Two pre-schools, Dreamkids and Cherie Hearts have made it part of their curriculum to teach students how to run a business and manage money.
Students learnt how to buy goods at a supermarket and taught values such as prudence and generosity.
Said Dreamkids’ vice-principal and teacher Jocelyn Goh, 38: “The world is changing and new jobs require 21st-century skills such as problem-solving and creativity.
“As entrepreneurship is part of today’s economy, we believe that by teaching the younger generation about it, they will believe they too can shape the world, young as they are, and we give them the courage, innovation skills and curiosity to do so.”
At Dreamkids, pre-schoolers attend entrepreneurship classes 30 minutes a day, for four to six weeks, and have weekly financial literacy classes.
The five- and six-year-olds will be raising funds for the first time by selling lemonade at Marine Cove at a future date, with all proceeds going to Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. As part of the fund-raising, the children will learn about cancer and how the money they raise will help cancer patients.
After this fund-raiser, Dreamkids plans to get the children involved in selling donated toys, where their proceeds will go towards buying new toys for children with cancer – a plan that was suggested by the pre-schoolers themselves.
At Cherie Hearts, the centres organise events such as a half-day carnival where the children have to brainstorm ideas for items to sell and decide on their pricing. They also need to think of ways to record, count and tally the sales. The carnival was organised in celebration of its Young Entrepreneurs’ Day.
The carnival raised $4,135 for non-profit organisation Wings Counselling Centre, which offers counselling services to individuals, couples, families and children.
Along with these fund-raisers, Cherie Hearts also holds weekly financial literacy classes to teach pre-schoolers the value of money, using its own original textbooks.
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Source: The Straits Times, 19 June 2017