fourteen girls takes a couple of hours, and I had my 7yo daughter, 9yo son and my two camp helpers assisting with the project over the course of the week. In my opinion, it was totally worth it, though.

We sent each girl home with a doll, which each of them named (Princess Grace was a popular choice, but I particularly liked Princess Rainbow Blossom and Princess Patience), and the dress they had decorated.  I meant to send an extra outfit or two along with them, too, but I forgot.  This craft alone took up the first 45 minutes of our day, and we had to coax the girls over to story time.

Our story involved Princess Charity, the youngest of the five sisters.  She is impetuous but has a big heart, and by saving a young boy who is hurt on the other side of the road- which is also the neighboring kingdom’s forbidden territory- she brings peace to the two kingdoms.  Her story echoes the familiar Good Samaritan story found in Luke 10:25-37.  We talked about who was the youngest in their families, if any had ever been horseback riding (Charity’s pet is a horse), and we covered some of the discussion questions available with the story.

We then made ribbon wands out of dowels, washi tape (I found sparkly dark pink and gold washi tape in the clearance bin at Michaels), and ribbon, along with these adorable sparkly styrofoam balls (I found a bag of them for 50 cents at Goodwill- score!)

This was a putsy project that required the three of us camp leaders to do all of the work; the girls simply selected the colors they wanted for their tape and ribbons.  Here’s a tip, though: instead of wrapping the tape around and around the dowel, wrap it once lengthwise around the dowel; you will save on tape, and it turns out much smoother.  It is an exact, tight fit around the thinnest dowel available at Michaels.

For snack, we had apple slices (since horses love apples) and pretzels (since all the girls like them).  The girls ended the day with their coloring sheets.

Tomorrow, we will cover the last day of princess camp, with Princess Joy’s Birthday Blessing and a party!

For more princess camp or party ideas, check out my Pinterest Princess Camp board.

Aimee Mae Riley is a mother of 5 children from Wisconsin. You can read her blog at Whispers of Worth. 

Heroes

HEROES.

Why do we love heroes so much?

We all love heroes because we are created to admire goodness. We want to emulate those who share our ideals – things like courage, honor and justice.  Heroes who make the hard, but right choices give us hope in the future.  We choose heroes who symbolize the person we would like to be and ambitions we would like to satisfy.  My husband loves William Wallace in Braveheart, Andy in Shawshank Redemption and Edmund in the Count of Monte Cristo.  I love Anne in Anne of Green Gables, Dorcus Lane in the Larkrise to Candleford or Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice.  Each of them speak to my heart.  I can hear their stories again and again.  Tell me who your heroes or heroines are and it can tell me a lot about you.

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated the end of school with a history feast.  The kids and I reflected on their year studying the end of the Roman Empire to the Revolutionary War.  Part of the year was spent reading 16 historical fiction books.  This form of literature brought history to life for my kids AND gave them heroes to inspire them.  Many of the books were “old-fashioned” with tried-and-true wisdom.  These heroes made right choices, had virtuous character and inspiring actions.  I find this is one of my favorite parts of schooling.

Who are your kids’ heroes?

As we move into summer, my kids continue to read.  I want them to read.  With older children now, I find the library to be a bit challenging.  Somehow vampires and witchcraft have become commonplace among teen literature content.  We have to search and search for good books.  My elementary children find examples of bad attitudes and poor choices among the “favorites” of their peers.  I keep asking, “Where have the true heroes gone?”

The Princess Parables were created for this very reason.  Not only did we want to have inspiring princesses any girl would want to be like, we also wanted to teach God’s word and wisdom.  While the Princess Parables is an outstanding summer reading option, there needs to be more in the book baskets for our kids this summer.

Children just don’t stubble upon excellent reading options, but they are created for them.  I have to have a plan this summer for all of my kids.  Join me as we engage in the pages of literature recommendations from Read for the Heart by Sarah Clarkson and Honey for a Child’s Heart by Gladys Hunt.  Both of these books are wonderful guides to life changing literature for our kids.  Giving our kids heroes to build their character, their adventurous hearts and their imagination.

What does your summer reading list look like?

Will you introduce your kids to their next heroes?