Could your 10yo do this school assignment?

[HerRoyalNotness]

I had an email to say they were missing an assignment from Monday, so I had a look at what it was. They’d been talking about and I thought they were on top of it.

They had to plan a trip overseas for three days with a budget of $20k. The information they needed to include was:

Destination
Flight and costs
Why you chose destination
Hotel and cost
Amenities at hotel
3 days of 3 meals naming a restaurant, meal choice and cost incl drinks
3 days of 3 activities per day naming activity, cost per person and total
Total cost overall.

It’s for maths.

YABU - yes my 10yo could complete that
YANBU - no, they’d need a lot of help/guidance.

My twins are 9 and one could do it but I think the other would need support. The one who could would probably accidentally book flights

Mine could if he were provided with hard copy information for things to choose from, eg a list of destinations and flight costs, hotels with different prices at each destination etc etc. But if he had to research it then not a cat's chance in hell. I would have to hold his hand the whole way through and there would be several tantrums along the way about not understanding it and it being too hard!

When DS was 11 I made him budget out living expenses in a finance spreadsheet with proof to back it up as if he was living independantly - including:

• researching salaries for jobs he could reasonably get after leaving school
• house rent cost in the area
• car costs (lessons, license, car price, tax, insurance, mot, maintence, petrol)
• bills (water, gas, electric, tv licence, phone/internet etc...)
• food (with a weekly shopping list)
• extras (things like netflix etc...)

He loved it and found it pretty easy, I got the idea because I did the exact same thing in year 7 at school - some things like car insurance had to be estimated of current realistic amounts but he actually got really excited and want to apply for a job at asda so he could start living it now (told him he had to wait until at least 16 lol).

I cant see any reason a regular child couldn't handle this task at that age... its even a ridiculously massive budget to make it super easy for them.

Well he has submitted it. We only spent $9,500 of the budget and we included some souvenir money and transport around the city. The most expensive activity we found was a bus and boat tour at eur205pp. Thanks for the suggestions of different activities to do.

We really want to go now. Just need to find gainful employment again so we can go!

The other two choices of assignment were to make a poster or slide show of either different types of taxes and different types of payment types. I think they would have been more achievable, but I see where his heart lies.

It's a really nice, and very useful, assignment. If they don't understand "amenities" they can look it up in an online dictionary. It's probably meant to stretch them.

@mam0918

When DS was 11 I made him budget out living expenses in a finance spreadsheet with proof to back it up as if he was living independantly - including:

• researching salaries for jobs he could reasonably get after leaving school
• house rent cost in the area
• car costs (lessons, license, car price, tax, insurance, mot, maintence, petrol)
• bills (water, gas, electric, tv licence, phone/internet etc...)
• food (with a weekly shopping list)
• extras (things like netflix etc...)

He loved it and found it pretty easy, I got the idea because I did the exact same thing in year 7 at school - some things like car insurance had to be estimated of current realistic amounts but he actually got really excited and want to apply for a job at asda so he could start living it now (told him he had to wait until at least 16 lol).

I cant see any reason a regular child couldn't handle this task at that age... its even a ridiculously massive budget to make it super easy for them.

This is a great idea. I always talk to mine about bills and costs of things and they’re astounded. Doing a formal exercise on it is even better

Clearly some children can do this at 10 and some can't. But I'd say it's not a very effective maths exercise for that age group. Most of them will inevitably spend ages on the internet to do not a lot of actual maths. Maybe not bad as a social education type project- but even then not very realistic for most pupils as I bet most would have a tighter budget. Sounds to me like a teacher trying to work out how to make maths fun and missing.

I think the problem with a lot of this work is that unless you sit and do it with them and explain everything they really struggle - I’ve certainly found this with dd9. I had to do half of the work for her last week. But I’ve had enough now - there’s no way I’m spending my day doing yr4 assignments when I have other stuff to be getting on with so I’ve decided to leave her pretty much to it and what doesn’t get done isn’t done. I’ve no qualms about explaining my stance on this to the teacher if it is a problem.
They’ve been having 2 x 30 min zoom sessions (maths and English) so far with tasks to complete afterwards but from next week they’ve decided it will be a full day from 9am-3pm. I’m really not happy about her being on a laptop all day. I think it’s ridiculous.

Some kids would have no idea of what a holiday by plane, staying in a hotel etc entails. Very insensitive and lazy in my opinion.. I hate this kind of crap for kids.

@YetAnotherSpartacus

20K for THREE DAYS???

It dollars rather than sterling, but still a lot of money

I think 10 is a bit young for an assignment like that. My DH wouldn't even have a clue where to start because I'm the one who always does all the bookings. The large budget makes it easier though I guess. If you're working to a budget you have to do a lot more research to make sure you can afford it.

My eldest is only five so I won't comment on that, but I'm 35 and couldn't do that! I've never booked a holiday abroad in my life and wouldn't have a clue where to start.

@AdaColeman

Brilliant!

My 10 year old had to do a similar exercise, but instead of a $20k budget they were refugees with limited resources, trying to buy passage on ships across the Mediterranean, plan safe land routes, and buy official papers. This was as part of their topic on migration. Seemed to go ok.

DS did that in Y4 or 5. He has been constantly dudsapointed that we haven’t been to the Ritz since.

@Robbybobtail

I think the problem with a lot of this work is that unless you sit and do it with them and explain everything they really struggle - I’ve certainly found this with dd9. I had to do half of the work for her last week. But I’ve had enough now - there’s no way I’m spending my day doing yr4 assignments when I have other stuff to be getting on with so I’ve decided to leave her pretty much to it and what doesn’t get done isn’t done. I’ve no qualms about explaining my stance on this to the teacher if it is a problem. They’ve been having 2 x 30 min zoom sessions (maths and English) so far with tasks to complete afterwards but from next week they’ve decided it will be a full day from 9am-3pm. I’m really not happy about her being on a laptop all day. I think it’s ridiculous.

I actually took a module (9 weeks) off uni as I was so stressed supporting them through virtual school. I’m about to start again next week and am wondering if it’s a mistake. DH is also working away in another state now so it’s just me with the three of them. At least I don’t have a job to juggle on top of it (got laid off)

interesting one - I think mine could but she'd definitely need a fair amount of help with it. I think she'd like it, actually!

YANBU. My year 7 would have needed help with that too.

Do you think it might just be a bored and lazy teacher looking for ideas for their own holiday later this year?

Private school kids would be able to do it because of the standard of teaching and kids whose parents are actively involved in their learning
State school who knows

@TwoLeftSocksWithHoles

Do you think it might just be a bored and lazy teacher looking for ideas for their own holiday later this year?

That might be it. Plus, they wouldn't be able to ask Mumsnet, because the thread would be derailed by the 'YABU to be thinking about a holiday, haven't you heard about the global pandemic', '$20k is a ridiculous budget, many families don't have that to live on for a year, we go to France and it costs £700' and 'that's a bit of a tight budget, you won't get much for that in the school holidays' crews.

I voted YABU as mine did almost exactly that at the very beginning of year 6 - had to plan a trip to India - there was no budget but various places had to be visited etc - little tyke googled costs of a private jet...

I think that your son is VVVVU for not looking amenities up in a dictionary and you are even more U if you didn't make him.

@ButterflySmith

If it was a case of making up all the details, they could. But if they are supposed to research and include real costs, then no - they wouldn't know where to look.

This is exactly what I was going to say. My partner’s daughter is in Yr6, she could do the maths but I don’t think she’d be able to find prices of things without a lot of guidance on where to look.

It's similar to an IT assignment I gave one class. The class were childcare and hated IT.

I got them to plan a trip taking children somewhere so they had to research actives in the area suitable for small children, write a standard letter to parents with a permission slip, make allowances for allergies, plan a packed lunch or include the cost of food from the attraction.

The costing was done on a spreadsheet etc etc,

It's a good assignment (the OP one) as it can be tailored to different groups.

As the assignment is broken down he could do it but he'd have some problems/not complete it in the spirit of things.

It would not occur to him that there was costs of getting to and from an airport
He'd not know what amenities were
He'd eat the same restaurant every day for each meal to finish the assignment quickly (kfc probably)
He'd think of free things to do to get the activity bit out of the way too