Help needed for Disney World Visit Lesson Plan

[Bethy Lou]

For the rest of the school year we are doing a unit on personal finance. I decided to let my kids plan a trip to Disney World. They will get their careers, budgets and family numbers today. Then we will watch a Disney World overview dvd to give them an idea of what they have to look forward to. I will then have them work on their budgets for what hotels they can afford, how many days they can stay, what parks they want to visit and what restaurants they want. I will talk to them about spending money also. I am not going to get into the ticket prices dropping the longer you are there, or the prices of the hotels changing depending on the time of year since they are middle schoolers. Can you tell I am a little excited about our next trip to Disney World? Ha! Ha! Has anyone else ever done anything like this? I would love some extra ideas to do with them!

 

[golfgal]

DS15 had to plan a trip in middle school, not specifically to Disney. They got a budget and figured out where and how they wanted to go. He drove all over the Eastern seaboard for his trip. It was a joint math/Social Studies project so they had to map out their trip as well. They had to figure out the mileage, how much gas they would have to purchase for the trip, etc. This was before the big gas prices so it wasn't so bad .

 

[Bethy Lou]

That is really awesome! I am working with the language arts teacher because they have to write up a trip report and a how to guide. Math would be really awesome!

 

[Corryn]

Sounds great - keep us aprised!

 

[ilisao]

DS15 had to plan a trip in middle school, not specifically to Disney. They got a budget and figured out where and how they wanted to go. He drove all over the Eastern seaboard for his trip. It was a joint math/Social Studies project so they had to map out their trip as well. They had to figure out the mileage, how much gas they would have to purchase for the trip, etc. This was before the big gas prices so it wasn't so bad .

I had to do that for Social Studies in middle school, but we had to plan a trip to a foreign country. I remembered at the time I planned the trip to Peru/Easter Island for under $6,000.

That one assignment is what is responsible for my love of travel.

 

[Bethy Lou]

My kids have responded really favorably so far. I apologize that I am adding to the future crowdedness of the park because they are really excited about "going" to WDW! I have shown them the dvd first so they can see everything before they get scared with how much money they have. Then when they find out their jobs and budget some of them get really into it. I have had kids rolling in their desks laughing over some of their jobs, and some kids glowing with pride when their high budget makes them the envy of others. I was jealous of this project because it will be fun for them, but then I realized we do this for real every year!

 

[golfgal]

So what are the funny jobs??

 

[Bethy Lou]

One of them was a children's party clown and the guy that picked it is a big class clown in the class so they thought that was appropriate. One of my good old country boys with a buzz cut got a hair stylist and he started grinning when his friends teased him and said that he had no problem with it because he would meet a lot of pretty ladies that way!

 

[Keggy]

What a great idea!!! Can I go back to school for this assignment!

Let us know how it goes!

 

[CathrynRose]

For the rest of the school year we are doing a unit on personal finance. I decided to let my kids plan a trip to Disney World. They will get their careers, budgets and family numbers today. Then we will watch a Disney World overview dvd to give them an idea of what they have to look forward to. I will then have them work on their budgets for what hotels they can afford, how many days they can stay, what parks they want to visit and what restaurants they want. I will talk to them about spending money also. I am not going to get into the ticket prices dropping the longer you are there, or the prices of the hotels changing depending on the time of year since they are middle schoolers. Can you tell I am a little excited about our next trip to Disney World? Ha! Ha! Has anyone else ever done anything like this? I would love some extra ideas to do with them!

Thats a super cool idea. My son would love to be in your class.

Let us know how that turns out. Really fun!!!!