How do other families do it?

[alrushton]

I always try to avoid taking the kids out once they are in high school but outside of those years I have taken the kids out for a week. Last year we did a cruise with the kids sail free. When you are going as a party of 5 and 3 sail free you go when they offer that. I talked to the pricipals before we went and at the middle school they excused the days we were visiting a port.

 

[merrick]

i pulled my kids out of school last year. will again this year too. we do the week before christmas so as previous poster mentioned, they are really not doing a whole lot.

 

[Kathryn777]

We try to pick a week that has an in service or something similar so they don't end up missing a whole week

 

[GillianP1301]

We always go the week leading up to Labour Day (school where we are starts the Tuesday after Labour Day), which is lower crowd time, so this hasn't been an issue for us. I don't think I would want to pull my son out of school regardless, although I may reconsider if I didn't have any other options for avoiding peak crowd times.

 

[ejdmomma]

I'm considering it for the first time for Jan 2017. I will have a freshman, 7th grader and 1st grader. And my husband is a teacher. They go back to school on a Tuesday after New Years. Hoping we will have cooler weather, lower crowds and get to see the Christmas decorations. Since my older 2 will have taken finals before break, hoping they will not miss too much with it being a new semester. Just have to get my husband on board...he gets 10 personal days and other teachers have used a block of time to go on vacation - so the precedence is set!

 

[ErinCat]

We are pulling our kids out for a week, December 13-19th. I am hoping that the week will be light on work. I plan to let the teachers know far in advance so I can plan to help them make up the work during the Holiday break.

 

[loves to dive]

My DS is no longer in school (well he is going back to college on the GI bill) but when he was our school system only allows a certain amount of days off so I couldn't pull him out. We would go in late August when it was good and hot, now we go in mid to late Sept. when it's still good and hot. I've frankly never been able to tell the differences in the crowds between, early April, Mid-May, late August, mid Sept. and late Oct. but that just might be me.

 

[ArwenMarie]

We used to pull our kids out but making up the work stresses out my oldest now so we go during the summer or on school breaks. Which stinks!

 

[Goddesstree]

We've pulled the kids out of school for many family trips, including driving across the country for a family reunion. Once they were in high school, it wasn't for Disney trips though, it was for skating competitions and dance conventions. I've taken unpaid leave for Disney trips during school (I work at school and our contract won't allow sick time to be used for anything but sickness) but now we tend to go at the end of August, when prices are low and park hours are still pretty good.

 

[sharonabe]

I was just thinking about how busy the week looks when our family is going to Disney and I was wondering, how does everyone do it? I have seen loads of families, with school age kids going the week before Thanksgiving and other weeks in Nov., early Dec. We are a homeschooling family so I try to work our vacation around other schools schedules, to hopefully go when crowds are lower. This is our first time going in Nov, we usually go in Sept. Anyway, does everyone pull their kids from school to go? Do other schools routinely give the wk before Thanksgiving off? Is it mostly visitors outside of the U.S. visiting? I'm certainly not trying to complain, I just wondered how best to schedule our vacation or if it really matters other than avoiding major holidays.

I don't know which crowd calendars you're looking at, but easywdw.com still has that week before Thanksgiving at 2s and 3s. That's about as low as you're going to get anymore. I wouldn't worry about it. The weather will be cooler than September, and that alone will make you feel like the parks are less crowded and you're not as tired because the heat and humidity won't sap your strength.

We are also homeschoolers and only do Disney at non crowded times. I would pick that week in a heart beat!

 

[Eastern]

When my kids were younger we would take them out of school for a few days. Up until about 3rd grade. After that, they didn't want to miss/make up all of the work.

 

[kkdalrymple]

We pull our kids out for a week at Disney every year. We are a family of 5 and prefer to go in the fall to get free dining.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I pulled my DS out of school when he was 8 and 9. I stopped after that. Once he hit middle school I felt that it's too much. Also my district has a tougher attendance policy than most.

Now we go right before Labor Day. Schools don't start here in NJ until after Labor Day so we get low crowds and cheaper rates.

 

[wuzzy6]

We live 2 hours away, so we either make day trips, weekend trips, or extended trips around already-scheduled days off. For example, Labor Day weekend... it's a 3-day weekend (Sat/Sun/Mon), so we are pulling kids from school early on Friday morning, and they will miss a full day on Tuesday. Both kids are honors, AP and Dual Enrollment high school students, and they've never had any trouble getting their work made up.

My daughter (15) also misses several days between January and May for all-star cheer competitions - again, good student = no problem making up the work.

 

[mrsap]

We have been pulling my daughter out of school. We go the week of and after Thanksgiving. She only has 2 1/2 days of school week one and week 2 has three half days. Not a whole lot going on. Now that she's getting in the upper grades, we're thinking next year we might make our last November trip and try a new time where she won't need to miss any school. It's going to be tough for us since DH and I have been going the same time almost every year since we got married in '04! Guess we need to start a new tradition.

 

[Eandbmom]

We go by the school calendar. My oldest is in middle school and would be horribly behind (even though she is a straight A student) if she missed a week. Plus the schools here do not allow them to miss for vacations (if they miss a week without a note, they can be held back)

 

[jeneric997]

I live in one of the biggest school districts in the nation and we have year round school for elementary and middle. Not everyone is on that schedule, but we are, so my kids have spent a lot of time at Disney! I will say that over the last 16 years I have seen Disney get more crowded at our normal break time of October and January. So much so, that going in April a week out from Easter is about as crowded.

Now we have one in HS and she gets summer off, so we had her come down on weekends with workdays so she would miss only a few classes. I always think it depends on your child and the actual workload. Last year there was little homework and our DD is really efficient, so missing a couple of days doesn't affect her.

 

[kitkat4622]

We try to pick a week that has an in service or something similar so they don't end up missing a whole week

My grandson lives with me and our first trip was Nov 2014 the week of Veteran's Day. They had no school on Veterans Day and another day was a 1/2 day "in service" day so technically he only missed 3 1/2 days. Next year we are doing April 16-24th so he won't miss any school.

 

[EvieBug]

For now, in elementary school, we pull DD. If a school policy eventually says we can't do that anymore (maybe middle school?) that will be the end of Disney world vacations for us - going at peak time CL8-10 in the summer is definitely NOT my idea of a vacation. LOL

I don't agree with schools dictating this though. Yes, I think it's not OK to pull your kid for 3 different one week trips through the school year - that would be terribly burdensome to the teachers/school, but missing 5 days for a family vacation should not be a problem provided your student/parent combo is willing to 1) make the plans in advance and thus give the teachers advance notice to prepare the work for completion ahead of time, and 2) willing to put the effort in to get the work done/be caught up in a timely way.

 

[biondagirl]

Before my daughter was in school, we'd pull our son out of school for a week. Our school district allows a week of an "educational trip". So, we'd work it around a holiday. We don't get a full week off for a fall or spring break, just a few days. It worked well. As the kids have aged, we feel their schooling would suffer missing a week. Now we go in August. It's hot. It rains. But, we love it!