Having a lemonade stand with your child will provide MANY great social language opportunities as well as other great skills such as sequencing skills, problem solving/planning/predicting, math, receptive and expressive language learning and more. It will also let your child be an active part of your community; get to know his/her neighbors and to have some summer fun!

Preparing your child for the lemonade sale:

Be sure to prepare your child for all that is involved within a lemonade sale so he or she can be as successful as possible. This may be a totally novel activity for your child, so the preparation is very important. Preparation will help your child know what to expect and will help your child know what is expected of them. How do we do this? PLAY!

Check out some of these wonderful children’s books based on lemonade. Reading books based on the theme will help your child understand and use the language involved and know what happens during a lemonade stand. You can also make your own lemonade sale book using clip art, actual photos or drawings. You can make your own book as simple or as complex as you would like, depending on your child’s needs. Making a book describing what will happen on the big day is a great tool to prepare your child. Here are a few books we found:

-Olivia Opens a Lemonade Stand by Kama Einhorn
-Maisy Makes Lemonade by Lucy Cousins
-Lemonade for Sale by Stuart J. Murphy
-Lulu’s Lemonade by Barbara deRubertis
-The Lemonade Standoff by Marcie Aboff

Do lemonade art! Chop up lemon peels and glue them onto paper. This will help your child explore the texture and smell of the fruit as well. Talk about the qualities of lemons while you engage in art (“fruit”, “lemony”, “juicy”, “sour”, “yummy!”). Color, paint, dot paint lemonade pictures! Here are a couple links to free printable color pages:

http://www.thecolor.com/Category/Coloring/Summer.aspx

http://www.thecolor.com/Coloring/Lemonade.aspx

http://www.kidprintables.com/coloring/misc/lemonstand.shtml

http://www.kookerkids.com/coloring_spring-summer.htm

Play pretend lemonade! You can use your child’s toys and/or the actual items you will be using during the lemonade sale. You can play with stuffed animals and/or people. Practice playing indoors and outdoors. Playing pretend lemonade stand will help your child explore the materials, go through the motions of what will occur, know what to expect and will allow them to practice and rehearse beforehand without any pressure.

Sing lemonade songs! Sing while you do art, sing while you look at lemonade books, sing while you play pretend lemonade and sing during the actual sale…..sing all the time! Also, making up your own songs that describe lemonade and lemonade sales will help your child engage in the activity, understand the activity and also use expressive language. You can change the words to the “Peanut Butter and Jelly Song” to incorporate lemonade vocabulary (“Lemons, sugar, sugar….and lemonade! Lemons, sugar, sugar….and lemonade! First you take the lemons and squeeze them, you squeeze them, you squeeze them squeeze them squeeze them. Lemons, sugar, sugar….and lemonade! Lemons, sugar, sugar….and lemonade! Then you take the sugar and your pour it, you pour it, you pour it pour it pour it pour it” and so on. Here are a couple of other songs we found…..feel free to change up lyrics to best suit your child:

-Sing a Song of Lemonade by http://stepbystepcc.com:
Sing a song of lemonade
We'll pour it in a cup
We'll stir it with a straw
And then we'll sip it up
It will be so refreshing
We'll have to have some more,
And we'll be drinking lemonade forever, ever more!

-Lemonade, Crunchy Ice (Handclapping Song) found at www.mamalisa.com
Lemonade (Up Down Clap)
(Triple Clap)
Crunchy ice (Up Down Clap)
(Triple Clap)
Sip it once (Up Down Clap)
(Triple Clap)
Sip it twice (Up Down Clap)
(Triple Clap)
Lemonade (Up Down Clap)
Crunchy ice (Up Down Clap)
Made it once (Up Down Clap)
Made it twice (Up Down Clap)
Turn around (Turn Around)
Touch the ground (Touch the Ground

Time to prepare for the sale!

Have your child be an active participant in preparing for the sale. This will help them learn even more and get the most out of the learning experience.

-Inform neighbors, friends and family in advance. It will be great for your child to have a few “buyers” that are both familiar and unfamiliar. Call or email your friends and family. Pass out a simple flier to your neighbors explaining when the lemonade sale will be, where and what to expect. You can also include a simple statement or two about what your neighbors can expect from your child and the skills your child will be working on!
-Make the lemonade stand sign together. Get a poster board and paint, glue and color! If your child is not writing yet, write out the print in advance and then have your child decorate the poster board. If your child writes or is learning to write, help them write out the print and then decorate.
-Go to the grocery store together. Your child may want to ride along in the car and watch and listen while you lead the way and pick out the items needed. Be sure to sing about what you are doing and narrate what you are doing using simple language. Have your child help you with choices. For instance, when picking out lemons, hold up a big lemon and small lemon and let your child choose what he/she wants (“big lemon or little lemon”). When picking out cups, let your child choose what color cups he/she wants (“red cups or green cups?”). If your child is beginning to talk more and engage in more joint attention activities, you can have them also work on choices and also finding the items in the grocery store with you while describing what you are doing and the things you are purchasing. For instance, “We need lemons. Where are the lemons? Fruit! Yellow fruit! Look! Lemons next to limes! We want twenty lemons….one, two, three…. More lemons. Pretty yellow lemons. I like lemons! Lemons in bag and bag in basket. Next, time for sugar!” Allow your child to fill in the blank and respond to your comments. If your child has high social language, you can turn the grocery store trip into an opportunity to work on predicting, planning and math. Have your child help you writing the shopping list in advance and then finding all the items within the store. Have your child cross off each thing on the list as you find them. Work on problem solving by thinking about quantities (Do we need 100 cups or 25 cups?; Two lemons or 20?), etc. Also work on math when in the produce section and when checking out.
-Decorate your materials! You and your child can decorate what you will keep the money in, decorate the lemonade pitcher, decorate the table/tablecloth and more!
-Make the lemonade. Make a visual aid that lists out the steps involved with making the lemonade. You can write out the steps and use a clip art picture or draw out a stick figure picture next to the print or you can use a visual schedule list. (“First, mommy’s turn cut lemons. Waiting. Next squeeze lemons. Next pour sugar. Then water in pitcher. Last stir.”) Lemonade mixes are even easier! Make your how-to list as simple or as complex as your child needs. Have your child be an active participant and help make the lemonade. They will learn so much! Your child can be the taste tester and think about if the lemonade is too sour, too sweet, needs more lemon, or is just right, etc. Then you and your child can adjust the lemonade as needed...another great language and problem solving activity.

Time for the lemonade sale!

Use visuals:

When your child is ready for the lemonade sale, prepare a visual schedule/list for them that explains what will happen and what your child will do. This can be in the form of picture symbols or clipart or if your child reads or is learning to read, this may be in a written form with drawn out stick figures on a piece of paper or on a dry erase board. A lemonade sale schedule/how-to list could be as simple or as complex as your child needs. It can include the steps to prepare the lemonade (ice in cup, pour lemonade in cup, give to person), depending on your child’s role. This page can also include social language such as “hi”, “bye”, “thank you” “have a nice day”, “how can I help you” in order to help your child use the language when appropriate as well as their core vocabulary (i.e., more, finished, help, waiting, my turn, stop, go, dangerous, give, share, yes, no, etc.).

Bring a camera! Be sure to take photos and/or videos of you and your child at the lemonade sale. Later, look at these together with your child. This will help their understanding and you can also use them to talk about the past. You can even make a “Lemonade Stand Book” that your child can show other people and use to help them when they go on their next lemonade sale.

For some children, safety may be an important factor. Having the sale out in your front yard near the street or in a busy traffic area just may be too dangerous. That is okay! You can have your sale in your backyard (have signs in the front yard pointing to the back) or in any other safe and contained place. Passing out the fliers in advance and contacting people in advance will help people know where to go. You could even set up the stand in your home. Having an extra adult to shadow your child may be a good idea too. Your child may be able to sit in a favorite wagon, buggy or stroller near the stand in your front yard and still be a participant. Your child may want to be outside and involved in the sale for a few moments and then may need to take incremental breaks indoors. This is great! Even if your child isn’t pouring the lemonade or collecting the money, listening, watching and being involved in the preparation will be excellent language and social learning opportunities for them! Don’t forget to sing about what you are doing! Set your child up to succeed and also set up the situation to where you will be comfortable and experiencing the least amount of stress.

If your child is beginning to talk more and engage in joint attention activities with other people, here are some things you can work on:
-Focus on your child learning language through the lemonade sale experience. Sing about what you are doing. Narrate what you and others are doing. This will help them learn and use the language.
-Work on social language (“hi”, “bye”, “thank you”, “like lemonade,” “yummy lemonade” “my turn”, “Daddy’s turn”, etc.).
-Have your child be an active participate. Have your child pour the lemonade, give the lemonade to people, put the money in the money box, give the people their change, etc. while using your visual how-to list.

If your child has high social language, here are some ideas:
-Have your child ask neighbors and friends if they would like to participate within the lemonade sale. If other children help, this will provide even more social opportunities. Your child can work on calling them on the phone, emailing or going to their home and asking.
-Have your child help you pass out the fliers in advance. This would be a great opportunity to tell people about the sale and to practice eye contact, body posture and politeness words.
-Assign the children jobs or helper roles (ice helper, cup helper, lemonade pourer, banker, etc.). Make badges with pictures representing the jobs. Have the children work on encouraging each other and then working on trading roles.
-Use a calculator or scratch paper to work on the money math! You can also work on fractions (fillings the cups half full, two-thirds full, etc,).
-Social language with peers: Your child and a friend can talk about other summer drinks and foods, what each person likes about these, how they taste and more. Your child can make a list while doing so. This is great for language learning, conversation and increasing Theory of Mind Skills.
-Have your child problem solve and plan with other children about other potential summer sales they could have. Which would be successful and why?

Other fun links:

-Printable template for a Lemonade Sale Sign:
http://homeschooling.about.com/od/freeprintables/ss/lemonade_2.htm

-Online lemonade sale game focusing on math:
http://www.dltk-teach.com/money/lemonade2/lemonade-unregistered/index.ht...

-Homemade recipes with lemonade variations like sugar free, maple, ginger, pineapple ginger, tea lemonade and raspberry lemonade:
http://www.godairyfree.org/Recipes/Beverages/Homemade-Lemonade-7-Ways-Ve...

Hope your lemonade sales are full of summer fun and language learning!

~Laura & Amanda
KidSpeak, LLC
www.kidspeakdallas.com