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Image by Melody Ann Crespo via Creative Commons

 

Review by Megan Li, age 10

Ever thought how it would feel as a kid to sell, manage, and earn money? Well, with BizTown, you can! Yeah, I know, this sounds like one of those commercials we all know, but seriously, you can! My class in 5th grade started it on February 1st, 2018. BizTown allows kids, or anyone, to manage money and learn how to save or spend it. Our teacher gave us all a “small” booklet that read BizTown on the front. There were all kinds of things to do inside, like how to endorse checks, definitions of different words or making a fake bank account. We learned what types of checks there are and you could be arrested for writing a check that pays more money then you have in your account. That’s called a bounced check. Later on, you get assigned a job and either you're an employer or an employee. If you're the boss you can decide whether to invest, spend, or save the company’s money. You get a checkbook and can write checks or deposit money.

BizTown not only shows kids how to act responsibly with money, it also allows you to have fun with it. You can play games and buy fake stuff. For example, my class played a game where you could spend or save money and earn interest. You would answer 3 questions in a round. There were 3 rounds. If you got it right, you got 1 dollar. So if you got all of them right you would earn 3 dollars. The interest rate was 30 percent, of course fake. There was stuff you could buy from the shop, like candies, bracelets, or a watch. But you had to buy at least 3 things by the end of the game. The money you saved earned you interest and at the end we could see how much money we had.

Of course, like any session or subject, there might be quizzes. Not always but sometimes. It’s not that hard though, you just have to know the definitions of some words, like checking account or debit card, or what someone should do if they want this or that, but it’s pretty easy. All in all, I think BizTown is an awesome program.

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