A group of our students traveled to Blue Springs for a two-day session for homeschoolers of School of Economics, presented by the Blue Springs school district. The School of Economics is set up like a small international marketplace. Each region of the world has a storefront and specific products to make and sell. Before they arrived, the students submitted job applications to the School of Economics and were hired and assigned job titles.
The first day the kids gained instruction, applied for loans, ordered supplies for their shops and generally got acquainted with how the marketplace would work and with whom they were going to work. The second day, the kids gathered supplies, did more banking, and performed tasks in their shops. Tasks included working as cashiers, cooking food (while adhering to actual health codes), making crafts and managing employees and money. They were “paid” for their work at two times and had two breaks to become active consumers. They purchased lunch items produced by the shops, as well as trinkets the shops had created. Each shop kept track of their total profits, as well as paid their loan, their own employees and some government fees.
At the end of the second day, each shop added up their totals to determine if their profits were greater than their expenses. Then, shops who had gained profits bid on candy bags at a candy auction! The most profitable business was run by one of our students – congrats to M for running such a successful business!
Our kids had a great time and learned so much about the basics of economics. They had so much fun that they are already asking about attending next year!
