Song Stand

Olivia wrote a poem/song for Earth Day and is very proud of it. She also wrote a song Caroline made up when she was two. Yesterday morning, Olivia announced, "I need a job." She decided that after school she and Caroline would set up a song stand and charge people ten cents to buy her songs.

My favorite parenting book recommends that parents don't take away hope or crush children's dreams. In other words, there is no "Let's be realistic here." So I spent the afternoon holding my tongue and letting the girls set up their stand with excitement. First Olivia asked me to make 30 copies of both songs. In the interest of saving trees, I made five copies of each. They sat outside for a while, with Olivia getting increasingly frustrated with the lack of traffic and lack of interest. I bought each song and suggested she be more of a salesperson, asking the few passersby if they wanted to buy a song.

Finally the neighbor kids came home and were very interested. They bought the songs and helped Olivia go door-to-door (they only went to two doors, neighbors we know), while Caroline manned the stand. They actually each made $1.00 and had their first lesson in being business owners.

Here is Olivia's poem:
I Love, You Love, The Planit is Gret

I love the planit.
You love the planit.
Earth day, evry day.
You can save the planit.

Pik up chrash.
Do't do plooshin.
Hepe the invierment
And that's the sulooshin!

If you love the planit,
You take care of it!