Homework on VACATION???? I don't think so.

[zippy doo dah]

my family and i are going the last week in nov to beginning of dec and i am going to request their homework the week before we leave. the kids will actually have off from school on the thurs and fri before we leave b/c of thanksgiving break. so my plan is that they will get it on wed., i won't make them do any homework on turkey day, but then they will have fri., sat., & sun to get everything done.

i have to admit, i was a little apprehensive before i booked the trip b/c i don't like the kids missing school unless it is absolutely necessary (i guess that's the in me) so i'm hoping they won't have any problems catching up when we get back.

 

[Disneyof3]

Good luck with all those wishing to get there kids homework a week before they leave. Up here that is not acceptable and aloud. You sometimes don't even get the homework that your kids are going to miss. Mostly it is just review sheets and then when we get home the kids have to catch up. Everytime they end up doing a journal and something on the weather difference and that is it. Luckly I only take my kids out for 3 days and that's it.

 

[megnsamsgracie]

My kids will miss 6 days of school this September for our trip. BUT, it will only be into the 2nd or possibly the 3rd week of school. We are opening a brand new school next year so we arent sure the start date yet, its tenatively set for 9/4 and we leave 9/21. When we went for 3 weeks back in 03 only my son had homework and we got everything ahead of time. I will do that this year too. My kids will be in 5th, 4th, and 1st (and one in PreK with no homework). I will gather up the homework before we go and try and have them at least start it, half of it done would be nice. Thankfully, my kids are all good students and they will do it. They can even work on it while having breakfast in the room before we head out! But that early into the school year, they wont have much homework anyway. They never do.

Also, our school policy is to allow 5 days for a family vacation. So my kids will get just 1 unexcused absence for our 10 day trip. But they get 10 unexcused absences a year and hardly ever come close!

 

[sha_lyn]

Please check with your school/school district policy.
Here the teachers are not suppose to give homework for unexcused absences. I have heard that some will in the lower grades.

 

[Indy's Girl]

As a teacher I just thought I would add my 2 cents to this interesting thread. I have heard so many varying opinions from my coworkers that it is no surprise that sometimes your child is able to get it and sometimes not. Some teachers are absolutly against parents taking their kids out of school for vacations and so end up punishing the child (in my opinion) by refusing to help that child stay caught up. I am not one of those.

I think that it is great if you can give a teacher as much notice as possible that you will be on vacation, but I would not expect the homework any sooner than the child's last few days before leaving. I know that some weeks/days I am soooo busy keeping up with each child in the classroom, grading work and planning that I could not always throw a weeks worth of homework together in a few days. I woud send what I could with the child as close to the date of departure as possible, and also give them a few days after vacation before it was due. I would not give homework a week early because, as another poster said, sometimes we just don't know how far along the class will be at a certain point and most of what is taught is in a sequential manner so homework for 2 weeks later would not be appropriate or beneficial to the child now. Most likely the types of assignments I would give would be something like journaling, and then reporting back to the class.

I think one thing many parents need to understand (not that this applies to any Diser's mind you) is that homework is a very minimal part of a child's education and so if you pull your child out for a week, there is no way to give them in homework the teaching I will be doing in class. I totally agree that life experiences with family is important, but I would encourage parents of the children in my classroom to understand that there child may feel behind or lost for a little while after returning but that I am willing to work with them in class to help them catch up.

Sorry that this got so wordy! Hope this maybe helps some understand why teachers don't/aren't required to give make up work at all or not very early at least!

 

[megnsamsgracie]

Since we live in a small town, I know most of the teachers personally. All the teachers we have encountered have been great with homework. Also, I will know in about a week who my kids will get next year so I will speak to them now and just get their thoughts on giving out homework early. But this has yet to be a problem here in our town... not just with us but friends of ours who take their kids out during school too.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

Please check with your school/school district policy.
Here the teachers are not suppose to give homework for unexcused absences. I have heard that some will in the lower grades.

Same at my kids schools, so when I get the homework for them I am thankful, and I am just as thankful if they are bombarded with work when we get home and given the opportunity to make it up. Never had a teacher refuse and fail my kids for missed work, but I know they are totally within their rights. We have been very lucky to date, but now that DS will be in his sophomore year, I anticipate we may not be so fortunate from here on out. Seems the higher the grade level, the less forgiving the teachers become about missed time and work.

 

[Hannathy]

For some of you whose first child is starting 5th grade this year be aware that 5th is usually the grade that homework increases dramatically. It can go from being done in 30 minutes to 2hrs a night, so I would be surprised if your child could do their 2 hrs from the week they are in and the 2hrs a day for the next week all before leaving.

 

[megnsamsgracie]

Here our "guidelines" written into the policy is 1-5th under 1hr a day for homework (fridays included), then under 2hrs for 6-8 and not sure on HS. But then again, it depends on how the kid does in school and how much help he/she needs. I also dont expect that much less than a month into the school year. I am going to start checking with the 5th grade teachers in the next few weeks before school gets out so I know what to expect. I also put an email in to my kids current 4th grade teacher since when the new school opens, these teachers will just pop over there. We only have 1 elementary school for 2-5th.

 

[perd]

Well...I have two in college and one who will be a senior in high school. One goes to a state university and she will have a microbiology lab on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She is going to email the instructor and see if she can do the labs before she goes, or whether it is going to be mandatory for her to be there on the lab days. If she has to be there, then she will miss the trip. They are pretty strict on showing up for lab. Her other classes are lectures with oh, 400 to 900 students, so she can miss unnoticed (unless it's a class that uses one of the hand-held electronic things to record your presence) and get notes from someone when she gets back. She's only taking 8 hours in the fall so shouldn't be too bad if she can get permission to do the labs before she goes...

Second DD was at the same state university this year, but next year is going to go to junior college instead for the sake of her GPA. She said she doesn't care if it's okay with her instructors or not, she's going on the trip.

Son will be a senior. And well, it's like DH says - it's not like he's going to do any homework even if we don't go on a trip, so it won't make any difference one way or the other. He ummmm....shows up at class, does in-class work and takes tests (and usually does very well on everything he bothers to do), but he WILL NOT do homework.

 

[Finny]

Son will be a senior. And well, it's like DH says - it's not like he's going to do any homework even if we don't go on a trip, so it won't make any difference one way or the other. He ummmm....shows up at class, does in-class work and takes tests (and usually does very well on everything he bothers to do), but he WILL NOT do homework.

Good for him! I think the schools have our kids long enough during the day, homework should not be necessary. How would most of us feel if our bosses sent home extra work to be done, unpaid, after work hours? Reason number two that I homeschool, homework.

Reason one, if anyone is interested, I can vacation at anytime without worrying about needing to make up the school work. And my kids are getting a better education than they would be at our local school.

But I guess this should be another topic!

 

[Tootles]

This is our family's first ever trip to WDW with my DH, DS8 and DS5. We also will be there the last week in November and our children will be missing 5 days of school while at Disney World and we have been considering extending our trip to the surrounding Florida area for possibly another 2 or 3. Therefore our boys could end up missing close to two weeks total. (with driving time) Our DS8 has ADD and CAPD and really struggles in school. He'll be starting Gr.3 in the fall and our other DS will be in first grade by then. Even with my son's learning disabilities (can not focus or concentrate at all!), we feel taking them out of school at that time of the year is worth it. My DS5 will turn 6 years old while we're at MK, the first day of our trip, and with the low crowds, cooler weather, MVMCP, the Candlelight Processional etc. we feel this more than makes up for the time off school. I feel like my kids need a break too, and in fact, my son learns better with me at home (homework) than he does at school. (classroom distractions!) Yes, education is important, but isin't it after all, all of our life experiences that makes life worth living?

 

[pigget74]

When my son was in 3rd grade we took all his work with us to DW. He did some on the ride there, worked for 30min every morning before we went to the park. Fantasmic night we actually took a book with us---we used the hour sitting before show to start to finish up some work. Each night he would do some reading before bed. It was not bad--he finished the remaining work on the drive back. Did he like doing it--no, but he did not question it--we made it known before the trip what was expected.

 

[Conan the Librarian]

I know I am in a minority here but I think kids shouldn't be taken out of school for family vacations at all. That is what summers and holidays are for.

School is WAY too important to be passed over so the family can take a trip.

Of course, I also don't think school groups should take kids to WDW for "A Reward". School is suppose to be about learning, and the reward is getting out for the Summer. You hear stories about how kids aren't learning in school, but, you see thousands of kids taken out of school or taken by the school, to WDW! I don't think I am wrong in pointing out that this isn't going to help kids with Math or Reading skills.

Yes, I do not have any children at this time. We are in the process of adopting (we are looking for two sibling girls at this very moment). We will be homeschooling and they will be doing schoolwork when we come to WDW. In fact, we were talking about making up t-shirts that say something to that effect.

Should we have to put them in a 'school' we will sacrifice and only go on holidays and summer break. School is just too important for missing it for Mickey (no matter how much I like him).

 

[vatmark]

I took my kids out once for our first ever WDW trip and will not do it again. My DS was in 2nd and that wasn't a problem but DD was in 4th and she had a ton of homework she had to do. I don't see how some of the kids are getting the work done in one day? My daughter had to do all the work that she missed in class and all the homework they would have been given along with 30 minutes of reading per night. Along with this she had a journal to write up and had to give an oral presentation. She only missed 3 days but the amount of work was staggering.

There was no way I was going to have her do it on vacation. We were given the homework packet Friday and we left early the next morning. My daughter got some things done that friday after school and the rest she had to finish when we got back. My daughter is an excellent student but even this was a lot for her. She got stressed which got me stressed. Yes, we had a great vacation without the crowds but I won't do it again. Especially now that my son is going into 4th and DD is going into middle school.

Those of you who have schools/teachers that will give the homework a week before your vacation are very lucky.

Annie

 

[Conan the Librarian]

Sorry for the double post.

 

[sha_lyn]

Conan ITA agree with you, but I don't bring it up first when it comes up. It gets very nasty.

I was taken our for a week to go to WDW. Aparently my mom mistakenly looked at the calendar and booked our trip for the 1st week of school. Sure i didn't miss a lot of school work, but the peer situation was horrible. Teachers classmates etc would comment, my homeroom was even changed while I was gone. I remember crying and having stomache aches for several days because of all of it.

Also we took DS our of school for 3 days to attend an out of state wedding. He was in K or 1st. The homework wasn't a problem (did it all on the plane) but once again the peer situation wasn't easy. It took him weeks to live down "skipping school"

 

[megnsamsgracie]

I have taken my kids out several times (not in the same year) for family vacations. Our school boards policy is clearly written to allow for 5 days for family vacation that will be EXCUSED. So our kids will have 1 unexcused absence, they are allowed 10. I have spoken to the teacher who my kids will have next year in 4th and 5th grade already and they are okay with giving homework ahead of time. They are using brand new math and LA books next year so they said they arent too sure how fast a pace they are going to go with but whatever my kids miss that she didnt give us before we left, they will have 1 week to make up the work. Right now my kids get less than 1hr of homework a day and they are in 3rd and 4th grade. Most of the times they are done in 30minutes or less. My son has all A's and one B+. He mainted those grades even through playing sports. Same for my daughter (minus the sports). I have no concerns with either of them making up the work when we are gone. My other daughter will be in 1st and in 1st they get like 10 minutes a night of homework.. IF that. So yes, I am taking my kids out of school and they will miss a total of 6 days BUT I have already talked to the teachers and I have no worries.


Sha lyn... I am sorry that was done to your son. Here, people do it all the time and no big deal is made out of it. Last time we went to Disney, my son did an oral presentation on his trip (we drove from CT to FL) and the kids had SO many questions for him. They enjoyed hearing about it. Not many kids around here get trips to Disney though. We are definitely a working class town around here.

 

[Conan the Librarian]

"Last time we went to Disney, my son did an oral presentation on his trip (we drove from CT to FL) and the kids had SO many questions for him."


Something else we have thougth of. Reports on the trip will be required.

I worry more about school trips than parents taking the kids out of school. Teachers complain about the kids, but, take them to WDW? I think a module on Math would be far more benificial to the student than a trip to the Magic Kingdom. This, of course, comes from someone who didn't go on his senior class trip to Florida (including WDW) because he didn't want to miss out on a Geometry Class. School is just way too important. I know, I know, I am weird.

 

[stagemomx3]

School is WAY too important to be passed over so the family can take a trip.

I could not disagree with you more! Family time is WAY to important to be passed over for school!!!