Children Programmes:
Budgeting my holiday ™
Budgeting my holiday™ is a 10 hour second level course on money matters for 9 to 11 year old children, focusing on budgeting and planning. Prerequisite: A Trip to the Money Moon™.
Session 1: Getting organised? Our mission is to discover a country and write a page of a travel guide. A holiday is a big project so we see how to get organised and why it is important to plan ahead. We get toy money and a credit card and find out where we would like to go.
Session 2: Writing our budget: we list up our expenses and identify how we can plan them and how much money we need for our holiday. We decide between different options. We also learn that all expenses are not the same. We calculate a cash flow to assess how much we have to pay and when.
Session 3: Getting money: we need to find financing for our expedition! We explore the various options and their consequences, learn about compound interest and finalise our budget.
Session 4: How much is that in dollars? The travel agent gives us our plane ticket. We’re arriving at the airport! But prices are not in dollars! And how much cash should we change? How can I change dollars? And how much do banks charge for changing money?
Session 5: Tracking our expenses: we are enjoying our holiday, especially shopping and the hotel facilities; how can we track our expenses? What is the VAT about? How can we check if deals are fair?
Session 6: To buy or not to buy? Visits and expenses are adding up: how can we keep to our budget? How can we use our budget to choose between various alternatives?
Session 7: Risky holiday: life is not always as planned. Risks are at the corner… of the holiday. How can we minimize them? What financial consequences do risks have and how can we cover this potential cost?
Session 8: Home sweet home: holidays are always too short! It is time to write our report for the holiday guide and present it to our group. Will the travel guide pay us for our work?
Session 9: Where are we on the budget map? We do our accounts: we count how much we have spent and pay for the remaining bills. We compare our actual earning and spending to our budget and we review the benefits of using a budget.
Session 10: Planning our future projects: holidays were fun and we review our snapshots. How can we apply what we have learned to other projects? We explore ways to use a budget in other real life examples and how it can help us save for specific goals and spend more wisely.