How do other families do it?

[SnipsNSnails]

We do pull them out of school but try to miss as little as possible. Ours attend a private school so there is no problem with pulling them out. This year we are going in late Feb/March because they have Feb 26 & 29 off so we can go for 9 days and they will only miss 4 days of school. They are both in elementary still and don't struggle at all. I don't know how we will feel once my oldest hits middle school in 2 years. They do get several long weekend though. They have 1.5 days off one weekend in Oct. and 2 another so those were the other dates we were looking at.

 

[kiramay]

We have pulled them so far, and I'm sure this is the last time I'll be able to do it. First trip they missed a few days of 2nd grade. Then they missed a week of 4th grade and preschool. The 4th grade teachers were not happy it or accommodating. New school now. We Will miss 4 days of 5th grade/kindergarten right before break.
Next year's trip break is early so they'll miss no time

 

[AP1209]

We are taking my DD out of school (5th grade) this year during the last week of school before christmas break. We are checking her out on Tuesday December 15 at 11am (so she will get credit for that day) and heading straight to the airport. She will only miss 3 days and they typically wont be doing too much those last couple of days. We want to get their before christmas crowds get too bad. Not sure how we will handle it once she gets to middle school though.

 

[ilovedisneymm]

We have three kids...18,6,5.
Our oldest went through the public school system and in college now. I remember when she was in second grade and we decided to take her out of school for a week for a surprise trip. She didn't know until that morning when she woke. Oh it was a grand day I had already spoken with her teacher the week before and she told me not to worry about the homework as I had planned to gather it and let her work on it here and there while gone. I called the school on the Friday before we left and informed the secretary. She told me that I woukd need to speak to the principal and ask for permission. I quickly corrected her that my phone call was to inform the school and not to ask for permission. I have to laugh at that now!

Fast forward a few years and a couple more kids (homeschool kids). We take off six weeks over Christmas break and spend most of January at Disney. We also will be taking off a week at Thanksgiving and 1/2 days durning harvest so that the kids can spend as much time on the farm as possible. I take in consideration our work load for the year, do the math and set our "school start date". We actually started "back to school" the first week in July. School by morning/pool by afternoon.

We like to vacation in the off season and enjoy the low crowd times!!!

 

[alrushton]

I called the school on the Friday before we left and informed the secretary. She told me that I woukd need to speak to the principal and ask for permission. I quickly informed her that my phone call was to inform the school and not to ask for

That happened to me a couple years ago. I didn't know that I was suppose to call and talk to them before we went so I didn't. Our school district allows 10 unexcused days so I didn't think nothing about going. About 2 weeks after we got back she calls me and kept repeating that "you have to talk to the principal in advance" I kept calm but inside I wanted to ask how I was going to go back in time and do that.

 

[dsdeleon]

Well let's see. We vacation 4-6 weeks per year so yes, they get pulled out of school for at least one of those weeks. We do go during summer and spring break, braving the heat and the crowds so I reward myself with pulling them out on my birthday week (1st week of Dec). This year it's WDW, DCL on the Dream and then onsite Universal trip that week so even though my little one's school (will be 2nd grade) will be giving me a guilt trip with sternly written letters, we are going anyways. I will say that my special needs son's teachers (will be 5th grade) NEVER has given an issue, they support his trips and like to see him rewarded from doing well in school with trips so it's a totally diferent experience.

 

[Magpie]

I'm always intrigued by these discussions, especially as, where we live (in Canada) funding is not tied to attendance at all. We're rather laissez-faire about school attendance, something which can carry through into university and which drives my mom (a prof) nuts. It's long tradition in some families... my father in law used to pull my husband out for a week every spring to go hunting, just like his dad did with him, back in the 40s.

I took both kids out to vacation during the off season throughout most of their school careers. Both my kids were in the gifted program. One kid was a good student, the other has a learning disability and struggled. Their teachers were uniformly supportive.

In fact, one long winter in middle school, my son's special education support teacher actually tracked me down to ask if we had a vacation planned soon. As it happened, we were planning to take a long weekend and visit Toronto. He was very happy to hear that, saying that the boy needed a break, and he'd been planning to recommend we take him out for a few days.

And when my daughter was in tenth grade she commented to her chemistry teacher that she'd decided not to go to Disney that year, because she didn't want to miss school. He said, "Are you crazy? This is the might be the last year you can do this! Go! Go!" So she changed her mind, and we got in one last school year Disney trip.

Now they're both in university, and the girl is interning in a lab, so we need to work around that. Right now, we're basically just doing late August trips with them. Last year we went to Universal. This year we're visiting my dad, but next year Disney may be a possibility.

Of course, that doesn't mean my husband and I can't run off to Disney by ourselves... and we do!

 

[Magpie]

Well let's see. We vacation 4-6 weeks per year so yes, they get pulled out of school for at least one of those weeks. We do go during summer and spring break, braving the heat and the crowds so I reward myself with pulling them out on my birthday week (1st week of Dec). This year it's WDW, DCL on the Dream and then onsite Universal trip that week so even though my little one's school (will be 2nd grade) will be giving me a guilt trip with sternly written letters, we are going anyways. I will say that my special needs son's teachers (will be 5th grade) NEVER has given an issue, they support his trips and like to see him rewarded from doing well in school with trips so it's a totally diferent experience.

My son has a learning disability (similar to dyslexia) and his SERT teachers were always huge proponents of school year trips. When your child has to work twice as hard as the other kids just to manage the bare minimum, I think everyone understands how important regular breaks can be. Burn out is a real thing.