Lemonade Stand: Grown-Ups Guide
How to play it, what it teaches about running a business, and how to talk about money together
In Lemonade Stand, children run a small pretend business for one week – seven days, planned one day at a time. Each morning, they decide how many cups to make, what price to charge, and whether to advertise. Then they open the stand and watch what happens. Every choice quietly teaches a money skill, and the day’s results screen explains the lesson in plain language.
It is the flagship game in the MoneyEdu Kids set, bringing together earning, spending, pricing, saving, and decision-making inside one business the child owns. Mistakes are safe: a slow day is just a lesson for tomorrow. In the youngest level, a piggy bank safety cushion makes sure the stand can never truly go under.
- What it teaches
- Running a small business – profit, supply and demand, pricing, inventory, advertising, reputation, and keeping a cushion of savings.
- Best for ages
- 7–12, with three levels: Learner, Builder, and Entrepreneur.
- How to play
- Each day, use sliders to set how many cups to make, the price per cup, and any advertising. Buy supplies, open the stand, and read the results. Tap and slide; no typing required.
- Time to play
- About 10–15 minutes for a full seven-day week.
- Players
- One player; also great for an adult and child to plan and play together.
- Internet needed
- Yes. It runs in a web browser.
- Accounts or personal info
- None. No sign-up, no names, and no personal information collected.
- Works on
- Phone, tablet, or computer.
- Accessibility
- Includes sound on/off and speed controls, no forced timed answers, keyboard- and screen-reader-friendly controls, and color is never the only signal.
How the Game Is Played
The stand runs for a week of seven days, and every day follows the same satisfying loop. After choosing a level, the child meets Coach CJ, who explains each step and offers tips when needed.
Each day opens on the Plan Your Day screen, with the day’s weather and temperature right at the top, such as “Lovely sunshine! · 72°F.” Three sliders set the day’s plan:
- Cups to make – how much lemonade to prepare for the day.
- Price per cup – what to charge each customer.
- Advertising – how much, if anything, to spend on signs that bring in more people.
As the sliders move, a What You Might Make panel does the math live: what the supplies will cost, the most the stand could earn if every cup sells, and the best possible profit. The rule Profit = money you earn − money you spend is printed right there. The child can also visit the Supply Shop for lemons, sugar, cups, and ice.
Tapping Open My Stand runs the day. Customers arrive based on the weather, the price, the advertising, and the stand’s reputation. Then a Day Results screen tells the whole story: The Money Math, including cups sold, money earned, money spent, profit, and the new total; Who Bought, including bargain hunters, regulars, and tourists; whether the stand sold out or wasted cups; a Coach CJ tip for tomorrow; and any badges earned, such as First Sale, In the Black, Sold Out, and No Waste. Tap Continue, and the next day begins. There is no clock, and sound and speed are adjustable.
What It Teaches
Lemonade Stand is the broadest game in the set. One short week teaches the basic shape of running a business. These are the ideas it builds, in the order they tend to click.
Profit: earning more than you spend
The idea under everything else is a single subtraction, and the game keeps it on screen all week:
The money earned from selling is revenue. The money spent on supplies and advertising is costs. What is left is profit. When costs are bigger than revenue, the result is negative – a loss. Each cup needs 1 lemon, 1 scoop of sugar, 1 paper cup, and some ice, costing about $0.63 to make. Charge less than that and the stand loses money on every sale, so getting busier only makes the loss bigger.
Weather, demand, and pricing
Demand is how much people want something. At a lemonade stand, the weather affects demand more than anything else. The game makes that link clear:
| Weather | Demand | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Hot, 90°F and up | Very high, 5 of 5 | Everyone is thirsty – lots of customers, willing to pay more. |
| Sunny | Good, 4 of 5 | A steady stream of customers at fair prices. |
| Cloudy | Low, 2 of 5 | Fewer people are out; a lower price helps draw them in. |
| Rainy | Very low, 1 of 5 | Only a few brave customers – make a small batch. |
That is the law of supply and demand: when demand is high, the stand can often charge more and sell more; when demand is low, it usually makes sense to charge less and make fewer cups so nothing is wasted. Picking the price is the balancing act. Too high and customers walk past. Too low and there is not enough profit.
| Weather | Good price range | A great starting price |
|---|---|---|
| Hot | $1.25 to $2.00 | $1.50 |
| Sunny | $0.85 to $1.25 | $1.00 |
| Cloudy | $0.75 to $1.00 | $0.85 |
| Rainy | $0.70 to $0.90 | $0.75 |
Knowing the customers
Not every customer thinks about price the same way. Three kinds of neighbors appear in the Who Bought results:
- Bargain hunters care a lot about price. They buy when lemonade is cheap and walk past when it is expensive.
- Regulars are everyday neighbors who pay a fair price for a fair cup.
- Tourists are treating themselves and do not mind paying a little extra.
Real businesses ask the same question: who are my customers, and what does a fair price look like to them?
Inventory: buy what you need, waste nothing
Inventory is everything on the shelf – lemons, sugar, cups, and ice. Two mistakes cost money. Making too many cups means the unsold lemonade is thrown out at the end of the day. That is waste: supplies were paid for, but they earned nothing. Making too few cups means selling out and turning customers away, which can hurt reputation. One special rule the game teaches is that ice melts every day and cannot be saved for tomorrow, so it is best to buy only the ice today needs.
Advertising: spending money to earn money
The stand can spend up to $5.00 a day on signs, and each $1.00 brings about 2 extra people. Advertising costs money now to bring customers later today. It is worth it only if those extra customers buy enough lemonade to cover the cost of the signs, and only if the stand has enough cups for them.
Reputation: happy customers come back
Reputation is what the neighborhood thinks of the stand, scored from 0 to 100. Fair prices and having enough lemonade for everyone push it up. Overcharging and turning customers away because the stand sold out pull it down. A good reputation quietly brings more customers every day. It is one of the most valuable things a business owns, and it cannot simply be bought; it has to be earned.
Saving a cushion
The hardest habit, and one of the most important, is to never spend the last dollar. If the stand runs out of money and cannot afford tomorrow’s supplies, it may have to close in the older levels. Every business – and every grown-up – needs some money saved for emergencies, so one bad day does not end the story. If an older-level stand does close, that is okay: losing here is safe practice for being careful with real money later.
The Three Levels
Pick the level that fits the child today. Every level runs the same seven-day week and the same plan-and-open loop; each one simply makes the decisions feel a little more realistic.
| Level | Ages | What changes at this level |
|---|---|---|
| Learner | 7–8 | Easy, predictable weather and lots of help from Coach CJ. A piggy bank safety cushion keeps the stand from truly going broke. This level gives children a gentle first taste of making cups, setting a price, and selling. |
| Builder | 9–10 | More realistic weather and more meaningful choices, with money carrying over from day to day so a slow day matters. The goal becomes finishing the week ahead, and reading the forecast and planning supplies start to count. |
| Entrepreneur | 11–12 | Wilder weather and pickier customers, plus more serious decisions: pricing for a healthy margin, judging whether advertising will pay off, protecting reputation, and weighing the trade-offs, or opportunity costs, of every dollar. |
How to Talk About It With Kids
A few questions while you play together can turn the week into a real conversation about money. Match the prompts to the child’s level.
Learner Ages 7–8
Keep it concrete and focused on noticing: what the weather is, whether people came, and whether the stand earned more than it spent.
Questions to ask
- What is the weather today? Do you think lots of people will want lemonade, or only a few?
- Did you have enough cups, or did some customers get turned away?
- What does profit mean here? Did the stand earn more than it spent today?
- Tomorrow looks rainy. Should we make a big batch or a small one? Why?
Try it together: Run a real or pretend lemonade or cookie stand. Count what the supplies cost, set a price, and at the end work out together what was earned, what was spent, and what was left over.
Builder Ages 9–10
Now the choices have consequences that carry over. Focus on planning ahead and learning from yesterday’s results.
Questions to ask
- The forecast says it will be sunny. How many cups would you make, what price would you pick, and why?
- Yesterday you sold out, or threw cups away. What will you change today?
- Was the advertising worth it? Did the extra customers bring in more money than the signs cost?
- Each cup costs about 63 cents to make. What is the lowest price that still earns a profit?
Try it together: Before a real purchase, predict together whether it is a good deal, then check. Talk about why the same drink can cost more at a ballgame than at home.
Entrepreneur Ages 11–12
Push on strategy and trade-offs: the best overall price, why reputation is worth protecting, and the cost of every choice.
Questions to ask
- On a hot day, you could charge $2.00, but fewer people may buy. What price do you think earns the most overall, and why?
- Why is a good reputation worth more than the extra dollars from overcharging for one day?
- You spent your money on advertising instead of extra cups. What did that choice cost you? That is its opportunity cost.
- Out of a $1.50 cup that costs $0.63 to make, how much is profit? How big is that as a share of the price, also called the profit margin?
Try it together: Talk through a real small-business idea, such as a bake sale, a craft to sell, or mowing lawns. Work out the costs, a fair price, and what would be left over.
Take It Off the Screen
The week’s habits grow quickly with real money and everyday moments.
- Run a real lemonade, cookie, or craft stand: buy the supplies, set a price, and count the profit at the end.
- At the store, talk about why a cold drink costs more at the pool or a game than at home – demand at work.
- Spot advertising in the wild, such as a sign, a sale, or a jingle, and ask whether it would actually make you buy.
- Practice keeping a cushion: when the child saves for something, agree to always leave a little in reserve.
- Notice reputation in real life – a shop you go back to, and one you do not – and talk about why.
Words to Know
- Revenue
- All the money earned from selling. For example, 10 cups at $1.00 is $10.00 of revenue.
- Costs
- All the money spent to run the stand, including supplies and advertising.
- Profit
- Revenue minus costs – the money the stand truly gets to keep.
- Loss
- When costs are bigger than revenue, meaning profit is below zero.
- Supply and demand
- The push and pull between how much is for sale and how much people want it. High demand can support a higher price and more sales; low demand usually calls for less of both.
- Demand
- How much people want to buy something right now. At the stand, the weather affects demand the most.
- Inventory
- The supplies on hand and ready to use: lemons, sugar, cups, and ice.
- Waste
- Supplies paid for but never sold, such as unsold cups thrown out at the end of the day.
- Advertising
- Spending money to tell more people about the stand and bring them in.
- Reputation
- What the neighborhood thinks of the stand, built up over time and worth more customers.
- Forecast
- The game’s best guess at the coming weather – a planning hint to lean on, not a promise.
- Break-even
- Selling exactly enough to cover costs: zero profit and zero loss.
- Profit margin
- How much of each dollar of revenue is profit. A $1.50 cup that costs $0.63 keeps 87 cents – a wide margin. Entrepreneur level.
- Opportunity cost
- What you give up when you pick one thing over another. Money spent on signs cannot also buy extra cups. Entrepreneur level.