Do you.....

[Magic4UsZ's]

Our family use to miss a week of school for Disney trips and it aint makes nos difurances to nons of us.
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I have a tendancy to be a bit high strung and have worried about this forever. God forbid I do not want to make a teacher upset, but at the same time my "normal" side of me says they can learn alot while traveling, even to WDW. Plus I think it sets a good example of the value of family time together. It is just as important to give yourself permission to go have some fun together as it is to work hard and do your best. (work or school).

I have taken my girls our once and they did fine. (1st and 5th grade at the time) This Oct we will miss 3 days and in April, 2 if not 3 days. They are good students. I dont expect them to be perfect in order to go. They make mostly A's with a few B's. I do expect them to try there best and take being let out a treat for being good students. If they struggled then I'd say no.
My oldest reaassures me that Oct is not going to be a problem with her work. (She has matured alot in the past few years, and takes responsibility for her grades/work, which have been fabulous for a kid who once was thought to have add)(her goal for herself was to get all A's by this past report card, but ended up with one B+) I was proud of her, she was the one let down. I know she'll do it soon!!!

The youngest has trouble staying interested, she can do her work lightening fast when she is motivated, or she can drag it out. It has been the agreement with us that she must start the year off right and no nagging about getting things done (maybe/I think this will motivate her)(she can do the work easy, its like i said ,just getting her to sit down and do it ) If it isnt going well then we will cancel and she knows I mean that. No idle threats here!!!( That's the hardest thing about being a parent.)

Just put things in perspective like smooshdog did. Is this really going to make a difference in his/her college/career/life to miss a few days?

Talk with the school, see what the rules are and their take on the situation.

My kids just started a new school two years ago (public to private) so i was leary of taking them out, but the office staff reaasured me that it happens all the time and as long as the child does not struggle in school or it is excessive the teachers are accomodating. We'll see.

I'm trying not to be so paranoid about it. Life is toooo short to not live it.

I do agree that high school might be a bit of a challenge, that is why we are going to miss 5 or so days this year, as the oldest next year will be a high schooler. Could I really be that old?

 

[resol37]

I don't have any kids but my brother and I were both in school during our first three trips to the World. And, yes, my parents took us out.

I was an A/B student and my brother was a B/C student. We always planned the trip well in advance and were usually able to notify our teachers on the first day of school. We always did four day, five night trips and did them over a weekend so that we limited the number of days missed.

It was at least six years ago, but I don't remember either of us having any problems with catching up when we returned. Again, we usually only missed two or three days, so if your trip is longer you may not have the same experience. None of our teacher (or at least none of mine) ever expressed that the trips would be problematic.

Our most recent trip also interferred with my Intro to Business final, but I arranged with my prof to take it early.

 

[BubMunkeyBles]

We have a lot of schools contemplating year round schooling (they go for like 6 weeks and get 2 off or something??). My parents always took us out as kids... In the county I live in you get 10 absenses and then you have to do an attendance appeal (which is a joke cuz my brother had like 37 absenses and still graduated). But yeah... Why not if your kid can keep up? I did miss 2 weeks of class in 10th grade and got a D in geometry for the semester... I graduated high school with a 3.9 unweighted... all A's... one D... I still blame it on the teacher.

 

[luvmickey5374]

We certainly do We try to make a little report for school and get any work in advance. I figure you pay so much, why waste time standing in lines. As long as the kids are doing well in school, a little time won't hurt

 

[randbmom]

My Kids Are Home Schooled So No Problem For Us. Disneyworld Can Be Very Great For Learning.

I would imagine that WDW is a paradise for home schooled children. A lesson on every corner!

 

[ahilly]

Our family use to miss a week of school for Disney trips and it aint makes nos difurances to nons of us.

We will be doing this for the first time this year. DD will be in first grade, I plan on letting her teacher know once school starts. The week we are going was the same week as conferences last year, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it is the same week this year because it was a shortened week. Both of my sisters are teachers and the only thing they said is that the teacher may not be able to give us homework prior to the trip and we may get it once we return. I guess I just have to wait and see.

 

[dolphindan1]

We always do. My oldest who starts middle school this year has never had a problem with school A honor roll maybe 2 B's in 4 years governors award nominee for leadership. anyway we always discuss it with his teachers at the start of the school year and have never had a problem. Now that he is in middle school we told him any vacations are dependent on his grades. If they slip we stay home simple as that. the youngest who I think will give me the problems in school will most likely be based in his behavior. saying that I get depressed as I might not ever get back to Disney based on that. (shakes head). anyway a teacher told me a couple of years ago that family time with young kids is as important if not more important than grade school and that I should never feel guilty about spending time with my kids. she made it very easy on me. growing up I was never taken out of school and I approached my kids schooling the same way. perfect attendence or bust. Dont feel guilty and enjoy your time with your kids as its so little and precious.

 

[GC&S]

We'll be doing it for the first time in September. DD will be starting Kind. Hopefully we won't have any problems. We're so used to going in the fall we scheduled our trip and totally forgot dd would be starting school!

 

[Doc CW]

I'm on honor roll in high school and my parents take me out of school a lot and it never drastically affects me. I always just do the work when I get back or if the teachers decide not to let me too bad I don't care cause I would rather be with my family. Family comes 1st for me and it always will.

 

[Smooshdog]

I guess I should add to my little joke that in my family there are five kids, four boys and one girl. The oldest was nine years older than the youngest (me). And just to show the future of what happened to us from being pulled out of school for Disney, there are three masters degrees, my sister has an insane undergrad double major of atomospheric sciences and math (and she is a meteorologist not a "weather girl" ), and I just got my law degree. So taking the kids out of school for Disney does not have any long term negative effects.

 

[addicted_to_WDW]

We did every year during the elementary school days without a second thought. DS is in middle school now and we really can't do it anymore for a few reasons - his course load is much more difficult (he took his first two high school courses this year during 7th grade), the absences would be unexcused, and he has a pretty active extracurricular load.

We go to WDW during a long weekend in January (our school system always has a 4 day weekend around MLK day). Otherwise, we are stuck going in the summer.

 

[Artoo]

My folks refused to take my brother and I out of school, so we ended up going during either winter or spring break. I'd like to take my sister next September (she'll be a Senior in high school), but I am sure my parents won't allow it.

 

[taxmom04]

We took 3 of our 4 children out of school back in Nov. '05. The two oldest were in Middle School and we had no problems. In fact I was a little concerned because most of their teachers didn't give them any make-up work or seemed worried about it. (They are all A students).

We are going for our 2nd family trip to WDW in '08. My oldest will be a Jr.
I hope that we will not have any problems taking her out for a week since she is in high school.

Disney is the only vacation I would take my kids out of school for.
It is too expensive and too crowded and hot not to go when we will enjoy it the most. We plan to only do this once for each of our kids when they are in high school.

I have a real problem when schools don't allow this when you have honor roll and well-behaved students. If they don't want to allow this I will have to go down my list of the many other injustices that take place in the schools with kids that they don't do anything to because of the fear of lawsuits!!!!
Sometimes it doesn't pay to be good type of things!

 

[jenn-]

I really fought myself over this decision. My DD is in 2nd this year and we are going to take her out the couple of days before Thanksgiving. I am pretty sure all she will miss is her party and a movie day so it shouldn't be a biggie. If it wasn't for the fact I am pretty sure she won't be missing much, I wouldn't do it. DD hasn't had it easy in K and 1st, so she really can't afford to miss much of the school year. It is also considered an unexcused abscense here so the fewer the days the better.

 

[Jill in Chicago]

I think as long as your children are doing well in school and not struggling with any subjects then it is fine to pull them out of school prior to high school. Once they are in high school the material progresses at a much faster rate, and many students are taking college level classes. I do not think it is ever a good idea to pull them out of high school.