Official January 2016!!!

[marinejjh]

Is anyone else taking there kids out of school for there January trip?

 

[ariane37]

Happy to be joining you all in January! Just DH and I sneaking one more trip in w/o the kids before our AP's expire January 15-19, 3 nights at AKL and 2 nights at the Poly, both new resorts for us which I'm so very excited about! Only thing is I'm afraid I'm going to love the Poly so much that I won't want to stay anywhere else anymore........

 

[alipink3]

Joining also!!! Staying off site at my parents Timeshare. This will be a Girls trip! 2 Mommas, 2, 5 yr old DDs, & 2, 3 yr old DDs. It's going to be a short trp 15th-20th but 2 of those days are driving days!!!

 

[alipink3]

Is anyone else taking there kids out of school for there January trip?

We are!!!

 

[marinejjh]

We are!!!

Good to hear that we aren't the only ones. I can't get vacation when the kids are out of school so we decided on January.

 

[alipink3]

I took my kids out this past March to go also. Plus I'm taking them out Oct 2016 to go. Our principal is very laid back with absences if you let them know and make arrangements for homework to be completed before they get back.

 

[ABCastillo]

Joining in! We will be at WDW near the end of the month.

 

[AngieInOH]

Is anyone else taking there kids out of school for there January trip?

Yes taking them out 3 days and get to stay 8 nights! Well worth it!

 

[alipink3]

We truly lucked out when we went last March. I pulled them out of scool for the full 5 days but they only missed 2 due to getting 10 inches of snow. We were so happy to be at Disney with weather in the 80's vs the cold snow!!!

 

[marinejjh]

We truly lucked out when we went last March. I pulled them out of scool for the full 5 days but they only missed 2 due to getting 10 inches of snow. We were so happy to be at Disney with weather in the 80's vs the cold snow!!!

How did you go about telling the school, did you just make arrangements with the teacher or principal? I am a firefighter with very little senority and can only get vacation when the kids are in school.

 

[alipink3]

How did you go about telling the school, did you just make arrangements with the teacher or principal? I am a firefighter with very little senority and can only get vacation when the kids are in school.

I contacted the principal as soon as I new the dates we were going. About a month before the trip I wrote a note to the school office and I also spoke with the teachers so that they could have their assignments ready for us to complete before they returned.

 

[rainboots]

The first time I went, I had a 1st grader out for 5 days. I told the teacher, she said it was fine. I asked for homework, but DD is ahead of most of the class in the stuff they were working on, so she said she didn't have to do any - just write about her trip. I laughed and said DD could use math practice, so she gave me a small stack of worksheets, too.
This trip DD1 will be 3rd grade & DD2 will be kdg. I imagine 3rdgrader will have a pile of homework. DD2 I doubt she will have much.

 

[marinejjh]

Mine will be in 4th and 1st, I would think the 4th grader will have some work but the 1st grader will be easy.

 

[mom2cgj]

Is anyone else taking there kids out of school for there January trip?

We are! I will have a 1st, 3rd, and 5th grader - all at the same elementary school. They will miss 6 days total.

How did you go about telling the school, did you just make arrangements with the teacher or principal? I am a firefighter with very little senority and can only get vacation when the kids are in school.

I usually send an email to the principal at the beginning of the school year just to make him aware. Then I let the teacher know at our first parent-teacher conference in October. Then the week before we go, I send the teachers a reminder note and ask for any homework/assignments they want done (last time they just asked that my son take pictures of his Flat Stanley at WDW, and my daughter was supposed to keep a journal which we were doing anyway). Then the last day they are there before we leave I send a note to the main office to make sure they are accounted for for attendance and we aren't getting phone calls while we are on vacation.

I do know we will get "The Letter" from the school district warning us that our children are missing more school than they consider good for them. We got it this year, too, even though we didn't travel - my youngest had a bad case of the flu in November and again in January and missed 10 days. Not a big deal to us.

 

[marinejjh]

We are! I will have a 1st, 3rd, and 5th grader - all at the same elementary school. They will miss 6 days total.



I usually send an email to the principal at the beginning of the school year just to make him aware. Then I let the teacher know at our first parent-teacher conference in October. Then the week before we go, I send the teachers a reminder note and ask for any homework/assignments they want done (last time they just asked that my son take pictures of his Flat Stanley at WDW, and my daughter was supposed to keep a journal which we were doing anyway). Then the last day they are there before we leave I send a note to the main office to make sure they are accounted for for attendance and we aren't getting phone calls while we are on vacation.

I do know we will get "The Letter" from the school district warning us that our children are missing more school than they consider good for them. We got it this year, too, even though we didn't travel - my youngest had a bad case of the flu in November and again in January and missed 10 days. Not a big deal to us.

Thanks, they are both good students. It's not like I am asking the schools permission to go, it is the only time we can go. The teachers we have this year are young so we will work with them. It's hard to get a feel for the principal because it is his first year, but I like the email idea to him when school starts.

 

[BeachLover1972]

Is anyone else taking there kids out of school for there January trip?

We always have though our last three family trips have been in October. Our kids don't miss a lot of school so that might help. First time we took them to WDW one of their teachers was a DVC member and told our son to just have fun and don't worry about homework

I talk with the school counselors at the beginning of the year as a heads up. Send a reminder email to all the teachers and the counselor about a month out, then another asking for homework ahead of time two weeks from our travel date. It's always been fine but our elementary and jr high school principals have all been really nice and very supportive of family-time so I know we've been lucky.

 

[marinejjh]

Most are ok with it. We will take them either way. The letter from the district if we get one doesn't mean anything. I think the kids have to miss like 20 days for the school to really do anything. I figure if you are polite about it most will work with and if not I realize at this point in my life your not gonna please everyone.

 

[amandaleigh2]

We have a 1st grader we'll be taking out for 5 days at the end of January. He missed a week in kindergarten for a Disney trip and the school was great about it. I just called and left a message for the office on the "sick" line and told the teacher ahead of time so she had a small book of assignments ready for him. Other than Disney he only missed 1 day of school last year due to being sick, so we were pretty lucky in that regard.

 

[AngieInOH]

Booked ADRs yesterday and had absolutely no trouble getting everything I wanted. Well except for a Fatasmic Mama Melrose package, but those aren't out yet.

Did have problems with the online system. It wouldn't give me my 180 plus 10 days. So had to end up calling at 7:00.

 

[HumblePie]

Booked ADRs yesterday and had absolutely no trouble getting everything I wanted. Well except for a Fatasmic Mama Melrose package, but those aren't out yet.

Glad you got everything you wanted. When do the Fantasmic packages come out? My 180 day mark is fast approaching and I was hoping to book H&V Fantasmic Package...