Fostering Early Childhood Entrepreneurship Spirit through Market Day Activities

Abstract

Entrepreneurship education in early childhood is essential for fostering independence, creativity, and problem-solving skills from an early age. In response to this need, the Market Day program at RA Muslimat NU Al-Ummah was designed as a community service initiative to instill an entrepreneurial spirit in young learners through contextual and experiential learning. This program aimed to provide meaningful experiences that integrate learning with real-life practices involving social interaction and economic activities. The implementation adopted a qualitative participatory action approach, emphasizing collaborative involvement of teachers, parents, and children. Data were collected through observation, interviews, and documentation to capture the learning process and its outcomes. The findings indicate that the Market Day program successfully enhanced children’s independence, self-confidence, and communication skills. However, challenges were identified, particularly in children’s limited understanding of currency values and the need for more creative spatial arrangements. The program demonstrates that entrepreneurship education can be effectively integrated into early childhood learning through community-based and contextual activities. Implicitly, this initiative underscores the importance of teacher and parent collaboration in creating sustainable models of entrepreneurship education for early childhood development.