Do you pull your small children out of school for holidays/vacations?

[PollyannaMom]

My personal limit for a regular vacation is 2 days. (We go on the scheduled school break, but leave a little earlier.) - But if it was something like a family wedding, where I had no control over the dates, I would bend that if I had to.

 

[Tinkmom75]

Yes, and older ones too.

 

[golfgal]

We did a few times in Elementary school but once they hit middle school they didn't WANT to miss that much school because of the amount of homework they would have to make up. We have just planned around school vacations and they were just fine.

 

[bunkkinsmom]

I take mine out every year in January. Crowds are lower, temperatures are great, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY>> memories are made over taking our time and enjoying our family.

 

[ppoe65]

We have taken our kids (DS14, DD12, DD9 & DS4) out of school for a week in NOV/DEC for the last 6 years. I work in a seashore area and vacations from May till Oct are frowned upon. We always notify teachers 2 weeks in advance to prepare work to be sent with us and then we follow up upon our retrun to see all in class/tests are made up. The schools may not like this, but the kids do learn while on our trips.

As DS14 gets to jr & sr years we may have to adjust a bit by shortening the trips, but we are still going.

 

[cristit14]

We have a couple of times, but the last time was when dd was in 6th grade. It gets too hard as they get older. At this point if I were to take them out it would probably be only for an extra day on the end of a break.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I had to LMAO about this. Our district gives students a grade no higher than 70 for any work missed during an unexcused absence and yes, vacation is an unexcused absence. HOWEVER, teachers can use every single one of their days off for vacation. It chaps my hiney. DD's 2nd grade teacher was a first year teacher with only 10 days of leave and she took all 10 days for her wedding showers, wedding, visiting new DH, etc. (He lived out of state.) Fair enough. But my kid missed a math teacher for 2 full weeks. How is THAT perfectly okay but DD taking a few days for vacation a mortal sin?

I'm relatively certain taking your child out of school isn't any kind of sin, mortal or otherwise - but in many cases it apparently does violate board of education rules.

Why can teachers use vacation time during the school year? Well, first, not all can - but where they can, it's because they have vacation time and their contracts allow them to use it this way. When a teacher uses vacation time during the school year (just as most employed people use their vacation time during their normal work year), the school system provides a substitute teacher to teach the students.

When a student takes time off from school for a vacation, there isn't any way for the student or parent to provide a substitute student. Even if they could, the actual student wouldn't be learning what the rest of the class is. And no, teachers aren't required to provide 'make-up' work - especially in advance.

---

Personal: My parents never took us out of school for vacations, and none of us ever took kids out of school for vacations. That's as far as my opinion or control goes over anyone's school vs. vacation decisions. Anyone who wants to take their kids out of school for vacation, knock yourselves out. Just don't take 'em to Walt Disney World at the end of September, or Las Vegas ever

 

[samshane]

We did in Feb because it was DH's 2 week R&R from his deployment. The school approved it with no problem.

But we moved out trip from the fall to the summer so that we could go back to Disney without the kids missing school. We are going the week before they go back (we go back late on 9/8 this year).