Junior Achivement-BizTown Monday

Today Jasmine had a field trip to our local Junior Achievement building where she (and all of the other fifth graders from her school) would be doing a simulation of what its like to have a job, pay bills and run a city. A City known as Biz Town. Jasmine has been extremely excited about this trip. Its all that she has talked about over the last several weeks.

We have known about the field trip for quite a while now. When the papers first started coming home with the information and volunteer requests I figured that it was something I could easily do. I had a couple of months and I assumed that Vada would be eating solids by the time the trip actually came around. Turns out I was wrong. She isn't eating solids and she is not drinking from bottle, sippy or regular cup so being a volunteer was going to be a difficult thing to do. To top things off I had missed the four hours of volunteer training. Needless to say, I was very, very nervous.

This morning, before I left I really wanted to come up with some sort of excuse as to why I could not go, but nothing would be justifiable. The thought of letting Jasmine down was making me feel incredibly guilty so I threw my worries aside and I went. Luckily, Justin was home and he was so easy going and understanding about the whole situation. Justin and I had decided that I would nurse Vada before he dropped me off at the JA building and then when she needed to nurse he would call my cell and bring her to me. I would then take my break, nurse her, then return back to Biz Town. It was more than we had planned for, but it would work.

 It turned out that he did end up bringing Vada, but it was so busy that Vada didn't want to nurse. I ended up talking with Jasmine's teacher and explained the situation to her. I asked if she was okay with Justin and Vada hanging around, just in case. Again, luckily, she was sweet as sugar and had no problems with them joining in. In fact, she gave Justin Biz Town cash that he used to help other businesses pay off their loans.

 Jasmine worked in the cafe where she served drinks and popcorn, cleaned and managed the money. She also had two paychecks that she deposited into her own Biz Town savings account. 

My store was the Variety Store which I helped three kids run. There was a CEO, CFO and a sales manager. My group sold items to pay off their business loan. For awhile it was a little sketchy and I was concerned that the loan would not be paid on time, but they really stepped up to the plate and not only paid off the loan on time, they made a profit!

 Biz Town was such a fun thing to do and experience. Each and every child had a place. They had a job and a purpose. Like in the adult "real world" they learned about responsibility. While it was all fun and games today, it was also a small glimpse into the future for them. What an amazing adventure they will all have.

I am so glad that I have such a supportive husband and such a great baby. I am grateful that Jasmine's teacher and the people who run JA Biz Town were understanding to our situation and allowed us to all be there. If it weren't for everyone's compassion I would not have been able to do this and I would always have the guilt of not following through on something that I had told Jasmine that I would do. I have missed so many school functions over the last two school years and I am thrilled that this was not one of them!