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Fairfax County students practiced the financial responsibilities of adult life during a five-day Money Camp at Oak Hill Elementary School in Herndon.
Inside a simulated town called Cent City, campers applied for jobs, managed bank accounts and launched businesses. Along the way, they encountered taxes, insurance costs and the decisions involved in turning an idea into a product that customers might buy.
“The kids get a chance to see what we do with money as grown-ups,” said Jeanette O’Malley, a sixth-grade teacher at Oak Hill who co-founded Money Camp about 15 years ago.
The classroom exercise connected several parts of personal finance rather than treating earning, spending and saving as separate topics. Students received jobs and handled money through their accounts while also learning how businesses decide what to make and how much to charge.
“They don’t realize that there’s a whole economy out there with money circulating and serving different purposes,” O’Malley said.
From an idea to the marketplace
Campers developed ideas for goods, made prototypes and researched products and prices. Their research helped them think through pricing and production before offering their goods for sale at a marketplace on the program’s final Friday.
That process gave students a practical reason to weigh costs and customer interest. A product idea was only the beginning: Campers also had to consider how it would be produced, what buyers might pay and how it would fit into their business plans.
The marketplace served as the culmination of the five-day program, bringing together the work students had done on employment, banking and business development. By preparing something to sell, campers could see how choices made earlier in the week affected their plans for the final event.
Taxes change the paycheck
The camp also introduced deductions that can make a paycheck smaller than expected. Ten-year-old camper Surya Kosaraju said one lesson was “how much taxes take out of your pay.”
His reaction captured the surprise that can come with learning the difference between earnings and take-home pay: “Shoot, I’m cooked.”
The tax exercise placed that lesson within Cent City’s broader economy. Students did not simply earn money from their assigned work; they also had to account for obligations that reduced what remained available in their bank accounts.
A daily decision about risk
Insurance added another layer of financial decision-making. Campers could purchase coverage each day to protect themselves from simulated accidents. Without it, an accident could leave a student owing a substantial amount of money.
“The kids have the option of buying insurance every day,” said Cathy Lahr, a Money Camp teacher at Oak Hill.
The exercise required students to choose between paying a predictable cost for coverage and accepting the possibility of a much larger expense. It also showed how an unexpected event could affect the money they had earned and the plans they had made.
Together, the activities in Cent City gave students repeated opportunities to make choices, observe the consequences and adjust. Jobs supplied income, taxes reduced take-home pay, bank accounts gave campers a place to manage their money, and insurance offered protection against simulated losses. Their businesses then asked them to apply research, production and pricing decisions ahead of the Friday marketplace.
By linking those responsibilities within one classroom town, Money Camp presented personal finance as a connected system—one in which earning money is only the first of many decisions.