High school student missing school for trip?

[julie1072]

Hi everyone,

We live in Canada, where I believe the school boards are not as strict about taking kids out of school.

Just wondering if anyone has taken their grade 9 child out of school for a week for a trip? It would be near the end of her semester, with another week after we return before exams start. She is a very strong student, most of her marks are in the 90s. She will be diligent about catching up and planning ahead. I'm just not sure how the teachers will feel about this. I do not want to go to Disney during school vacation times....due to the extra expense and the high crowd levels. It's only grade 9, not a grade that her universities will be looking at down the road. It's also not something we will be doing again during her high school career.

Please do not judge my decision, I'm just wondering how it went for anyone else who did it.

 

[disney world dreamer]

Hi everyone,

We live in Canada, where I believe the school boards are not as strict about taking kids out of school.

Just wondering if anyone has taken their grade 9 child out of school for a week for a trip? It would be near the end of her semester, with another week after we return before exams start. She is a very strong student, most of her marks are in the 90s. She will be diligent about catching up and planning ahead. I'm just not sure how the teachers will feel about this. I do not want to go to Disney during school vacation times....due to the extra expense and the high crowd levels. It's only grade 9, not a grade that her universities will be looking at down the road. It's also not something we will be doing again during her high school career.

Please do not judge my decision, I'm just wondering how it went for anyone else who did it.

i live in the niagara falls/buffalo new york area.
the schools are not very strict about taking kids out of school for vacation.
my parents took myself and my 2 older sisters out of school nearly every year for 8 school days to go on a 2 weeks vacation to disney world and central florida in general.
this included every year in high school.
we just let our teachers know 2 weeks in advance and they got our homework to us before we left.
we would then do the homework during downtime on vacation.
we all graduated and went on to receive a college degree.
personally i see nothing wrong with taking your kids out of school.

 

[cjparker0110]

Some schools discourage it because of the "importance of education." The reality is that you have the right to take your child out of school for a period of time for family events. If she is a good student and you aren't worried about her making up her work, then go for it! You guys will have a blast and get to enjoy the parks with lower crowds than other times. Most teachers will get assignments to her before she goes, some will probably make her wait. The sooner you talk to them, the better.

 

[katyjeka]

This topic is discussed a lot on the boards. It can get heated at times. I personally feel it's a decision that should be discussed with the parents, teachers, and most importantly the student. Making up work in 9th grade can be tough though not impossible. I can understand the desire to miss the crowds and extra expense as we thought of doing the same when our oldest was in highschool. It was our dd who changed our mind as she stated she would not enjoy the trip as much as she would if we waited til summer. Some of her teachers were less than happy when she mentioned it to them. She also was concerned about the amount of makeup work and said this would be on her mind the entire trip. Each child is different and this may not be a problem with yours. We decided to move our trip to the day after Memorial day, she missed the last day and a half of school which teachers were fine with. She had no makeup work and missed nothing. The crowds were surprisingly small and we were able to get a good rate on the hotel.

 

[mjkacmom]

Taking a high school student out of school really isn't done here. If there is a medical reason, the school is obligated to work with you. Here, freshman year is just as important as the rest, contributing to the final GPA. I did take dd18 out for two days a couple of years ago, but it was one of those weeks where she had three days off anyway, and the schools know that many families turn it into a vacation week, so the workload is light. Ask around - I'm sure your local parents will have a better grasp on the situation. Your child, your choice, but keep in mind there may be tough consequences.

 

[bjscheel]

What does your daughter think? DD16 would have freaked out to miss a week in 8th grade, but in 9th grade she would have been fine with it. It was a pretty easy year for her- she really wanted us to take her out for a vacation because she was bored, but we didn't. This year (10th) would be a little harder to miss but I think she would still go for it as long as there wasn't anything huge that week.

If she thinks she'll be fine, then maybe have a visit with her school and make sure all is okay.

 

[Jarmo]

I'm 32 so it's been a bit since I was in high school, but the fact that this is even a concern now makes me dread having to send my kids to school.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

We did this year. My oldest was in 9th grade and we took him out the entire week after thanksgiving. We have done this many times. We get a longer trip because the boys get 3 days off for thanksgiving too. So we have 12 days with them only missing 5.

9th grade does count toward their final GPA. My oldest still has a 4.0 with 4 weeks left of school. So I don't think it hurt him. Youngest isn't doing nearly as well, however he did great the first half of the year when he missed for vacation. It's now that he's gone down in grades. I think he's already on summer break in his mind!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I'm 32 so it's been a bit since I was in high school, but the fact that this is even a concern now makes me dread having to send my kids to school.

When was it ever NOT a concern????

I'm not sure just prior to exams is a good time. That would be tough, IMO. Also, all 8 semesters of HS count equally toward final GPA, so I'm not sure why you think colleges won't care what her grades are as a freshman.

 

[kamik86]

The only thing I would be worried about is I assume that 9th grade is the first year of high school there like in the states? Given that this is the end of the year I"m guessing your looking at a trip for NEXT year. So she is still in 8th grade.

Even if you get her feelings on the situation (which you probably should) I would worry that she doesn't yet know how she would feel about this. I know my 8th grade school didn't have finals... High school did. She doesn't yet know who her teachers will be and their expectations (some teachers you have assignments in class that will make you lose points just by virtue of not being there even if you know the material perfectly already) and these things could play into the decision.

I definitely was taken out of high school but never for a full week, just a few days at a time. In my school a week would have been tough since we had A and B weeks where one week we would be in normal rotating classes and one week in shop the whole time. If you missed 30 hours of shop for a week you could be VERY behind and its something you would have to make up in school for some shops since you need special equipment. If you missed a week of academic classes it would be easier as you could use the nights of your shop week (since we rarely had homework on shop weeks) to make most of it up and be back on track.

 

[Thing 1]

Is that middle school or high school??? Big difference. Most places in the US, that is high school and those grades do count toward collage. Middle school we took our DS out without an issue. HS, we would not even consider it. We have block class and if you miss 7 or more classes you get no credit for the class. Find out what the official policy is on missed grades and absence and decide if your daughter is willing to deal with the consequences.

 

[Jarmo]

When was it ever NOT a concern????

15 years ago, where I went to school it was relatively commonplace. I think threads like this are ultimately pointless because every student will be in a unique situation.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

15 years ago, where I went to school it was relatively commonplace. I think threads like this are ultimately pointless because every student will be in a unique situation.

I graduated HS 30 years ago & it was pretty much unheard of around here.

 

[SEA333]

I'm 32 so it's been a bit since I was in high school, but the fact that this is even a concern now makes me dread having to send my kids to school.

Haha...oh, you have no idea, do you!!!!???

Not only is *this* a concern, but so is:

- your kid can't have PBJ in their lunch because of allergies. Not their own allergy, mind you....this is "just in case" there is a kid nearby with one of *his* own.
- your kids can't have candy or "junk food" in their lunch because it's not good for them
- 1st graders are not allowed to wiggle their loose teeth during school hours because it is distracting and spreads germs
- kids can't play tag on the playground because someone might run through the recess aide-managed kickball game
- kids can't have a freeze pop at the end of year picnic because one kid in 5th grade is allergic to corn syrup
- kids cannot play catch with a nerf football on the blacktop because the ball might hit some other kid
- Kids cannot participate in any activity that depicts Halloween at their "fall Festival" party because of the random kid that doesn't celebrate Halloween
- Except the 45-minute, all-school costume parade around the school. That is fine.
- kids cannot participate in any activity that depicts Christmas at their "winter festival" party because of the random kid that doesn't celebrate Christmas.
- Except the first graders who get to watch Polar Express every year. And the 5th graders who got candy canes.
- kids are not allowed food or treats at said parties but the teachers can feed them Starbursts and Skittles all year long
- Kids get three months to work on an in-class only writing project in 3rd grade, then if they are not done on the last day, the parents are alerted for the first time that they have overnight to finish it because tomorrow they are filming for Youtube. (Twice this year....)
- kid-led homework is no longer. Most things now are "family projects". Yay....we all get to be in 4th grade again this weekend as we spend $30 bucks on diorama materials and skim the social studies book so we know what it's about before we do the project for the kid because let's face it...no 9 year old is capable of creating the Golden Gate Bridge out of string, duct tape, paint and cardboard on their own. Try pulling dad away from the NFC Championship Game for that one.
- Ger ready to pony up for every supply needed and t-shirt offered...apparently kids need a t-shirt to commemorate everything these days: the last day of school....the spring concert....field day...Earth day...spiritwear....field trip day...adopt-a-cop day....it really never ends.

Can you tell I am reallllly ready for this school year to be over??!?!!!

 

[DisMom829]

Haha...oh, you have no idea, do you!!!!???

Not only is *this* a concern, but so is:

- your kid can't have PBJ in their lunch because of allergies. Not their own allergy, mind you....this is "just in case" there is a kid nearby with one of *his* own.
- your kids can't have candy or "junk food" in their lunch because it's not good for them
- 1st graders are not allowed to wiggle their loose teeth during school hours because it is distracting and spreads germs
- kids can't play tag on the playground because someone might run through the recess aide-managed kickball game
- kids can't have a freeze pop at the end of year picnic because one kid in 5th grade is allergic to corn syrup
- kids cannot play catch with a nerf football on the blacktop because the ball might hit some other kid
- Kids cannot participate in any activity that depicts Halloween at their "fall Festival" party because of the random kid that doesn't celebrate Halloween
- Except the 45-minute, all-school costume parade around the school. That is fine.
- kids cannot participate in any activity that depicts Christmas at their "winter festival" party because of the random kid that doesn't celebrate Christmas.
- Except the first graders who get to watch Polar Express every year. And the 5th graders who got candy canes.
- kids are not allowed food or treats at said parties but the teachers can feed them Starbursts and Skittles all year long
- Kids get three months to work on an in-class only writing project in 3rd grade, then if they are not done on the last day, the parents are alerted for the first time that they have overnight to finish it because tomorrow they are filming for Youtube. (Twice this year....)
- kid-led homework is no longer. Most things now are "family projects". Yay....we all get to be in 4th grade again this weekend as we spend $30 bucks on diorama materials and skim the social studies book so we know what it's about before we do the project for the kid because let's face it...no 9 year old is capable of creating the Golden Gate Bridge out of string, duct tape, paint and cardboard on their own. Try pulling dad away from the NFC Championship Game for that one.
- Ger ready to pony up for every supply needed and t-shirt offered...apparently kids need a t-shirt to commemorate everything these days: the last day of school....the spring concert....field day...Earth day...spiritwear....field trip day...adopt-a-cop day....it really never ends.

Can you tell I am reallllly ready for this school year to be over??!?!!!

SEA333, you have me dying laughing! EVERYTHING you said I have dealt with this year! Are you in Texas also??? Except for us it was "Story Book Character Parade". Not Halloween costume parade.
ADD
- parents are requested to send snacks for the entire class. Mind you said snacks cannot contain any nuts, no chocolate allowed, no cupcakes, no iced cookies. Cereal is an allowed snack, no marshmallows in cereal or cookie crisp.

 

[luvmy2babies]

Haha...oh, you have no idea, do you!!!!???

Not only is *this* a concern, but so is:

- your kid can't have PBJ in their lunch because of allergies. Not their own allergy, mind you....this is "just in case" there is a kid nearby with one of *his* own.
- your kids can't have candy or "junk food" in their lunch because it's not good for them
- 1st graders are not allowed to wiggle their loose teeth during school hours because it is distracting and spreads germs
- kids can't play tag on the playground because someone might run through the recess aide-managed kickball game
- kids can't have a freeze pop at the end of year picnic because one kid in 5th grade is allergic to corn syrup
- kids cannot play catch with a nerf football on the blacktop because the ball might hit some other kid
- Kids cannot participate in any activity that depicts Halloween at their "fall Festival" party because of the random kid that doesn't celebrate Halloween
- Except the 45-minute, all-school costume parade around the school. That is fine.
- kids cannot participate in any activity that depicts Christmas at their "winter festival" party because of the random kid that doesn't celebrate Christmas.
- Except the first graders who get to watch Polar Express every year. And the 5th graders who got candy canes.
- kids are not allowed food or treats at said parties but the teachers can feed them Starbursts and Skittles all year long
- Kids get three months to work on an in-class only writing project in 3rd grade, then if they are not done on the last day, the parents are alerted for the first time that they have overnight to finish it because tomorrow they are filming for Youtube. (Twice this year....)
- kid-led homework is no longer. Most things now are "family projects". Yay....we all get to be in 4th grade again this weekend as we spend $30 bucks on diorama materials and skim the social studies book so we know what it's about before we do the project for the kid because let's face it...no 9 year old is capable of creating the Golden Gate Bridge out of string, duct tape, paint and cardboard on their own. Try pulling dad away from the NFC Championship Game for that one.
- Ger ready to pony up for every supply needed and t-shirt offered...apparently kids need a t-shirt to commemorate everything these days: the last day of school....the spring concert....field day...Earth day...spiritwear....field trip day...adopt-a-cop day....it really never ends.

Can you tell I am reallllly ready for this school year to be over??!?!!!

I feel you on that project. I got an email last Friday that said "If you are getting this email it means your child has not turned in the math project that was due April 21st. Please get it to me by early next week so I can finish getting the grades done..."

Now mind you I am grateful she didn't just give my child a 0 on the project. I just would really have appreciated finding out sooner. It seems this year they work on so many projects in school instead of at home and it's been nuts for us because after I buy the materials I'm asking day after day after day about the progress trying to avoid having to do it last minute. I actually didn't mind working on it at home because at least then I knew she did it.

That Friday she had a spring concert for choir, on Saturday a gathering with friends that I really wanted to go to and Sunday after church I had another meeting. Not a good time to get an email saying a project was due 3 weeks ago and the teacher wants it now. I actually got 2 like that within 2 days of each other. Fortunately for me she had done one project and just for some reason I'll never know, left it in homeroom.

Just a bit longer.

 

[julie1072]

Also, all 8 semesters of HS count equally toward final GPA, so I'm not sure why you think colleges won't care what her grades are as a freshman.

That's why I pointed out that we are in Canada. Grade 9 does not go towards a "GPA"..whatever that is. Admittance is based on the final years of school. So grade nine is not important in that respect.

What does your daughter think? DD16 would have freaked out to miss a week in 8th grade, but in 9th grade she would have been fine with it. It was a pretty easy year for her- she really wanted us to take her out for a vacation because she was bored, but we didn't.

She said she doesn't mind. She finds school very boring and not challenging enough on a good day. She excels in all classes.

My problem is that I want to book this summer, for January, so it's not like I can talk to the school ahead of time. I was just curious if anyone found that their child had a hard time catching up when they got back. A lot of classes tend to wind down toward the end, so I thought that near the end of the semester would be better. She will still have time to study.

 

[SEA333]

I feel you on that project. I got an email last Friday that said "If you are getting this email it means your child has not turned in the math project that was due April 21st. Please get it to me by early next week so I can finish getting the grades done..."

Now mind you I am grateful she didn't just give my child a 0 on the project. I just would really have appreciated finding out sooner. It seems this year they work on so many projects in school instead of at home and it's been nuts for us because after I buy the materials I'm asking day after day after day about the progress trying to avoid having to do it last minute. I actually didn't mind working on it at home because at least then I knew she did it.

That Friday she had a spring concert for choir, on Saturday a gathering with friends that I really wanted to go to and Sunday after church I had another meeting. Not a good time to get an email saying a project was due 3 weeks ago and the teacher wants it now. I actually got 2 like that within 2 days of each other. Fortunately for me she had done one project and just for some reason I'll never know, left it in homeroom.

Just a bit longer.

I'm not the only one!!!! LOL (whew!)

I agree - I know my youngest is the slowest, most distractable kid in the universe, so the "first quarter writing project" that came home with a note that said "A had 3 months to do this writing project in class and he didn't finish it. Please have him finish it and bring it to school tomorrow", I wasn't surprised, but I wept at the thought of knowing I was going to spend the next 6 hours going through every.loving.word. and. sentence with the kid. I seriously had to get pizza for dinner and practically got on my hands and knees to thank the greater powers that it wasn't a Monday, Wed, or Thursday and we were actually HOME on Wednesday evenings at that time of year. I'm all for school coming first, but if a 8 year old needs to write 6 more pages of a 20 page paper on every single detail of how to play football, I'm going to need at least a weekend!

I wrote a email to the teacher telling her what a wonderful job she is doing and how great I think she is, but if A is ever that far behind in a 3-month project to Pretty Pretty Please let me know so I can help him catch up before the day it's due. She agreed.

Then 2 weeks ago, I got the SAME note home about the 4th-quarter paper! It needed to be handed in the next day because Spring Open House was the next evening and Mrs. Teacher wanted their speeches recorded for youtube so that she could play the videos during open house. OMG....all I could think was it't almost over...it's almost over....

Wouldn't you know it...DS kept complaining he wasn't feeling good, but we finished the paper at about 9:30pm and off to bed he went. 5am the next morning, he was running a 103 fever and ended up with Strep Throat. I talked to the teacher who said she could do his youtube video when he got back to school and wouldn't you know it - she never made time for it and he never did it.
(headsmack!)

 

[SEA333]

SEA333, you have me dying laughing! EVERYTHING you said I have dealt with this year! Are you in Texas also??? Except for us it was "Story Book Character Parade". Not Halloween costume parade.
ADD
- parents are requested to send snacks for the entire class. Mind you said snacks cannot contain any nuts, no chocolate allowed, no cupcakes, no iced cookies. Cereal is an allowed snack, no marshmallows in cereal or cookie crisp.

LOL Every single thing on that list is absolutely something that I have personally experienced with my kids' schools. We were in MI at first (the "no tag" on the playground and tooth-wiggling thing was my oldest's First Grade teacher - we seriously got a note telling us that he was not allowed to wiggle his tooth anymore. LOL), and now we are in a west suburb of Chicago, which is pretty much where everything on the list has happened.

When DS14 was in Kindergarten, we had to send in a box of graham crackers every so often for the whole class. They ate a cracker and a cup of apple juice or water every single day the whole year. DS won't even touch those things to this day and he is a Freshman in high school!

 

[katyjeka]

Still laughing. Funniest post I've read in over ten years and oh so true. Don't forget we now have to bathe the kids in germ X or they may not survive to adulthood. Main reason we started homeschooling and have never looked back.