How do other families do it?

[J.C.&ALI'SMOM]

Also consider that not everyone stays a whole week. Many trips are long weekends. There is a reason that the resort rates are higher on the weekends. The crowd levels are also higher on the weekends.

 

[tlmadden73]

My child is not near school age .. (and because of that we are able to take trips (early last October and later this August)) .. but honestly I would easily consider pulling my children out of school for a family vacation. I value quality family time over missing a few days of school. You can always learn those things that were missed later. You can't easily replace quality family time.

Besides, enough districts have enough holidays and teacher inservice days that you could probably plan it around those days off anyway.

 

[FindMeAFishingSpot]

Pulling DS out for a week on December this year, but he's only in 1st grade. We're taking my niece on a cruise in February and I moved that to February school vacation because I didn't want to take her our for a week in her junior year of high school. Sooooo....I'm sure there will be a point in the middle where I won't be comfortable taking DS out, but I'm not sure where that line will be yet.

 

[100acreHiker]

We take the kids (6 & 10) out for 4 days to go to WDW. For health reasons, I cannot go any other time than fall or winter, and because they're good students and in elementary school, I think it's ok for now. I do worry about attendance, in general, as my kids had a rough year last year health-wise, with strep and the flu, etc. , and wound up missing more school days than they usually do. This will be the last year I can take my kids out of school for fun reasons, as DS will be starting middle school in a year. We bring school work with us and they cram it in on the plane, and our little one usually draws pictures and writes a report on something interesting he saw or learned while traveling. I wouldn't think twice about pulling my kids out for a trip to Europe, but I do feel a bit naughty and embarrassed for doing so for a trip to WDW. Motherly guilt!

 

[Gr8t Fan]

We've pulled our kids from school several times for a week up until the time our oldest was in 9th grade. Now we pull them out Thanksgiving week as they only have 2 days of classes that week.

 

[momof2n2]

Heh - I'm in another boat.... we do homeschool, but my oldest is now in 10th grade and taking classes at the community college. I'm now locked into someone else's schedule!!!! It's killing me.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

The school district I live in has very strict attendance rules and vacations are not excused. Plus the teachers are not allowed to give makeup work for vacations. We only have one day off here and there with the exception of Thanksgiving week, Christmas gets 2 1/2 weeks and Easter gets a full week so there is no fall break.

Yet - one time I did pull my kids out of school for 3 days so they could experience Disney in a less crowded time and experience MNSSHP. My youngest was in elementary school and my oldest was in middle school at the time. My youngest was completely stressed the whole time worried about her grades. My oldest could care less.

When we returned I lied (yup I was THAT parent) and said they were sick so they were given make up work - my youngest did hers all in one night even though she had 3 to do it because she was worried about it.
My oldest said he did his. But when the grades at the end of the quarter came back he had dropped a whole grade point in several of his classes because he actually didn't make up the work.

So we never took them out during school again.

 

[robinb]

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.

We don't. We have to wait for school breaks to go on vacation. My DD has never been the type of student who can miss any time at school.

 

[Ava]

Our schools (NYC) are closed for 1-2 days each for 2 Jewish & now 1 Muslim holiday in Sept/Oct (the exact dates vary year to year but they're always in these months). So last year we were able to go for a week at the end of Sept and DD only missed 3 days of school. This year we're going the last week of August, since she doesn't go back to school until after Labor Day. She's only going into 1st grade, but I still don't want her to miss too much school.

I'd love to do MVMCP some time but do not want to go at Thanksgiving/Christmas, so we'll most likely do it as a long weekend and just have them miss a few days of school.

 

[FargoBear]

We're pulling our soon-to-be kindergartener out for seven days in November. I spoke with our elementary school principal who said that while the school doesn't formally endorse absences like that, he argued traveling and experiencing new things could be just as beneficial as sitting and learning in a classroom, if not moreso. Doesn't hurt our son got the highest score in his class on a kindergarten readiness exam in May and he's already reading.

 

[Masonmj84]

We don't go to WDW during the summer. Florida is just too hot and humid and, at that time of year, there are just too many better places to go from a weather perspective that also tend to be less expensive (we just finished a terrific vacation in beautiful British Columbia).

For us, WDW is a mid-October to mid-May place. This limits us to the school year.

The problem with school break periods is that we're pretty much limited to the week between Christmas and New Year (no way!) and typically either the week before or after Easter (almost as bad as Christmas). So it essentially forces us to pull our kids from school. I don't have a problem doing this when kids are in grade school but it gets more problematic for me when they reach middle school or high school.

In a few years, our oldest will be in middle school and I'm debating about going over spring break. We're OCD planner, rope drop-to-noon, then go back-to-the-resort-to-swim people so hopefully we'll be able to manage the crowds.

The thing that's going to kill me is the cost. We like doing split stays at deluxe resorts (so as to always be close to whatever park we're visiting) with lots of table service dining. Previously, we've always gone during less popular times, where we've used discounts on top of relatively lower rack rates. As much as I love Disney, paying rack rate at a peak season with minimal discounts defies economic common sense.

 

[loves to dive]

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.

I agree with you. Back in the dark ages when I was in school there was no attendance policy, if you were out and made up your work it was fine. My parents were real proponents of going places and seeing things was just as important as school, like when we lived in NM going to visit the reservations. I can't even count how many times my mom would show up at school and say we are going x for a long weekend, we've already packed, let's go. There are 6 kids in my family, 5 boys and sometimes the boys wouldn't want to miss sports so they would stay at home. Not me, no siree, road trip I'm there. By the way I was a straight A student and graduated top 10 so it must not have hurt.

 

[sharona]

We pull our kids out of school for a week at Disney. We may have to stop doing that once DS9 is in middle school, but for now I feel OK about doing that so we can vacation at our ideal time (early Feb.)

We had to shorten our fall trips into long weekends, rather than week long excursions, now that our kiddo is in middle school. I'm ok with my 7th grader missing 2 or 3 days of school, a whole week is a bit much now. After going over fall break last year, and dealing with that awful crowd, we're eating 3 days of perfect attendance and going the first weekend in October rather than the second. Its worth it, crowd level and sanity wise.

I'm in this camp. We don't go to WDW every year but we do travel quite a bit. When DD was in elementary school I would pull her for a full week but once she hit middle school, I switched to either going away during school vacation week (we did this last April) or travelling using long weekends and a few days of missed school (we did this in November around Veteran's Day weekend). This coming year we have 2 trips planned - the first is to Universal over Labor Day weekend (DD has Friday and Monday off from school) and then a trip to WDW in December with her taking 3 days off from school (Friday, Monday, Tuesday) giving us 5 days at Disney.

I think it really depends on your child and your school policy. My DD is a mostly A student with a very occasional B. She is good about getting her assignments done and not falling behind if she is allowed to miss school for a trip. I just check the school calendar before booking to make sure she won't miss any of the standardized testing or major school events. When the trip is getting close, I have DD inform her teachers that she will be out due to a family trip and ask for her assignments for those dates. Some of the teachers are ok with it but sometimes one will say she can't make up the work. We're ok with that and it hasn't really impacted her grades. I do think anything more than 3 days is a lot to miss from middle school and can be difficult for them to catch back up.

 

[Micca]

Our DDs are adults now, but when they were kids we routinely pulled them out of school for a week for WDW. We never had a problem with the schools. Their teachers seemed to always be excited for them to have the opportunity to travel and enjoy WDW. We usually got comments from them like "Take me with you!"
Might not be ideal for everyone, but it did not create a problem for us.

November is a great time to go as long as you aren't there around Thanksgiving. Manageable crowds and wonderful weather.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

The only time we've gone during the school year has been when we went with the high school band and chorus. *shrug*

This isn't a "we're better parents" thing ... my wife is a teacher and can't the time off, either.

 

[EvieBug]

I agree with you. Back in the dark ages when I was in school there was no attendance policy, if you were out and made up your work it was fine. My parents were real proponents of going places and seeing things was just as important as school, like when we lived in NM going to visit the reservations. I can't even count how many times my mom would show up at school and say we are going x for a long weekend, we've already packed, let's go. There are 6 kids in my family, 5 boys and sometimes the boys wouldn't want to miss sports so they would stay at home. Not me, no siree, road trip I'm there. By the way I was a straight A student and graduated top 10 so it must not have hurt.

YES. I remember missing probably a week just for chicken pox - maybe it was more, I can't remember it was so long ago. If there was any sort of attendance policy I doubt we knew about it, because we definitely got pulled here and there for vacations through the years.

 

[anneboleyn]

I pull my daughter out of school to go down to Disney World. I refuse to go during the summer. Her school never seems to mind. She goes to a Catholic elementary school in Pennsylvania, though. I think as long as I keep paying the tuition, they won't care if I take her out for a week in the fall haha. I actually work at a high school (office staff), and they get a little testy if I take off during a busy time, but as long as I schedule around the end of the marking periods, they don't care.

However, my niece attends elementary school in Annapolis, and I have never heard of a school being so strict about attendance! They actually take parents to court if a kid misses so many days. And the amount of days that they consider worthy of taking parents to court over is so small! So my brother has a harder time taking her to Disney World during the school year.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Attendance policies exist because schools get state and federal funding based on average daily attendance (ADA). It's not like they hate family vacations.

 

[3Gsandme]

We do pull our kids out for vacation and not just to go to Disneyworld. I think there is great benefit and education in travel. We're proactive. We let the teachers know as soon as we have dates for our trips so things aren't sprung on them. On years when we pull the kids for vacation, I'm less generous with mental health days or staying home because of the sniffles or some other minor malady, so I think it probably balances out. The kids will be missing three days of school in March/April 2016 and four days November 2016.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Heh - I'm in another boat.... we do homeschool, but my oldest is now in 10th grade and taking classes at the community college. I'm now locked into someone else's schedule!!!! It's killing me.

Heh heh...Now you're like the rest of us