Things You'll Need:
- 2 spiral notebooks
- Red pen
- Black pen
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Step 1
Make $500,000 in play money...Using your computer, print out enough play money to equal at least $500,000. This is your "initial investment," and your first vocabulary word. Make a file card with this word on one side. Have your child look up the definition and write it on the other side of the card.
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Step 2
Discuss local businesses that you and your family frequent. Brainstorm with your child. Why do you need to use that business? How is it better than other businesses that sell the same products or perform the same services?
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Step 3
Write the words "product" and "service" on two additional cards and have your child look up the definitions. Use the basic consumer math text to discover additional vocabulary words. Write each word on one side of a file card, and its definition on the other.
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Step 4
Make up a business that your child will run. What products will it sell? What services will it provide? Cut pictures from magazines and newspaper ads to make a collage of these products and services.
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Step 5
Look up the cost the business owner pays (wholesale price: another vocabulary addition) and write it next to each product or service. Using the play money, purchase each item or service.
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Step 1
Using the black pen, label the first notebook "Assets." Using the red pen, label the second notebook "Liabilities."
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Step 2
In the Liabilities book, using a ruler, make three equal columns on the page. Label the first column "Purpose." Label the second column "Cost." Label the third column "Total." For each item your child decides to purchase for his business, have him make an entry in the "Liabilities" notebook.
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Step 3
As your child completes each entry, have her add the cost to the total from the previous line. Write the new total in the "Total" column. The next item is added to that new total. Have your child keep doing this until each item has been entered into your child's Liabilities book.
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Step 4
Use a three subject theme notebook for the next part of the project. Using the "Assets" notebook, use a ruler to make three columns.
On the first line of the notebook, in the first column, write "Business Equipment." In the second column, write "Value." In the third column, write "Total." Have your child list each piece of business equipment he has purchased. Examples are computers, desks, fax machines, copy machines, telephones, postage machines. In the second section of the notebook, label the first column "Inventory." Label the second column "Value." Label the third column "Total." Use the book to list each type of inventory available for sale by your business. The value of an item is its expected sale price. In the third section, Label the first column "Real Property." Label the second column "Value." Label the third column "Total." Real Property is land or buildings that your business owns. At the end of the month, subtract the total in the Liabilities book from the total in the Assets book. This is your business' net worth. How did your child's business do?
