Jelly Belly Factory

This summer I was able to take the kids, plus a friend's kid, to the Jelly Belly Factory for a tour.  This is always a fun day trip.  The best part is that the tour is free.  The worst part is that the kids always want to wander around the gift shop.  Allowing that is just asking for money to be wasted and a kid to get kidnapped, especially since I was the only adult going this time.  So I came up with a genius plan, if I do say so myself

First I stockpiled a bunch of different Jelly Belly products.  Those small 1 oz packages are fun because they're available in different themes all year but they cost $1.25 at the factory gift shop.  At the grocery store they're only 99 cents.  If you get them on sale, they're only 79 cents.  I was even able to get some for only 50 cents after Easter! 

The night before our field trip, I labeled all the goodies with a price.  The little 1 oz packages were"$2" while the bigger 2.8 oz bags were "$5."

Then I printed up a list of rules so the kids knew how they could earn "money" to "buy" the Jelly Bellies from me.  We went over the rules before we got in the car, they were each given a copy of the list in the car so they could read it again, then we went over it once more before we got out of the car to walk into the factory.

Do you notice the last thing on the list?  "Bonus dollar just because I love you!  You can't lose this one!"  One of the kids had been having a hard time making right choices lately so I didn't want him to get discouraged.  I wanted the focus to be on positive reinforcement.  When we were first going over the list, he had a huge smile when I read the last item.

When we were done with the tour, we found a bench outside where we could go over the rules and see how much money each of them earned.  Following each rule earned them 1 fake dollar.  Four of the kids got the full $12, while one (not the one I thought would struggle) got $11.

Finally they made their purchases from me and then gorged themselves on candy on the drive home.  It was a success and I will definitely be employing it again in the future!