Educating While At Disney (when your kid misses school)

[FreeTime]

I always make a calendar in advance and "schedule" what the kids need to work on each day. This way they know what they have to do in advance and will not procrastinate. The school does not give the work in advance. I put on the calendar stuff that I know they are currently working on in school and then attach their work to the calendar and then hand it in to the teacher. We practice math, have a spelling test, science, etc. I have done this several times and have had teachers comment that they actually did more work than they would have in the classroom. Several teachers have not required the make up work to be completed.

 

[Bambi222]

I don't see what kind of REAL impact missing one week of the entire school year will have on a child. My DH is a K teacher and he has not once expressed any concern about our DD missing a week of 2nd grade next year when we are planning to go. Plus, I think the whole experience of going to disney, what they will see and do as well as being together as a family is way more valuable and will have a bigger impact on them then that one week of school. Just my 2 cents.

 

[MamaCrush]

I don't see what kind of REAL impact missing one week of the entire school year will have on a child. My DH is a K teacher and he has not once expressed any concern about our DD missing a week of 2nd grade next year when we are planning to go. Plus, I think the whole experience of going to disney, what they will see and do as well as being together as a family is way more valuable and will have a bigger impact on them then that one week of school. Just my 2 cents.

I'll add my $.02 to yours! I agree with you, but I also believe you have take cues from your own child(ren). If they struggle to keep up with the class, probably not the best decision to take them out and force them to peddle even faster when they get back to catch up. But if they are good students and learn at generally the same rate as the rest of the class (or better), I agree whole-heartedly. Next March will be the third time we've taken ours out, and they know that's a privilege of being good students. (They'll be in 4th and 2nd grade)

 

[Tomh]

I wouldn't purposely plan to keep my kids out of school for a vacation, however I don't think it's going to make them fail either.

Back in December, when I started planning our vacation, I visited the state department of education website, where I viewed a page that listed the school year starting dates for every district for the next 3 years. According to that page, our school was scheduled to start on September 9th this year, the Wednesday after Labor Day.

With that information in mind, I scheduled our vacation from Aug 23rd through Sept 4th. We will get back home on Sept 5th. Last Friday, DS5 comes home with a ditto copy in his backpack, which informs us that the 2009 / 2010 school year will be starting on Sept 2nd. Mind you, it's May 29th when the send this home. At this point, I've got tickets for La Nouba, tickets for MNSSHP, Free Dining, and all my ADR's are made, there is no way I am even contemplating changing my vacation now, so my two kids will be missing the first two days of school to be in Disney World too. I wouldn't ever plan it that way knowing that they would be missing school, but I don't feel the least bit bad about keeping them out of school for the trip.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I'll add my $.02 to yours! I agree with you, but I also believe you have take cues from your own child(ren). If they struggle to keep up with the class, probably not the best decision to take them out and force them to peddle even faster when they get back to catch up. But if they are good students and learn at generally the same rate as the rest of the class (or better), I agree whole-heartedly. Next March will be the third time we've taken ours out, and they know that's a privilege of being good students. (They'll be in 4th and 2nd grade)

I beg to differ. In the big scheme of life, pulling kids out of school probably has benefits that go well beyond what they would learn in school that week. If you were to take your child to a foreign country for example, or to a national park - that could easily be a major life altering event.

BUT - and this is going to depend on the grade level and school system involved- pulling your kids out of school for a week - has a strong likelyhood of impacting their grades. Probably not at the kindergarten or grade school level (especially where the grading system is: U, S and O - unsatisfactory, satisfactory, and outstanding.) When you start talking about high school and middle shcool though the odds go up greatly, especially if the child also gets ill that same marking period and misses more school.

I do speak from personal experience, and especially coming from a rigorous school system. Many kids grades do suffer. I'm not saying it's a given, but it is a risk parents should not dismiss out of hand either.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

So much for the OP's comment about not turning the thread into a debate about whether or not to pull kids out of school.

 

[dvcdisney]

The first time my son did something about our vacation was when he was 4. The teachers didn't ask, but we thought it was a nice thing to provide the teacher. She asked him, to present it to the class. What he did was draw pictures as a journal. Each day, he would write a word about the picture (we had to spell it for him) and then he would do it again for the next day.

The next year (5 yrs old- kindergarten), we went twice so for the first one, he did the pictures journal again and then the second time, he decided to do pictures of the countries in Epcot. We helped him with the spelling and he drew something about each country.

The next year (grade 1) he was asked by the teacher to do a journal for each trip. He wrote one or two sentences and drew pictures.

Then from then on, he has been asked to do a journal except for this year (grade 4). The teacher didn't ask him to do anything but some catch up homework and so he decided to learn a few phrases from each country.

I think any type of presentation is great at that age. It really shows the teacher that children do learn some things at Disney. We have always found this to be true. Some people laugh when we say it, but they stop laughing when my son, at the age of 7, can say thank you in 5 different languages.

Have fun with it. Your child will enjoy it.

 

[Bambi222]

I'll add my $.02 to yours! I agree with you, but I also believe you have take cues from your own child(ren). If they struggle to keep up with the class, probably not the best decision to take them out and force them to peddle even faster when they get back to catch up. But if they are good students and learn at generally the same rate as the rest of the class (or better), I agree whole-heartedly. Next March will be the third time we've taken ours out, and they know that's a privilege of being good students. (They'll be in 4th and 2nd grade)

I agree, every situation will be different and as parents we need to make a decision on whats best for our kids. I don't think there is one answer for all situations, there is always a grey area where we need to use our best judgement.

 

[Angel Ariel]

experiencing the different musical/cultural opportunities around world showcase....japan, morocco, the voices of liberty, etc.....There are so many options DH and I haven't even seen them all, and videos of parts of the performances would make for good presentation material.

 

[CapJack]

I believe this question can only be answered based upon the child's academic level. I took my DD out of 1st grade this year for 1 week and teacher had no problem. DD is 2 grade levels ahead in reading & above grade level in math skills. I would say that usually it would not a problem to take kids out of school in early grades provided that children have no problems in school. On the other hand if child is having problems learning time spent away could further hurt their academic achievement. Another thing to consider is some school districts have attendance requirements. Example is my child's district has a rule 10 days absence or tardy generates mandatory letter home advising parent that 1 more absence or tardy there will be mandatory meeting to discuss child's situation. As you can see if you take out for week 5 days and child is sick or tardy a number of times you run the risk if not achieving academically your child may be left back or at the very least you have an uncomfortable meeting with a school official to explain yourself.

 

[tinkerlisa]

EPCOT is VERY educational with the whole science theme behind future world and social studies theme behind world showcase.
Animal Kingdom is also very educational. Your child can learn all about animals and their habitats including dinosaurs.

Kindergarten is probably to young to do this but for future reference this is what we are doing since we are taking our son out of school for 4 days: I made a journal for him to fill in when the day is done.

We always take our child out of school for vacations. For a 2 reasons. One is it is way cheaper for us to afford a vacation if we go during the off season. The second is my fiance works for a large casino out here in CT. The department he works in makes it very difficult for him to take off the typical school vacations, because for them it is "Peak" time and they get a ton of business. He ALWAYS has Thanksgiving off but has to work Black Friday even though it is his scheduled day off. And as for Christmas, this past christmas and this one coming up we have him here in the morning with us but we haven't had him home on christmas morning with us in 5 YEARS!!!!!! Anyway that is why we take our son out of school for vacations. I don't care what the school says. My son is very smart and always catches up quickly. I don't tell the school either because they go into their rant about their policies regarding makeup work and missed time(which they allow makeup work at the decision of the teacher, which most of them do not allow). I just call them and say that my son will be out of school for X amount of days.