Kids now in school - need advice on summer visits

[meejay]

My son starts Kindergarten this fall, and we are doing one last fall trip to the world this September. He will miss 6 days this fall but after this year we would rather not take him out of school for trips. We have a younger child, our daughter who just turned two.

That being said, we are now looking at traveling over the summer starting in 2016. I know it's not the preferred time but it can't be that terrible can it? I'd love to hear how those of you that travel in June or July prefer to tour, and why it's your preferred time of the year. We are considering either the first of June or the end of July.

TIA!

 

[Mousemommy1]

Price wise, if you are staying on site, resort prices go down after mid-July'ish, so that makes it more appealing than June. That being said, we have gone in July and encountered the large tour groups that visit the park during those months. It was enough to make us not want to visit in July again.

We went at the end of August last year and the crowds were low, and the resort prices near their

 

[mjkacmom]

I have kids in elementary, middle, high school, and college. My biggest regret is not taking them out more when my oldest was in elementary. Once they get older, you really can't take them out, plus if they do high school sports, you are really limited. The few times I did take them out in elementary school, it was not an issue. Now our family vacation dates are only a couple of weeks out of the year.

 

[joannamet]

I'm a former elementary school teacher and I take my own 4th grader out of school occasionally for family trips. I try to schedule around school breaks so she misses as few days as possible. If she has 2 days off for fall break I'll take 2 more days before our after. I do think a whole week is too much time off.

However, we were at Disney last summer and had a great trip. I would definately go again in June or July.

 

[ChasingLeslie]

I've only ever known WDW in the summer. It's crowded and hot, but that's to be expected. I'd recommend getting started early in the morning and planning breaks in the afternoon to beat the heat (ie: lunch ADRs, shows with seating in the shade/AC, or resort/pool time).

Some of the tour groups can be annoying, but they tend to follow a path and hit all the rides in the area (not zigzag around the park). So if you skip a ride and get "ahead" of them, it's not so bad.

 

[luvmy2babies]

I have a 12 year-old daughter finishing 6th grade and a 5 year-old son starting Kindergarten this fall. We have done 3 summer trips (ages 9 and 2, 10 and 3, 11 and 4) and they have all been in June, one at the end of June and 2 in early June shortly after my daughter’s school year ended.

Our days generally start early and end early unless we want to see the night time stuff at MK, then we start later on that day and sleep in a little the next day. The next day is usually an Epcot day because since we don’t do Soarin or Test Track (under the height requirement until this year), we don’t have a need to be at that park at opening.

At MK, we get there at opening and tour at a very leisurely pace, taking frequent breaks to hydrate and cool down and if needed reapply sunscreen. Getting up early also helps avoid the crowds some. Generally we have multiple days at MK (first park, last park, one in between) and hit Fantasy Land along with one other area each visit. If we go early we stay until about 1 or 2 or until after the afternoon parade, then head back to the resort and have pool time prior to dinner at the food court. Our tradition has been to have breakfast at Crystal Palace each trip.

For Epcot we tour there from around 9:30 or 10:30. We hit the Seas Pavilion and Character Spot then WS until my daughter lets me know she’s done, which in the past has been around 4 or 5. Then we hit the Land Pavilion on the way out. Last time she was kicking herself when she realized she only had 3 countries left in World Showcase when she declared she was done. Around that time we head back to the resort for dinner; but sometimes we have an ADR somewhere either in the park or at a monorail resort.

For DHS, we go at opening and are generally done around 2 although once we stayed a lot longer. We sometimes visit that park twice. We usually visit AK twice (one day doing Africa, the other Asia), touring from opening until around 2 and then heading in for pool time. The one trip where we did things differently was our 2012 trip. We had a tropical storm and it wasn’t nearly as hot; so we toured a lot longer and were in the pool maybe twice that trip once the storm passed included about 3 hours one evening before we left to come home.

Some people said they found my 2013 TR helpful. It is linked in my signature.

 

[meejay]

Thanks everyone for the advice! Love reading the TRs too. I'm still undecided...maybe I need to see how the first time taking him out works and then decide.

 

[DaniMoon]

When does your school year start? Right now my kids are in elementary school and I will continue to take them out for extended trips (they miss about 8 days a trip/every other year), but once my daughter starts middle school, I think we will do summer trips. Our school year does not start til after Labor Day, so I'm thinking when those trips roll around we will do late August/Early Sept to take advantage of lower crowds. I always thought I'd be miserable in the heat, but our trip Oct 2013, it was in the 90s and humid and it wasn't nearly as awful as I had thought it would be in my head. So it's helped me realize that Disney will still be possible when they get older!

 

[meejay]

School starts the first week of August - it's nuts. The breaks are out for us because one is the weekend of Easter, and the other is Columbus Day. That leaves about a seven week window in June and July. The more I talk about it, I'm thinking we may just keep pulling him out until he gets older or if we see him starting to get upset about missing school. Ugh. Why does it have to be so hard. I wish schools would give a pot of excused absences for stuff like this. In our state attendance is so closely tied to funding it's ridiculous.

At Kindergarten round up last week I let them know we would be out of town and he would miss six days. They informed me that if he misses 2 additional days, for a total of 8 that a truancy officer will have to make a home visit. FOR A KINDERGARTNER. In a state where Kindergarten isn't even mandatory. I think I've reached the anger stage of the grief process over losing my fall vacations.

 

[theyoungs07]

School starts the first week of August - it's nuts. The breaks are out for us because one is the weekend of Easter, and the other is Columbus Day. That leaves about a seven week window in June and July. The more I talk about it, I'm thinking we may just keep pulling him out until he gets older or if we see him starting to get upset about missing school. Ugh. Why does it have to be so hard. I wish schools would give a pot of excused absences for stuff like this. In our state attendance is so closely tied to funding it's ridiculous.

At Kindergarten round up last week I let them know we would be out of town and he would miss six days. They informed me that if he misses 2 additional days, for a total of 8 that a truancy officer will have to make a home visit. FOR A KINDERGARTNER. In a state where Kindergarten isn't even mandatory. I think I've reached the anger stage of the grief process over losing my fall vacations.

It's nice to know that state school administrators will tell you how to parent. I can understand this type of action if it's coupled with a kid who is struggling. I bet a kid who misses two weeks for vacation but has involved parents will do much better than the kid who is there every day but whose parents don't take an active role in their education. If a kid is struggling and needs the teacher time...then by all means they should intervene.

This just goes to show that they are not considering what is best for the child, but instead what is best for the school district and $$.

Sorry for the rant, things like this give me more reasons to be happy that we home school.

 

[buzznina]

We took our oldest DD out for trips and decided after a trip when she was in 3rd grade that we would not do it for a whole week again. She had a hard time getting caught up, because in just that week they cover so much and she has tests every week as well. So to make up the test you have to do it during class, so now she missed that days work We even had her do school work during the trip, but it was not enough. Thanks to Florida's state curriculum requirements and the stupid CCC (common core crap), it just seems they are trying to get as much in as possible.

 

[mom2grace]

My son starts Kindergarten this fall, and we are doing one last fall trip to the world this September. He will miss 6 days this fall but after this year we would rather not take him out of school for trips. We have a younger child, our daughter who just turned two.

That being said, we are now looking at traveling over the summer starting in 2016. I know it's not the preferred time but it can't be that terrible can it? I'd love to hear how those of you that travel in June or July prefer to tour, and why it's your preferred time of the year. We are considering either the first of June or the end of July.

TIA!

Are you in Indiana? (with the non mandatory K!) We go during fall break. We used to pull our kids when we only had 2 days off, now we get a whole week. I've never been in the summer or over a major holiday. I think it's fine to pull them from school until 6th or 9th, depending on what type of student they are. And I'm the daughter of a teacher & we never missed school for vacation! If you are in IN, I wouldn't worry about the truant officer. You are not the parent they are concerned about.

 

[ilovebassets]

We get calls from child protective services in my district once 5 unexcused absences are reached (or so I've heard from multiple parents I work with with kids in our school district). Makes pulling them out of school almost impossible.

 

[DisneyFirstTimer10]

I have a son in 3rd and daughter in K- and we are pulling them for a week- and have several times in the past. Luckily the school doesnt mind, and gives a small packet of work to do so they aren't behind when returning.

 

[joannamet]

Poor attendance is a barrier to school success and attendance policies are there for a reason. Unfortunately, schools don't distinguish between loving, responsible parents who will make sure their kids catch up on missed learning and dead-beats who are too lazy to get out of bed in the morning and get their kids to school. Schools should focus on families that have chronic attendance issues, not those of us who miss a few days for a family vacation.

 

[meejay]

Are you in Indiana? (with the non mandatory K!) We go during fall break. We used to pull our kids when we only had 2 days off, now we get a whole week. I've never been in the summer or over a major holiday. I think it's fine to pull them from school until 6th or 9th, depending on what type of student they are. And I'm the daughter of a teacher & we never missed school for vacation! If you are in IN, I wouldn't worry about the truant officer. You are not the parent they are concerned about.

Yep - Indiana! Our district only has one week at fall break, where all the others around us has two. I wish we had two weeks, and we would surely go in the fall since we could make sure DH wouldn't have to work one of those weeks. Thanks for the info on the officer!

 

[mom2grace]

Yep - Indiana! Our district only has one week at fall break, where all the others around us has two. I wish we had two weeks, and we would surely go in the fall since we could make sure DH wouldn't have to work one of those weeks. Thanks for the info on the officer!

We are in the same schedule! Assuming we are in the same district, I wouldn't worry about a few days. We will go during the 1 week in October. We also get all of Thanksgiving week but I would be hesitant to go over a holiday. We only go every 2-3 years. I only wish we had 2 weeks an overseas vacation! I love that we only have 1 week, 2 weeks would be a logistical nightmare.

 

[Jaime4004]

We get calls from child protective services in my district once 5 unexcused absences are reached (or so I've heard from multiple parents I work with with kids in our school district). Makes pulling them out of school almost impossible.

That is really sad... CPS has far more serious issues to deal with than loving parents taking their children on vacation!

 

[msmama]

My son is in first grade this year and I've taken him out for a week both last year and again this year (next week).

My feeling is that the day the school tries to tell me what I can and cannot do with my own child is the day I start homeschooling.

MANY people in my district take their kids out. Frankly, it's generally too expensive to go somewhere during our breaks (flights can be as much as 3x's more during break weeks). No one has ever been questioned about it to my knowledge.

Good luck with whatever you decide!!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

We're fond of June & the weather "can" be quite nice. Mid-June trip in 2012 over 7 days it only hit 90 once, and was low 80's most other days.

Plenty warm for water parks & longer hours made for a nice trip