Vacation Planning Project

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Last year our family took a vacation to Yellowstone. Toward the end of our school year (about this time, actually), I assigned my kids to plan out an itinerary for the vacation. I’d rented a house for a certain number of nights, so that was a given. Aside from that they were given a budget as well as the number of days we could allow for the trip. They had to determine:

  • Mileage - how far would we travel each day?
  • Transportation costs - how much would we spend on gas?
  • Accomodations - where would we spend the night on the way there, or would we drive straight through? They researched different options like hotels vs. cabins vs. staying with their older brother. When looking at hotels we learned that we would most often need to reserve a suite or two rooms.
  • Meals - where and when would we eat? Would we grab groceries from the store for a roadside sandwich, stop at a fast food place, or have a nice meal?
  • Entertainment - what would we be doing? Several days would be spent traveling the park (be sure to include entrance fees). What part of the park did they want to see each day? Which items did they consider “must-sees” in each section? Did they want to do anything else (rafting, museums, etc)? If so, on what day and how much would it cost?

This was a big undertaking and my kids learned a lot about planning and budgeting. In fact, I had my daughter create a form for their daily plans. (You can download and customize for your own trip if you desire.)

I also came across this excellent project from ABC Teach and posted it on Facebook (join us!).

Planning a vacation is an excellent hands-on, real life learning experience to take advantage of with your kids. Enjoy!

Linking to this week’s Carnival of Homeschooling. There are some really wonderful posts to check out!

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May 20, 2011 | Filed Under Homeschooling 

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Comments

One Response to “Vacation Planning Project”

  1. Annie Kate on May 31st, 2011 10:46 am

    Good point! I had not thought that far in my vacation plans, but that will get everyone involved, teach quite a few helpful skills, make the holiday more fun, and take a load of stress and work off my shoulders.

    Thanks for the great post.

    Annie Kate

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