How often do you visit with kids?

[TinkB278]

We bought into dvc during the big 2020 sale while our son was basically still a baby. In trying to plan out my trips (and points) for the next few years, I’m now having to consider he will be in public school in the next couple of years. We typically go twice a year during the lower crowd times (I can’t really stand crowds), but of course those are times that kids are in school. I’m hoping to still be able to pull him out of elementary school for a full week for awhile so we can at least continue our September trips, but I’m not sure about pulling him out a second time during a school year, or if we will now have to start traveling over spring break/summer. I’m curious for other dvc members with school aged children, how often do you go, and when?

 

[Tigger's ally]

Don't have school kids anymore but have a grandtinker now. We used to always take our kids for a week every fall the week after Thanksgiving. Then the wife and I would go for a long weekend in May. That always worked for us. Since we take my daughter and grandtinker in the fall now we rely on my daughter to tell us how much school she can miss. Usually she is fine with taking her out Wed-Fri and go for 5 days.

I do think if you can get away once a year without the baby it is still worth going because those trips can be very romantic and really rejuvenating.

 

[LadybugsMum]

We go 2-4 times a year. My kids are on a year round schedule and will be through middle school. So we get to go during some less busy times like the middle of May and early September. We also go sometime around Thanksgiving but never the week of (at this point at least). I'm going to be sad when my kids are in high school on the traditional calendar.

 

[TinkB278]

Don't have school kids anymore but have a grandtinker now. We used to always take our kids for a week every fall the week after Thanksgiving. Then the wife and I would go for a long weekend in May. That always worked for us. Since we take my daughter and grandtinker in the fall now we rely on my daughter to tell us how much school she can miss. Usually she is fine with taking her out Wed-Fri and go for 5 days.

I do think if you can get away once a year without the baby it is still worth going because those trips can be very romantic and really rejuvenating.

This was my backup plan, going just my husband and I for the second trip of the year, maybe Jan-Feb or May.

 

[sheilafri]

Is there a day or two off for parent teacher conferences? We pulled our kids when they already had a day or two off.

 

[Genie+]

Don't have school kids anymore but have a grandtinker now. We used to always take our kids for a week every fall the week after Thanksgiving. Then the wife and I would go for a long weekend in May. That always worked for us. Since we take my daughter and grandtinker in the fall now we rely on my daughter to tell us how much school she can miss. Usually she is fine with taking her out Wed-Fri and go for 5 days.

I do think if you can get away once a year without the baby it is still worth going because those trips can be very romantic and really rejuvenating.

We did many of those 5 day trips when the kids were in school, so they’d not miss a full week. Some years we got lucky when our school scheduled spring break starting a week after Easter. Those were fantastic! Such a lovely time of year to go. It is busy but not bad at all because WDW is a well oiled machine that time of year and usually long park hours too.

I also agree on non-kid trips in between and have another planned for 3 quick park days in spring, flying in early and flying out late. Of course we love going with the kids but it’s nice to live outside their schedule and have an adult weekend. Happy family stays a happy family!

 

[TinkB278]

Is there a day or two off for parent teacher conferences? We pulled our kids when they already had a day or two off.

There aren’t , just early dismissals. Would you take them out for the full week or strictly just the days they had off?

 

[Skywalker3]

We bought DVC in 2011, kids were 7 and 4. We stuck to the school calendar best we could, but would maybe take them out a few days here in there in elementary school, like add a day at Fall Break, but never a whole week. The one time, 2013, we did take them out 4 days, our DS who never gets sick, got sick after that, and used up all his absences for the whole year by Thanksgiving.... We decided never again for that. We just follow the school calendar.

Definitely when the oldest started middle school, we stopped taking them out. Absences for vacations are not excused. We started going only on school holidays, and as soon as the kids got out of school for summer. Many trips were picking them up from school and hitting the road.
We always drive, and need a whole day each for down and back.

We generally didn't like the crowds at Spring break, so haven't done that in many years, but we currently have a trip booked for this March, so we'll see how that goes....also have a fall break trip in Oct scheduled.
Our favorite time to go became late May/early June, which luckily for us in TN, they get out before Memorial Day. We also did lots of Thanksgivings, but now that the DVC AP is blocked out most of the week, that's out. Our other go-to is Fall Break, which often falls around Columbus day. Kids are out a whole week here, finally. Used to be only 2-3 days. When we lived in Louisiana, we often came during Mardi Gras.
So , we adjusted to following the school schedule, and yes, that meant crowds.
We've suffered through the school calendar for all these years now, and we CAN"T wait until we don't have to be tied to it. But you can make it work.

 

[Oldie13]

I’m just here to say this as a teacher
You are the parent so it’s totally up to you when you want your kid to be out

BUT

If you do take your kid out and they fall behind in class or grades drop or whatever, don’t come jumping down my throat that I need to do more to catch them up/raise their grade

AND

If you ask me to make you work in advance, and I do that, don’t come back saying you didn’t do any of it.

Also, make sure your child is ready to be back in the school routine when they come back. I teach middle school and had a student out for a week. I didn’t know why, thought maybe sick. Kid came back and was sleeping in class and not waking up/working. Called parents who said “oh yeah, sleep schedule is off because we were at Disney for that week they were out. Can you just let them make up the work whenever?” They didn’t mean the work they missed while at Disney—they meant allow sleep and send THAT work home for homework.

 

[NorCalFanatic]

There aren’t , just early dismissals. Would you take them out for the full week or strictly just the days they had off?

We take ours out for a full week when they have a week of half days. Makes it easier for them to make up the schoolwork. They’re in lower elementary grades, not sure how many more years we can keep it up though. We go 2-3x a year to DLR plus another trip to Aulani.

 

[NorCalFanatic]

I’m just here to say this as a teacher
You are the parent so it’s totally up to you when you want your kid to be out

BUT

If you do take your kid out and they fall behind in class or grades drop or whatever, don’t come jumping down my throat that I need to do more to catch them up/raise their grade

AND

If you ask me to make you work in advance, and I do that, don’t come back saying you didn’t do any of it.

Also, make sure your child is ready to be back in the school routine when they come back. I teach middle school and had a student out for a week. I didn’t know why, thought maybe sick. Kid came back and was sleeping in class and not waking up/working. Called parents who said “oh yeah, sleep schedule is off because we were at Disney for that week they were out. Can you just let them make up the work whenever?” They didn’t mean the work they missed while at Disney—they meant allow sleep and send THAT work home for homework.

The sense of entitlement of some parents absolutely amazes me. Who raised you? We take our kids out, but they (the kids) know they are expected to make up any missed work asap upon returning. That means no TV, no friends, no Tech until it’s all finished. Falling behind or lower grades also means no more trips. Their school also has a “no vacation packets” rule. Gotta make it up in a timely manner upon return.

 

[CarolynFH]

We only went during school breaks and never pulled our kids out of school. We just made annual visits to Disney, usually Thanksgiving or Spring Break (early March), once just after Christmas to just after New Year’s. In summer we were fortunate to have my parents taking us somewhere away from the heat and humidity!

 

[wench]

When my son was younger, we would always go for Halloween. Luckily his elementary school normally did parent conferences that week, so they only did half days. I didn’t feel guilty pulling him out for a week at that point.

Once he hit Middle School & High School, they cared a lot more about attendance. Then we would travel more during the traditional school breaks or take long weekends to DLR where he’d only miss a day or 2 at a time.

Eventually you probably will have to convert to going during school breaks. But, I think that’s just a normal part of the life cycle of a Disney parent. It’s not ideal, but we all go through it for the love of our parks.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

These types of threads typically produce a plethora of opinions, some of which believe themselves authoritative and others simply adamant that only their opinion is the right one.

The bottom line is that you have to do what's right for your child, and his or her performance in school relative to the rules and regulations of your school and/or district. We can all tell you what we've done, but none of it really matters to you and your family because every situation has its own set of unique parameters that only you can evaluate for you. Do what you think is right for your child, you, and your family, and you will rarely make the wrong decision.

 

[Chuck S]

Well, it is rare that I travel with children

We bought into dvc during the big 2020 sale while our son was basically still a baby. In trying to plan out my trips (and points) for the next few years, I’m now having to consider he will be in public school in the next couple of years. We typically go twice a year during the lower crowd times (I can’t really stand crowds), but of course those are times that kids are in school. I’m hoping to still be able to pull him out of elementary school for a full week for awhile so we can at least continue our September trips, but I’m not sure about pulling him out a second time during a school year, or if we will now have to start traveling over spring break/summer. I’m curious for other dvc members with school aged children, how often do you go, and when?

It is rare that I travel with kids, but there are two in my friends group that I travel with occasionally. Texas usually lets the kids out of school the last part of May, so end May and bery early June is a good time for us to go, some schools are still in session, and the really hot weather hasn't kicked in. yet.

We did a Thanksgiving Week trip once.... Parents said they'd take them out of school rather than face those crowds again, if we go during a time when school is in session. But I doubt that will happen soon, as the kids are now teens, and Diseny is not as cool as it was. LOL So I guess it will be Early June from now on, when they go.

 

[Brian Noble]

Our kids are currently 23 and 25. We started visiting Disney parks just over twenty years ago. Our philosophy was that we would limit family vacations to times when they were not in school--in a typical school calendar here, there were about 15-16 full weeks of vacation between summer, end-of-year holidays and winter/spring breaks. Then add on lots of long weekends, Thanksgiving, etc. We tended to visit Florida for a full week during our February/March winter break but had a few other times sprinkled in there--one or two for Easter, once in the week leading up to and including Christmas, and a summer waterparks-only visit.

Yes, it's a little more expensive to travel then, and yes the parks are often a little more crowded than they might otherwise be. We just figured that was part of the "cost" of having kids. [Iin the grand scheme of things, that was one of the cheaper costs.] But we took aggressive advantage of the time they did have off, typically planning 3-4 weeks of family vacation a year: One week at Disney, one week at the beach, and usually one or two weeks doing something else. The worst years for getting away were when they were in high school, and sports/band/etc. started eating into those vacation weeks. But, they wanted to be involved, so we bit the bullet and cut back in those years.

Looking back on it, I would not change a thing. We had LOTS of great family vacations.

Also, don't turn up your nose at the idea of letting the grandparents watch the kids and getting away just the two of you.

 

[MICKIMINI]

We took our son out of school for many trips including WDW. We gave his teachers plenty of notice so he could keep up with his schoolwork. Most teachers asked him to write about his travels, some on a daily basis. At 35 with a doctorate and lots of initials after his name, he often comments on the places we've been, experiences we've had and how it had such a positive influence on his life.

We switched him to a private K-13 in 8th grade and at that point, we traveled only during breaks (summer, two weeks at Christmas, two weeks in March). It was too intense a curriculum to take time off at that point.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

We go for a 2 week trip every year, usually Nov/Dec. I tell the teacher at the very beginning of the year that my kids will be missing these weeks and will do whatever the teacher wants them to make up. Nowadays they each have a school issued laptop and all of their assignments are online so they can keep up with their work. I’ve never had a teacher or school complain but if they did I’d tell them I’m sorry but my kids are good students and in 30 years they won’t remember anything they would’ve learned these two weeks but they will have memories of this trip and although school is certainly important, family time and life experiences are important too. It’s such a brief time in the larger scope of the whole school year. You’re the parent, do what makes you comfortable and the school will have to accept that.

 

[TinkB278]

We go for a 2 week trip every year, usually Nov/Dec. I tell the teacher at the very beginning of the year that my kids will be missing these weeks and will do whatever the teacher wants them to make up. Nowadays they each have a school issued laptop and all of their assignments are online so they can keep up with their work. I’ve never had a teacher or school complain but if they did I’d tell them I’m sorry but my kids are good students and in 30 years they won’t remember anything they would’ve learned these two weeks but they will have memories of this trip and although school is certainly important, family time and life experiences are important too. It’s such a brief time in the larger scope of the whole school year. You’re the parent, do what makes you comfortable and the school will have to accept that.

Your line of thinking is exactly where my mind is about all of this. I know school is important, but so is their childhood and memories with their families. I’m not exactly a fan of the way public education has gone throughout the years as I don’t know that kids were meant to sit still for 8 hours a day, and forced to learn things that as you mention, they won’t remember in even ten years most likely. At this point in time I’m not sure I can even remember much I learned in college, let alone high school, middle school, or elementary! It makes me sad that I even have to consider feeling like I’m “in trouble” for pulling my kid from school for a week to have memories with me. I know I could do it in the summer or spring break, but I’d rather go at a more pleasant time so our memories of the trip aren’t pure chaos and frustration. We only get such a short time with our kids as kids, I want us both to enjoy it.

 

[Brian Noble]

I know school is important, but so is their childhood and memories with their families.

I'm not sure why you see this as an either-or proposition. The question for most families isn't "should they miss some school or should we not go on vacation." The question is: "Is it worth missing school to save money/go during less crowded times/have better weather/whatever."

The answer to that question might still be "Yes!" and that's something that will differ from family to family. And there are a few special circumstances when the adults cannot get time off when the children are out of school, and that's a different question. But very few people are in that situation.