Ways For Kids To Earn Money

Years ago, before compulsory education and child labor laws, it was so normal for kids to be working alongside adults that the very thought of having to hunt for ways for kids to make money would have been laughable!
The Problem With Compulsory Education

The range of things which kids have done to make money is incredible. 

Dog washing
Buying bulk candy and selling individual pieces
Breeding rats (see below)
Running errands
Toy rental library
Collecting lost golf balls
Baking for busy working mothers
Collecting aluminium cans
Cleaning swimming pools

When my three girls were aged between nine and twelve, they started a rat-breeding business. How we got our kids to want to run a business. How we got our kids interested in earning money at all, for that matter, at such a young age.

Kids grew up surrounded by commerce, watching the exchange of valuable services for money, seeing the process of trading for profit, ingesting the principles of customer service with their mother's milk.

Basic entrepreneurship should be part of every child's education. Just like the other crucial life skills like brushing their teeth, eating right, and maintaining relationships, teaching the skills of money and business is very much the parent's responsibility.

Programs like Cash-Smart Kids give parents the tools they need to make their kids financially self-reliant.