Anyone have problems taking their kids outta school for vacation?

[Baloo]

I have no problem taking DSErich,who's in the 4th grade, out for a couple days for vacation.As a matter of fact I'm taking him out two or three days the last week in March becasue my DSS Jon will be here with us.Jon's Spring Break is the week after Erich's.I hate when that happens.

Erich's school and teachers are great about taking him out .He gets work to make up.He is a very good student, however, if he was struggling I'm not sure I'd take him out for more than 2 days,I'm afraid he'd fall too far behind.

 

[cashout]

Ahh! One of the advantages of home-schooling, your family vacation is a school vacation, or an extended field trip. My kids took the months of November and December off this year, and will probalby take off December next winter. Of course, they started school right after July 4.

When I was in second grade, I took 3 weeks off for a trip to Florida with my grandparents. I did have to do all of my work before I could go, but that was fine.

 

[goofy4tink]

My dd has missed a little time in school almost every year for some kind of family vacation...either WDW or a trip to visit her grandparents. She doesn't miss more than 4 days. Now, she seldom gets sick during the school year, so doesn't miss more than a day or two due to illness. How is our missing 4 days to go to WDW (usually go on a Fri and come back the following Thurs) all that different than the kid that is always sick and misses a couple of days every month?? Our neighbor's dd, 12, misses, on average, 3 days a month for some kind of illness/injury. Add that to the days she isn't there due to 'family time', well...it has to be at least 5 times the amount my dd misses. If my dd isn't going to be able to make up the work missed, and I'm talking knowledge here, not so much homework/quizes, then she doesn't go. But, so far she has been able to stay current with the rest of the class and hold her averages where they should be.

So, no...I have no problem having my dd miss school. I do get a little tired of the school boards' making these choices for us. How about all those 'professional' days that my dd isn't in school? Or those 1/2 days for curriculum meetings? Please don't think I don't appreciate what teachers do. I do. But I think there is a lot of room for improvement in the day to day running of our schools.

 

[G00fyDad]

As for my DD10, she has never missed any school whatsoever. Ever. Not one single day. Plus, I do all kinds of things at the school for them (her). Like help with their Fall Festival, class parties, etc... so I know the staff pretty well. I have told them about the trip we are taking in October and they said they hope we have tons of fun. It's a shame that she is going to miss 2 days of school. But it could be worse. The week we are going is the same week that the school is already out for 2 days for Fall Break and then a 3rd day for a teachers inservice day. The school knows that she will do the work on the plane there and we will fax it to the school from the resort.

She is more worried that she'll miss a Girl Scout meeting or function. She has never missed any of these, ever, and she has a patch on her back to show for it that she is really proud of. Each year she gets a smaller patch to go beside the main larger one to show another year of perfect attendance.

 

[JMCDAD]

goofytink
The obvious answer to your question is that one is planned and controlled (vacation) the other just happens (sick/injury).

 

[cricket429]

I totally agree JMCDAD. Even though my dd is only in kindergarten, I want to teach her from the start that there are obligations and committments that she has to keep. There is definately enough days that she is not in school to schedule vacations. It would definately be easier and cheaper to go on a non school break vacation but just because its easier does not make it right.
We will be with the Easter crowds, and we will be loving it and we will be having our "family time vacation" when she is not in school.

 

[JMCDAD]

I'm with ya cricket
Have fun during Easter
I'll be there in July

 

[Tissa]

Well, we live in Texas and my kids are only allowed to miss 6 days of school a year period! Anything over that has to have a doctors note for an excuse and go up before a review board. My DS8 has already missed 3 days this year due to the flu and I recieved a letter the other day from the office reminding me about the policy. So no I don't take my kids out of school for vacation. We went during Spring break last year and this year we are going in June. I was a little shocked when I first started reading about people taking their kids out of school for vacation. It just isn't an option here.

 

[jetsetter90]

This will help make anyone who's worried about taking their kids out a few days.

Last week in Social Studies the 5th grade class was talking about Vikings and what they wear and where they're from. My DS was the only child who had raised his hand and said NORWAY. When the teacher told me this she said "Boy I can't say he doesn't learn anything on your annual trips to Disney." She knew that the reason he knew that answer was because of Epcot. You have to also understand my DS is autistic and he was in a mainstream class when this happened so she was even more proud of him, as am I. We try not to take our kids out of school but if the choice is to go over a long weekend and add a few days or a crowed time, I have no qualms with taking my kids out of school.

BTW the only reasons the schools seem to be getting tougher with this is because of State funding. Missing a few days will not make a huge difference in the younger grades. I agree that once the kids get into HS the classes do go faster and they can lose work if they miss more than 2/3 days. But again it's up to you and you know your child best.

TTFN

Jetsetter90

 

[TrickyFish]

This will help make anyone who's worried about taking their kids out a few days.

Last week in Social Studies the 5th grade class was talking about Vikings and what they wear and where they're from. My DS was the only child who had raised his hand and said NORWAY. When the teacher told me this she said "Boy I can't say he doesn't learn anything on your annual trips to Disney." She knew that the reason he knew that answer was because of Epcot. You have to also understand my DS is autistic and he was in a mainstream class when this happened so she was even more proud of him, as am I. We try not to take our kids out of school but if the choice is to go over a long weekend and add a few days or a crowed time, I have no qualms with taking my kids out of school.

BTW the only reasons the schools seem to be getting tougher with this is because of State funding. Missing a few days will not make a huge difference in the younger grades. I agree that once the kids get into HS the classes do go faster and they can lose work if they miss more than 2/3 days. But again it's up to you and you know your child best.

TTFN

Jetsetter90

While I think this is a wondeful story, I have to point out that this is information your son would have learned at Epcot had he went in June or in January. The educational values Disney teaches does not change just because one goes at a certain time of year.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I'm a teacher who used to miss a week of school nearly every year growing up for a family trip to FL, so this is a hotbutton issue for me. I've watched this site for a while, and this is my first post!

As a kid, the trips were great! We drove, so we'd spend 6 of the 14 days in passage. (Anybody else a closet fan of South of the Border?) One of the weeks was always a vacation week.

All 5 of us kids now have college degrees, and 4 have advanced degrees - so as for learning mixed messages about the importance of an education, that is hogwash, IMHO. My parents always made the trips educational. We went to places like Cape Canaveral, Castillo de San Marcos, Disney, and more. These left strong memories. The psychological break from winter also gave us great resolve to work harder.

As for school, it was difficult to make up all the work. Some grades were affected, despite the fact that we did the work we were given. In reality, I know that some teachers neglected to give me all the work; some were even angry.
As a teacher, I see both sides. Any travel is educational. The classroom simply cannot replicate the experience of seeing a place firsthand. The only thing that pains me, is giving work to a student who doesn't do it. (no matter why they're absent) It is VERY time consuming to prepare special work for one student. I also worry about test security. Will Johnny share the test?

Reality for most teachers is that we just don't have enough planning time. I'm in 5 class hours a day. I have 2 hours for everything else. It's never enough.
In this 2hrs, we create each lesson, then modify it for each child with special needs (valuable, but time consuming). We contact parents regularly. EACH one takes about 1/2 hr (IF a parent can even be reached!). I teach over 100 students at a time. We photocopy. We grade. We regularly work with students after school. Add to the mix broken copy machines, computer problems, or disasters like bomb threats (yes, they happen often). I know 2 professors who spend at least 2hrs of prep per 1hr they teach, and they don't deal with most of the things I listed above.

So I think vacations have great value, but PLEASE if your kid has to be out of school for any reason, and you request work, just be certain to DO the work. Remember also that teachers need at least 24 hours notice to gather the work for you. Thanks, sorry for the rant.

 

[eddieras]

So I think vacations have great value, but PLEASE if your kid has to be out of school for any reason, and you request work, just be certain to DO the work. Remember also that teachers need at least 24 hours notice to gather the work for you. Thanks, sorry for the rant.

excellent points! i did mention to my son's 3rd grade teacher that i heard that taking a child out of class makes more work for the teacher and i wanted to avoid that. she was so nice--it's February and our trip's in May and she said= that's 3 months early-- just call me a week before!

obviously, many factors go into this-- the child, the age, the school- but for me, there are particular opportunities that arise that also teach your children to look at and reach each decision independently. eg take in all information, digest it and then make an informed decision. one thing i don't like is blanket rules -- zero tolerance is zero thinking. (IMHO)

 

[DianeV]

I dont understand how some are not getting the fact that some parents jobs do NOT allow them to take vacations when everyone else does. My husband is in law enforcement and you have to put in requests way ahead of time for any time off and it has to be approved based on seniority. He is in a decent spot on the list but think about those on the bottom who cannot be off the holiday weeks or prime summer weeks. In this profession only a certain amount of employees can be off at a certain time for obvious safety reasons.

So to generalize like I am seeing on here from some posters and make assumptions about people is plain wrong. Not everyone can pick and choose when they can go on vacation and I think those that can are wrong to criticize

 

[kathmzh]

I'm in the same situation as you, DianeV -- my husband actually works security at the airport during busy times, which seems to be all the time lately. I took the kids out for a week last month, prepared ahead of time and got OK's from the kids teachers and we took work to Florida. Come to find out, the kids wouldn't have been in school anyway bacause of a blizzard! It was like hitting the lottery.

 

[BeckWhy]

After my dad contacted the board of ed they (both times) sent letters to our schools and said that they HAD to let us make up our work and tests and that they WOULD count.

My dad has also contacted the board of ed several times since all my bother and sisters have been in school.

I never did my homework in school anyways (but I still got good grades), my sister was really smart and did all her homework (she graduated in the top 10 of her class).

Would I take my kids out of school for vacation? Well if it's a Disney World vacation, the answer is yes (because the only good times to go are when the kids have school). Anywhere else, probably not. Will I take into consideration their grades? Maybe. But I learn through hearing things (I slept through high school ), so if I have kids like that, I might not take them out of school.

 

[WayneWatsonFan]

We homeschool our DD12, DD9, and DS6, so this is a moot issue for us anymore. However, when we went to WDW three years ago, we had no problem at all taking our kids out of school. Our kids' teachers were very cooperative.

 

[cricket429]

I am not saying your child will be educationally challenged because they miss a week of school. I am just saying, and this is just my opinion as everyone has one, that for most people, vacations can be scheduled when they are not in school. In our home, its a matter of priorities, not convenience. I realize not everyone has a 9 to 5, Monday thru Friday job. That is not was I was voicing my opinion about. Everyone has an opinion and should not be chastised (probably misspelled that, must have missed a week of school as a child) for it.

 

[paigevz]

I'm a teacher who used to miss a week of school nearly every year growing up for a family trip to FL, so this is a hotbutton issue for me. I've watched this site for a while, and this is my first post!

As a kid, the trips were great! We drove, so we'd spend 6 of the 14 days in passage. (Anybody else a closet fan of South of the Border?) One of the weeks was always a vacation week.

All 5 of us kids now have college degrees, and 4 have advanced degrees - so as for learning mixed messages about the importance of an education, that is hogwash, IMHO. My parents always made the trips educational. We went to places like Cape Canaveral, Castillo de San Marcos, Disney, and more. These left strong memories. The psychological break from winter also gave us great resolve to work harder.

As for school, it was difficult to make up all the work. Some grades were affected, despite the fact that we did the work we were given. In reality, I know that some teachers neglected to give me all the work; some were even angry.
As a teacher, I see both sides. Any travel is educational. The classroom simply cannot replicate the experience of seeing a place firsthand. The only thing that pains me, is giving work to a student who doesn't do it. (no matter why they're absent) It is VERY time consuming to prepare special work for one student. I also worry about test security. Will Johnny share the test?

Reality for most teachers is that we just don't have enough planning time. I'm in 5 class hours a day. I have 2 hours for everything else. It's never enough.
In this 2hrs, we create each lesson, then modify it for each child with special needs (valuable, but time consuming). We contact parents regularly. EACH one takes about 1/2 hr (IF a parent can even be reached!). I teach over 100 students at a time. We photocopy. We grade. We regularly work with students after school. Add to the mix broken copy machines, computer problems, or disasters like bomb threats (yes, they happen often). I know 2 professors who spend at least 2hrs of prep per 1hr they teach, and they don't deal with most of the things I listed above.

So I think vacations have great value, but PLEASE if your kid has to be out of school for any reason, and you request work, just be certain to DO the work. Remember also that teachers need at least 24 hours notice to gather the work for you. Thanks, sorry for the rant.

Doesn't seem as much like a rant, as something to think about. I second this, and as a second grade teacher, would like to add two more things to think about: that the work that many people (not talking about any posters in this thread in particular, just general parents I've worked with) seem to think takes the place of class, is only one part of what they would be doing in class ESPECIALLY in the early grades..............my classes are 2/3 (at least) group work and lessons, and only 1/3 (or less) child doing written work. The written work reinforces the other lessons, some children don't need the written work, most children need the lessons (some are taught certain lessons well outside the classroom). Does this mean I say never take a child out for vacation? NO. The best choice would be different for each family. I would also like to point out that often children with specific learning disabilities MUST practice certain concepts daily or they lose that information or skill rather quickly, and will take some time to gain it back. This is very sad when it happens, and extremely frustrating for the child. My opinion: personal choice, hopefully weighed by what is best for each child.

My own rant: kids who do nothing on certain days or even weeks of school, which apparently is justified as "fun days"! Arrggh! Why build "fun days" into valuable school time? We have fun while learning all days...........there are no days where we simply watch movies, play with toys from home, do froo-froo projects, etc...........like I keep hearing about others' kids doing!

 

[Sarahsal]

I just want to say how happy I am to see I am not the only parent who thinks children shouldn't be pulled from school to miss the crowds at WDW. I've been lurking on these boards for years, and all I've ever seen is "family time is more important than school." We are going this Easter (our third Easter week at WDW) and yes it will be crowded and yes it is more expensive, but my dd's know that at our house school is more important than vacations.

Now, as to the poster who mentioned a trip with a terminally ill child, well of course this is a different story. A once/last in a lifetime trip cannot be compared in any way with wanting to avoid crowds or travel during value season. And my sympathy for your unimaginable loss.

 

[cricket429]

We'll be in the crowds with you Sarahsal!