Thursday, 23 February 2012

Maths for every day life

Producing a budget is a maths activity that I have used twice now-once for Middle Son and today for a group.

The scenario involved a fictional but realistic scenario with an 18 year old working 35 hours a week at minimum wage (£4.98/hour at 18). The children were given titles for expenditure and then asked to produce a budget which balanced.

When I set this for Middle Son, he had to do the research around cost of accommodation, food etc but I provided some of this information for the group as time was more limited.

The objectives are to

  • produce a balanced budget
  • think about ways of increasing income e.g. second job, training to get a better job and hopefully, inspire the children to acquire skills before they need a job
  • talk about the importance of giving
  • talk about the importance of saving
  • think about which expenditures are necessary and where and how economies can be made
This isn't an easy task but on both occasions I was amazed at the ingenuity shown. 
Some children wanted to cut the food budget perhaps by cooking from scratch
Some wanted to cut money on clothes-perhaps this man can help
The entrepreneurial ideas were fantastic and many were realistic options for an 18 year old with some spare evenings. 

A fun activity for inspiring thought around a serious topic.

This is linked to the Hip Homeschool Hop.

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