Has anyone pulled kids out of school for FD?

[pktbMouse]

The thought had crossed my mind...I know I couldnt do it..Im too chicken..NO WAY would I do it. I was wondering if anyone had actually done it? My kid will be going into 5th grade this year?

 

[stites1]

Mine's going to be in 8th and we were planning to keep him out a week in September even before FD was announced. I've never done this for a week during the school year before, but when we took him out two days for a long weekend trip the teacher only asked that we get her a souvenir ;-)

 

[*TheWigs*]

We haven't booked a vacation around FD, but have gotten FD before just because it is offered during our preferred dates to vacation...but our children are almost ALWAYS pulled out of school for our vacations. Our DD are enrolled in a private Catholic school and the school is great with allowing families to determine what is best for them. As long as homework is either made up or completed prior to the trip, they seem fine with it.

 

[mickeynut1]

We did it two years in a row and it worked out just fine for us . Our two DSs were in middle school (6th/7th grade and then 7th/8th grade) and they missed 6 days each year with no trouble whatsoever. The school was fine with it and they received all their work prior to leaving and were up to date with the rest of the students when they returned. It's a personal decision, but for us, it was worth it and we did it with no regrets .

 

[kchughes]

Always!!!! My DS is a 3rd grader and has been pulled out for 6 days every September since K and will be in 4th grade as well. Not necessarily because of FD, but because that is our preferred travel time. I grew up going to WDW in the summer and waiting 3 hours to ride Space Mountain. Not fun and I will not do it. As long as my DS is doing well and is agreeable to doing what it takes to stay caught up with his classmates, we will continue to take him out of school.

 

[daisy_77]

I'm pulling my 7 year old DD out for a week in Sept for our Disney trip. I am briinging her school work to do and it's really not a big deal ....at least for us.

 

[PrincessatheartMN]

We always pulled the kid out of school for vacation due to my hubby work. This year we will miss the first couple days since my son will have to change school so we dont want him to miss too many days. We will be going for 10 days. I think going to Disney is a learning experience too. So, it is not a big due for us.

 

[ccgirl]

The thought had crossed my mind...I know I couldnt do it..Im too chicken..NO WAY would I do it. I was wondering if anyone had actually done it? My kid will be going into 5th grade this year?

Thus far, I have kept my DD out of school for a week every year. And, sometimes it's not for FD, but just a less crowded time of year. She is in 3rd grade. I think when she is in middle school it will become increasingly difficult. The school she goes to has no maximum amount of days she can miss as long as they keep their grades up. If she had difficulty with her grades, I would not consider it.

Just curious, what are you chicken of?

 

[pktbMouse]

Im kind of chicken from the teachers I guess..they are always putting up banners "every day counts" stuff and are not at all keen on people pulling kids out. Now having said that if I felt it would do no harm to my kid in any way I actually think I would just do it upon reflection. My kid is in GT and pulling him out a week would not make any difference to him one bit, I know he could catch up no problem. We are right now sceduled to go on vacation in August 17th to 25th. (nothing booked yet but planning 5 days Panama city beach and 5 days Disney) Even if we did get some kind of deal, I dont relish the August crowds or heat. I might suggest it to my hubby tonight when he gets home the possibility of September.

 

[DisDaze]

We have pulled our kids out of school every year for a Disney vacation since 2004. Now that they are older I do try to wait until I can combine it with a week that they have a day or two off anyway so they only miss 3 or 4 days.

 

[DisneyFamily123]

I'd think nothing of it... of taking a family vacation during school. Our school calendar is anything but friendly to working families. The school constantly closes 2 hours early because they can do so and still count it as a full school day for purposes of meeting standards. It gets on my nerves.. Why not close for a WHOLE day once instead of closing early several days.

If the school ever made an issue out of it... I would just homeschool for that week. For people who say this is harder on the teachers, I say hogwash.. I used to teach in a school near a military base where the students in my class were changing every day. Not a big deal.

Family time is just as important as school. Some parents have jobs that prevent them from being able to take vacation when schools are normally closed.

 

[TandLMommy28]

We home school year-round in 12 week terms. I have planned it out so that we finished a term a week before our trip (so I have a week to pack and get ready without doing school) and start the new one a week after we get home (so we can unpack and sleep a little). But if my kids were in school? Yup, I'd pull them out. I was in all AP/Honors classes in high school and my parents pulled me out in 9th grade to go in September and they let me skip a week senior year to go with friends. I really can't say that I suffered for it.

 

[JustCallMeMommy]

Our school refuses to put out the school calendar in a timely manner (we won't know when school starts next year until May, at the earliest), so we book and hope we get lucky. I needed to book a free-to-me resort 11 months out for our December trip, so we will more than likely end up taking DD out of school for most of a week. We took her out last year to take advantage of lower crowds.

I truly believe that the concentrated family time on vacation is a tremendous growing time for children. They learn enough and gain enough confidence that I consider it a valuable part of education.

 

[mom2rtk]

They're YOUR kids. So do what you want. I took my son out as a freshman in HS and he kept up his straight A's. It really depends on the kid.

But I wouldn't change from August to September expecting it to be less hot. September is still "surface of the sun" hot.

 

[denman007]

I'll add my 2 cents.

It is not too hard to pull someone out from around 4th grade and under. But as your kids get older, the amount of school work they miss increases.

We took trips each of the first 4 years my DD was in school. My DDis in 7th grade now and we haven't been since she was in 4th. Partly because we didn't want her to miss a week and partly because SHE didn't want to miss a week. (she is high honor roll + perfect attendance)

Trying to go over the summer with crowds and high temps didn't seem like the best way to spend 2-3k.

However this November we are planning on going for a week but she will only miss 3 days of school because they are closed 2 days that week. I plan on getting as many assignments, etc for her to complete. But it will be tough missing the classroom discussions (especially math) - but you only live once, right?

Besides, this might be the last chance to get our entire family together like this.

 

[mom of princessx2]

I book 11 months out as well and decided to go in Oct this year. Low and behold they just released a "new" partial balanced school calender in our area and they are off the entire week that I had booked!! However, I took them out of school last Dec and would not hesitate to pull them again as long as grades are good and it is not a critical testing time. My dh works many hours and my dd's don't see much of him Mon-Fri and he travels a bit so our family vacation time is very important to us.
We have lots of fun and it is very easy to throw in some education at WDW.

 

[pktbMouse]

I'd think nothing of it... of taking a family vacation during school. Our school calendar is anything but friendly to working families. The school constantly closes 2 hours early because they can do so and still count it as a full school day for purposes of meeting standards. It gets on my nerves.. Why not close for a WHOLE day once instead of closing early several days.

If the school ever made an issue out of it... I would just homeschool for that week. For people who say this is harder on the teachers, I say hogwash.. I used to teach in a school near a military base where the students in my class were changing every day. Not a big deal.

Family time is just as important as school. Some parents have jobs that prevent them from being able to take vacation when schools are normally closed.

Thank you so much..youve made me feel a whole lot better about the whole thing, def going to rethink the vacation dates now

 

[nene0182]

I've never taken my DS out of school before for a trip, but this is the first real trip we are taking since he's been in school. I have no problems taken him out of school for a family trip for a few reasons. First, the only time he gets more then two days off in a row is summer and Christmas. Because of a visitation schedule with my son's father these times do not work for us. Also, it's a long trip from North Dakota to Florida. So, if we are going it's going to be a multi day trip, not an extended weekend away. So, whether it is for free dining or not, we would have taken him out of school for a vacation. His school is used to it, especially in the winter when a lot of families escape the cold ND winter.

 

[jeffnpa]

We just had this discussion with friends this weekend, We are pulling our daughter out 3 weeks before school ends this year to go. The thought among friends was its better to do it at the beginning of the year or near the end rather than the middle of school time. I know my daughter stopped bringing homework home by the first week of May, they just did "fun" stuff to occupy time and I am ok with this travel time then.

 

[Tinker1972]

I don't think twice about pulling my kids out of school for a family vacation. We'd never do Disney in the summer, so we usually pull them out at the beginning of the year in Sept, or the end of the yr (late May, early June). My kids are in grade 8, 7, 4 and the little one starts kindergarten in Sept. We've never had any issues. We'll be pulling them out again in Sept/Oct for our next trip to the World!!