BizTown

So on Friday, C and the other 5th and 4th graders at his school got to go to BizTown. A 4-hour simulation of working and paying bills. It's the culmination of a semester of work. They've learned how to write checks, interview for a job, run a business meeting etc. 

C was hired as the editor of the newspaper. The whole newspaper team was named Bizzy News. 

And I was lucky enough to chaperone for the day at BizTown. Everyone was assigned a different place to work from their child, which I admit, was a good call. 

Oh man, some of the kids were very sweet. But also absolutely clueless. Which, actually, makes them perfect at being CEOs. All the kids had to dress professionally. So C and Husband decided to dress the same. 

C took his job very seriously and even packed his own bag lunch that morning. 

I had to go early for training. 

I was assigned the Professional Offices. In our office we had a CEO and CFO (every office had one of those) a real estate agent, investment agent, CPA, Non-Profit Organization Manager and Insurance Agent. 

Other businesses included: radio station, newspaper, cafe, factory, bank, ag center, health and wellness center, municipalities, variety shop, City Hall, 

Every role had its own checklist and tasks they were meant to complete and all together the teamwork would lead to each business paying off its loan and hopefully turning a profit. Many businesses even had goods to sell and small storefronts for the kids to use their paychecks on. 

Here was C coming to sell me a subscription to the newspaper. 

Here he was at his break waiting in line to mail his letter. (Everyone was in charge of writing a letter to someone prior to coming to BizTown. The mail carrier delivered them all.) 

Here he is hard at work at his office. 

This is when he was out and about shopping for some of the junk treasures one can buy with BizTown money. 

During the second "town meeting" he was recognized as being one of the hard workers and got an extra $2! 

At the Professional Office, the things kids learned was that "Work is hard." And "I just liked the lunch break." My favorite was "There's a lot to remember to get a job done, pay the bills and still have fun." 

Each kid was given timed breaks and that is when they could shop, vote, go to the bank and get money, eat lunch, mail their letters... etc. 

I was most surprised by how kids I wouldn't expect to be hard workers totally rocked BizTown and how poorly some of the other kids did, who I would have expected to be great. So another real-life lesson there. 

All in all, a great field trip and hands-on learning experience for them! I can't wait for it to be M's turn.