Economics

Last week was Sweet Pea and Little Man's First Grade Market, where every first grader brought in an item to sell, and purchased items from their friends with "money" they've earned from good behavior. This is part of their economics unit, in which they've been learning about goods and services.

Sweet Pea sold rainbow loom bracelets, and Little Man sold coupons for football lessons (Thursdays during recess only, expires at the end of first grade). Both of them had a blast, and came home with hand-made bookmarks, ornaments and all sorts of treasures! Sweet Pea sold out of her bracelets almost immediately, and Little Man is especially proud of his fledgling "fooboll bisnis."

The economics unit wrapped up with a field trip downtown yesterday. We visited some shops, and the owners spoke to the kids about running a small business. Then we had a behind-the-scenes tour of the huge arena and event venue nearby. In between, the kids played at a local park.

It was fun -- until another boy in their class was climbing up high on a rope net and vomited down all over Little Man. He was literally drenched in vomit -- dripping down his face, plastered in his hair, running down the back of his shirt. I ran him into the public restroom and cleaned him up as best as I could, but the bathroom didn't have any hot water. In November. Little Man's screams would have convinced any bypasser that he was being tortured! Quite a memorable field trip.