If you pull your kids out of school....

[la79al]

what kind of work are they usually required to do on your trip? DSS is in 7th so I'm guessing he will have to actually do work but DSD is only in 3rd so I'm guessing journal for her. I want to make sure we have some time built in for them to get their schoolwork done.

 

[laughinplace199]

My kids are in 5th and 3rd. Their school will not give any assignments in advance, so we just have fun, fun, fun on vacation and then they make up all of their work once they return to school.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

It really depends on the teacher. This year my 2nd grader had tons of homework. Math sheets, grammer sheets, reading, social studies. It was very in depth, and the teacher sent me her lesson plans. I think we covered everything he would have done in class. It took us a lot of time to finish, but we got it all done.

My 4th grader didn't have any homework. They had him make things up in class, and they excused him from some things. (He has 2 teachers.)

 

[mjkacmom]

It totally depends on the teacher. The last time we pulled them out (4 days), my 1st grader had no make-up work, my 4th grader was given the work ahead of time, and my 6th grader had to make it up when she returned. In 7th, my child would've not been given work ahead of time, and would've had to spend weeks coming in zero period, plus given work to do at home.

 

[RMulieri]

My Kindergartener had to do a trip journal.My niece in 3rd grade had alot of work to make up AFTER we got home.Lots of missed classwork etc.

 

[littlbugmom]

In K, my dd didn't have any work to make up or to do on vacation.

In 3rd grade, she had a single worksheet of questions/problems to finish.
It was all about Disney. Her teacher made it fun!

 

[momof3girls6712]

In 2008, we told the school about 3 weeks in advance and the teachers gave the kids their work to do while at Disney. We all ended up sick the last 2 days and the kids missed more days than we thought they would. The elmentary schools had no problem with it, but my oldest's middle school tried to not accept any of her work. I had to speak with the principal and several teachers to sort it out. I work for our county and the school board offices are next door so I asked for advice for this year's trip. I was told to just simply state the children would be absent and provide the dates. The school board president told me it is better not to provide a lot of details up front. If asked then yes I will be honest, but our school policy states if children are sick they have 3 days to make up the work, but if they are out for vactaion all work is due the first day they are back. So we leave Friday and I sent a note in Monday just stating they would be absent. The teachers have be wonderful allowing them to take tests early and no work assigned, yet.

 

[tzolkin]

My oldest just did a journal in K and 1st.

In 4th and 5th grade her teachers gave her some regular assignments and some special projects.

The first year her teacher gave her the work several days in advance and she did it all before we left. For English, she wanted her to keep a journal while we were there. And for Math, she wanted her to write 5 word problems. This was fun because she made the problems about her trip-- shopping, time on the busses, etc.

Last year she had a bit more "regular" school work to do and she didn't get it until the day before we left. She did most of it in the car (23 hours each way ) DD did not know we were going to Disney (we told the kids we were going to grandma's), but her teacher did. The class was studying plants so the teacher gave her a special journal and told her to draw and write some information about native plants in FL. Teacher actually knew we were going to Epcot during the Flower and Garden Festival, so DD took pictures of plants and wrote down info about them and when we got home she made the journal before returning to school.


I don't really want the kids to bring a bunch of books and have to worry about school work while we're at Disney. The last two years we have left on Monday or Tuesday, so she had the weekend to start the work. And we return home on a Thursday night, so she has the weekend to finish work before returning to school. For work that needed to be done while we were at Disney, DD would just take a few minutes in the evening while I was bathing the little ones to do some journaling. We also return to the resort for a nap every day, so she would sometimes journal while everyone else was resting.

 

[doclegler]

My kids (4th and 1st grade) had lots of homework to get done! We just started about a week ahead of time, and got it all done before we left (took a lot of discipline, but they knew why that had to do it!) We told the school about 2-3 weeks early, and reminded the teachers by email the week before so they could get work ready, since most of them don't plan weeks in advance due to schedule changes.
Its unfortunate they give so much work, but the kids really felt a sense of accomplishment when they knew they could miss the 4 days (out of a 10 day trip!) and come back to no homework.

 

[nmmom95]

My kids are in 6th and 1st grades, and our school does not give work in advance. They make everything up when we get back.

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

I agree that it all depends on the teacher. My son is now in 5th grade. We have been pulling him out of school for vacations since he started school. The most work he ever got to make up was in 2nd grade. It was ridiculous. Pages and pages, plus books upon books. For a 7 yo?

No teacher has ever come close to giving him the make-up work he had that year he was in 2nd grade. His teacher this year was great. She gave hm all his work ahead of time. It was done before we even left for WDW.

DD is in kindergarten and the teachers worked with her when she got back.

 

[Butterflies31]

We leave in less than 5 days My oldest is in 5th grade her teachers already gave us her work, Today we had a snow day so she already started it. The middle one is in 3rd grade and she has not gotten any thing yet. Then my youngest is in Kindergarten and her teacher said have a nice trip no hw, so she is happy. I guess it depends on the teacher, Oh and yeah The office was the only ones with a problem with us going on vacation. They clearly stated that we must give them a written letter stating why our kids are missing school and made it clear that any thing over 3 days unreported excuse will result in a notice to the state officials . which i thought was kind of rude. Like we are running away from school.. I know they have to cover the tushys, but come on... regardless of all that.
Have a blessed trip.

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

I can help withthe 7th. grader. I do admit we pulled our son in September, close to the beginning of the year. Some teachers gave him the work that they had planned on early. Others were not that prepared yet. He did the work when we got home. We arrived home on a Thursday and he went in school on Friday and picked up all the work. They had it together for the 6 days DS was out. He worked on it during the weekend and completed it. Seriously it was not too much for him to handle. The work he was given early or about 25% of the total work he did the night before, it kept his mind occupied and it worked great...

Now same trip we took DD who was a junior in HS. I will openly admit that this was a mistake. The older the child gets, the more involved the school work it. DD was reading Romeo and Juliet and another classic constantly during our trip while standing in line and even during dinners. She would do the questions and math work in the evenings at the resort. She kindly asked me to never do it again during HS and to not allow it to happen to DS as it really put a heavy burden on her and she felt very guilty and pressured during our vacation. Hope this helps you. And yes every school and every child would handle things differently. And for the record my children are both straight A students that require very little extra assistance once the work is taught.

 

[Sammy]

I can help withthe 7th. grader. I do admit we pulled our son in September, close to the beginning of the year. Some teachers gave him the work that they had planned on early. Others were not that prepared yet. He did the work when we got home. We arrived home on a Thursday and he went in school on Friday and picked up all the work. They had it together for the 6 days DS was out. He worked on it during the weekend and completed it. Seriously it was not too much for him to handle. The work he was given early or about 25% of the total work he did the night before, it kept his mind occupied and it worked great...

Now same trip we took DD who was a junior in HS. I will openly admit that this was a mistake. The older the child gets, the more involved the school work it. DD was reading Romeo and Juliet and another classic constantly during our trip while standing in line and even during dinners. She would do the questions and math work in the evenings at the resort. She kindly asked me to never do it again during HS and to not allow it to happen to DS as it really put a heavy burden on her and she felt very guilty and pressured during our vacation. Hope this helps you. And yes every school and every child would handle things differently. And for the record my children are both straight A students that require very little extra assistance once the work is taught.

I completely agree about pulling the high school students! DS is a senior now, but has repeatedly told me that he would be against taking any time away from school the past few years for a vacation. We have block scheduling at our HS (four 90-minute classes each day), so missing one class is like missing two classes worth of material. Our district's policy is no work ahead of time, so that is a workload he did not want to make up after a vacation!

 

[Taja]

We took my BFF's 4th-grade granddaughter on her first visit to WDW in 2007 (including her mother and baby brother--dad didn't want to go) and she had a little homework. She was (and is) about three grade levels ahead in most of her work, so she only had to maintain a journal and do some maths homework--more to keep her in the loop than anything else. Her mother did discuss the trip with the teacher and administrators at the beginning of the school year (we went in December), so the other work was done in advance and everyone was on the same page.

She's in a very high-achieving school and they usually have quite a bit of homework each night. Thank goodness she's a good student!

 

[design_mom]

We took my DS out in first grade and third. DD is in kindergarten this year and we took her out, too (due to the weird school schedule, she only missed one day though.)

In first grade, DS's teacher did not provide work in advance. She said she plans the week's assignments the weekend before, so they were not ready by the time we left. When we got home, she said she didn't think he needed to do anything to catch up. (DS is a very good student and could "handle" being out for a week.)

This year, DS's 3rd grade teacher gave him his work in advance. They were introducing a new concept in math, which he and I discussed on the plane ride. He was able to do all of his homework in the airport/on the plane. He was actually ahead when he returned, since his class didn't get as far as planned.

DD's kindergarten sent home a couple of worksheets when she got home. They did not have to be turned in for credit, but they were things the class had covered while we were out... so we did them for practice at home.

 

[Aristomommy]

The last trip during school year was in 4th and after getting a whole weeks worth of classroom work and homework to do, it was our last. DD11 is in 6th grade accelerated classes this year and I can't imagine what kind of work she would have to do now. Our school is very strict about missing school for vacations, but I know this isn't the case everywhere. I would ask other parents in your school system for better info.

Have fun!!!

 

[5 for WDW]

We just got back this past weekend. Our kids are in 7th, 4th and 1st.

Our 1st grader had a journal to do and reading. Our 4th grader had a ton of work to to. Math, reading, writing, etc. He started it before we left, worked on it on the drive down and finished it up when we were there.
Our 7th grader only did his reading. It is against our school's policy to give Jr High students work they will miss for vacations. So, he has been busy this week making all of it up.

The decision to take them out for the week before the actual school break was a last minute one. It is the last time we will be doing it. Too much school work for our oldest. Its school vacations and summer trips from now on for us.

 

[firemanslady09]

It really does depend on the teacher. Our son is now in 4th grade. He has been pulled out for a week for 4 years in a row. The worst year was 3rd grade. That teacher sent home ALOT of work. It is also our districts policy to not give work until you get back. I have a 2nd grader as well who also has missed a week each year. Our district thinks the vacations are wonderful family opportunities and has never given us a problem. It varies from teacher to teacher and district to district. I think alot of it, is how you approach the teacher.