I'm so bummed.. (updated- pg4)

[ksjayhawks]

I think that the whole point of this discussion revolves around choices--making choices. Anything that we decide to do in life has consequences--good and bad. Hopefully most people make decisions after thinking about the consequences (though we all know that many do not.) Whatever choice you make, you should be willing to accept the consequences. If you aren't, then don't make that choice!

All schools have differing policies on absences, vacations, etc. Depending on what your school's policies are, you make the choices. But, again, you must be willing to live with the consequences of these.

My youngest is still in elementary school and luckily he can miss for vacation and it is counted as an absence. He gets the work from the teacher before we leave if possible. If not, it means some extra work when we get back. At this point in his life, we are willing to do that. (We also did that with our older daughter.) However, next year he will be in 7th grade and in junior high. Unless there is a family emergency or illness, I will not pull him out to go on vacation. We will make plans to do this at other times when he is out of school, knowing that it will cost us more. I will budget accordingly and save extra to cover the cost. That is my choice.

I am a teacher (currently subbing/doing homebound due to family reasons) and over the years have had students gone for illnesses and emergencies and for vacations. I teach 7th-12th math. I can tell you that most of the students who have been gone from the math classes can have a lot of work to do to catch up. Many times they miss critical teaching moments with new concepts, etc., that can make it harder later on. Sometimes I am able to stay late after school and help them, sometimes I just can't. The work that the students miss in other classes can pile up just as quickly. (I have never been told what do to in cases of vacation like another poster mentioned.)

I have also done homebound work over the years, so I know the amount of work that can be given to a student to work on during a week's time. With homebound we get 10 hours max a week and it can be tough to get all I need to help them with in during that time period--which must also include proctering tests and quizzes.

Again, it has to be up to the individual family as to what to do. You need to talk to your school--principal, teachers--and find out policies, see what can be worked out, and their feelings on being gone for this reason. Yes, you can complain, etc., but what does that really get you in the long run other than your vacation? What does that teach your child? I would never submit a false note--you are forcing a child to lie and not be able to share their vacation with their friends. Also, it would usually come out anyway and then you have to deal with cleaning up the falsehood. Remember, it is easier to tell the truth--noone is a good enought liar to keep up with all the lies! And, as I tell my students, if you lie to me, I lose trust in you and it is very hard to earn that trust back.

So . . . I would suggest looking at the choices, weighing the consequences and making your decision--being willing to live with the consequences.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[Laurarn]

april riddle: I think you may have misunderstood my post. We went on the cruise in Oct. 2003 and wanted to go again in Oct. 2005. (To allow time to save up again). We rebooked on board and got the discount and stateroom credit. However, since the new "traditional calendar" starts in 2005(eliminating our fall break), we decided to move the cruise up to 2004 (this October's fall break). It's alittle tight on the budget, but we really want to go on the cruise again. I grew up in PA and we always started after Labor Day. That was great, but that was all I had experienced. Now that we've been here 8 years and have tried "year round' and the "modified" calendars. We really like those better...Just our opinion. We prefer not to take the kids out of school and its just too expensive for us to travel (on big vacations) during peak vacation times like summer and the holidays. Fall break worked really well for us. The weather is alittle cooler and places are less crowded and less expensive. A few years ago, we went to Myrtle Beach the first week of October. The water was still 78 degrees and it was beautiful! My kids were ready for school on August 2nd. They had been off for 8 wks. this summer. Next summer will be rough. They get out the end of May and go back (I guess) the end of August. They do alot during the summer, but tend to get bored (and on each other's nerves..and parent's too) by the end of break. My opinion is that they changed the calendar, not for the children, but to fatten the wallets of the coastal businesses for the month of August.
Oh well, on the bright side, we still get to sail with Mickey soon

 

[lbgraves]

To the OP, you need to talk to the principal of your DD's school. When I registered DS in Kindergarten last spring I was told it would be no problem. I read the handbook & was a bit concerned because they also send the matter to court with more than 15 days out of school for the year. I talked to the principal about it again & she explained that policy is set up to protect children who are in "unhealthy environments" and watch out for neglect or abuse. They are guidelines that are set up.

Also, IDK exactly what the important tests are called or when they are held, but starting in 3rd grade 90% of the school needs to take them. I am pretty sure that it has something to do with the no child left behind thing.

 

[tweetsie]

Originally posted by FredS
Angry? No, I am not at all angry. But perhaps my frustration showed when I just stated my firmly held opinion of what I would do in these circumstances, and repeated it when some said that they disagreed with ME, but their disagreement seemed actually with the school, and not addressing my reason (the child's feelings at getting zeros, being behind in her lessons and disapproval from her teachers) for not taking the cheaper vacation. If OP or anyone feels that their child would not be bothered by this then obviously that is their choice. I think nearly all children, particularly one who is an excellent student, would be upset at the repercussions.

I didn't say the school was perfect, the rules were absolutely fair or that families didn't matter! Family time is absolutely priceless. Not the point. Family time can be spent many places in many ways at many times. But if it was my choice I simply would find other times and places than this one which will cause problems for my child. It is that simple.

P. S. Also, I must add that throwing a fit to get one's way, lying and obtaining fraudulent doctor's excuses (what is your child supposed to say when she returns from a week-long absense and everyone is saying how sorry they are that she was sick for so long? wow...) don't seem like the best example for one's child, but again, parents are allowed the make the choices they see fit.

Fred S.
I totally understand and agree with what you are saying. Last year we went on the four-day cruise in mid October. I chose that week because my dd was supposed to be out for two days which would leave her only missing three days of school. I talked with the school beforehand to see if I could take her out without a lot of repercussions. It was approved. I was told to go on and enjoy our vacation. BUT if I had been told that she would get zeroes for the days that she missed, I would not have hestitated to reschedule the cruise for a later date in which she would not miss school. By the way we ended up having to take the entire week because school was closed due to a hurricane and they had to be out of school for two days so they used the days that she was scheduled out as make up days.

 

[abitjaded]

A note to those of you whose schools have gone from traditional to year-round. This is often a matter of the number of students. We live in an older, established area, but there WERE many fields that are now filling with newer high density housing. The schools are maxed out, and rather than building a new school, it is cheaper to go to a year round calendar. We have four tracks, three of which are on at any time. Sometimes there are changes forced by school districts and states that even the local schools despise. I could rant here about idiot budget cuts forced on Colorado students by an ill-advised voter passed initiative, but I won't.

I am the Parent/Community/Teacher Liaison at the track school. Our school is half free lunch, and let me tell you, the penalties for keeping your kid out of school are there for a reason, but I think we can exclude the type of responsible parent posting here.

Imagine my dilemma, my youngest goes to the track school, my oldest will be in Jr. High, which has a traditional calendar and my DH works at a University with a totally different calendar. We always have traveled in October and January, when both kids were tracked and DH was either on vacation or sabbatical. I priced the summer 2005 DCL cruises for the three whole weeks when everyone was off at once and had a heart attack at the price differences!

The upshot is one last cruise for us in October of this year, pulling the second grader out (on the week when the district does the official head count no less) then Hawaii on frequent flyer miles in 2005. Probably never can afford a Disney Cruise again, sigh.

Carla

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Just popping back on this thread to update- as you can see from my sig line we postponed (quite a bit actually) our first Disney Cruise. It wasn't ONLY because of the school year changing where our cruise was no longer going to be during a "break" we've had for many years at that time though- although that was a factor in the decision... it just made it easier to make the decision is all.
We decided to postpone a bit mainly because we want to be able to make our first Disney Cruise really special with time spent at WDW staying at GF concierge, limo, etc. (you know what I mean) and with Christmas coming up PLUS we just purchased a new house (along with the down pymt and all that you know) -we would have had to "watch" our money a little on that cruise and we really didn't want to do that... couple that with the fact that we'd ALSO maybe have difficulties with some of my eldest daughter's teachers and/or principal getting to make up the work missed since she's no longer going to be out of school that week since the school calendar changed this year... we just decided it was best to just postpone the cruise.

At first we were going to aim for early June 2005 but ofcourse the price for that is WAY WAY higher than our Feb 2005 was (since we booked it over a year earlier!) -so then we thought June 2006 might be better- to get the early rates soon as the dates came out (back then the dates hadn't come out yet for 2006) and maybe even get the original rooms we wanted (secret porthole). However, then we found out about the special May 27th cruise in 2006- we decided to go with that. It's the day after school ends that year- so even if we decide to leave a day early my then 6th grader, 2nd grader and Kindergartener won't miss a thing the last day (they usually just have parties and such). But we'll probably just leave that night and tack on the days AFTER the cruise (even though I think I'd prefer WDW before the cruise-- but ohwell, we'll live LOL).

So we changed our booking to May 27th, 2006- unfortunately even though we were on a waiting list before the 2006 dates got out- we didn't get the secret porthole rooms. But we still have connecting porthole rooms for this cruise (still on the waiting list for secret porthole rooms but doubt those will come open for us) and it's not much more than we were paying for our originally planned cruise.

I think this will work out best for everyone- especially since we really would have preferred our first cruise to be the Western anyway- but we were going with Eastern ONLY because we thought it would be the week the kids were out for break at school (which ofcourse didn't work out when they changed the school calendar a year after we booked the cruise). It's a longer wait- but it will be well worth it... we won't have to penny pinch AT ALL... we won't have to worry about the kids missing school and dealing with makeup work and/or grades poor from missing school... AND we get TWO days at Castaway Cay! Sounds like a good deal to me!

 

[ksjayhawks]

Glad everything worked out for your family!!!!!!!!

 

[DrCavin]

BibbidyBobbidyBoo:

Congrats on booking your cruise. We have a Yahoo group setup for anyone cruising in May 2006; there are many people sailing on May 27 because of the 2 trips to CC. Stop over & join our group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DisMay2006/

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Thanks to both of you- and thanks for the link too! Cool!

 

[dzneprincess]

BBB....we have a 052706 thread going on over in the cruise meets board, and sorry but I got 2 of the SPR rooms

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Oh you........ grrrrrrr...... LOL

Well, I used allseastravel for my original cruise and spoke with them about changing it- clearing that my insurance would transfer and all that before deciding on either rebooking another date (the May 27th, 2006) or cancelling and rebooking again in the future (our full pymt due date/cancellation date hadn't arrived yet) and once I got that cleared- I said put me on the waiting list for that date once it came out.
Ofcourse I've already said I didn't get the secret porthole rooms but we were in the process of moving to our new house at the end of Sept when he called me about the dates opening and that I didn't get the secret porthole rooms- and I said well then book us the same as we had for the Feb cruise.
He said he'd do so and things would go like they were before.
I assumed that meant I'd get the email itinerarie immediately like I did when I booked with them originally and I'd get it in the mail soon after. It's been a month- and nada. So last night I emailed allseastravel and someone else (not the same person) emailed me the itinerary and.......

GRRRRRRR it's not the same rooms!
When I booked over a year ago for the Feb cruise at first for cat 9 connecting rooms they gave me 2595/2596 (I think that's the right numbers) and I read on a website linked here (someone's website with tons of info- can't remember what it was so I can check it again!) that those were rooms near a lot of noise. So I immediately changed it to 2662/2664 (something like that- I'd have to look it up to get the exact numbers if that is wrong) and that's what they sent me by email and regular mail. That's the rooms we were getting.
Now on the May 27th cruise they have us for the 2595/2596 rooms again! I'm pretty upset because now that they took so long to send me the itinerary information it's been over a month and we were on a waiting list before the dates come out! Now I probably won't be able to change it! Those rooms weren't acceptable to us back then for cheaper rates than the May 27th, 2006 cruise- I'm not sure why they'd think I'd want those rooms while paying a lot more!
I sure hope they can change it...

Anyone know which website I'm talking about that had loads of info about cruises? It's a member here that has that website- it also listed lots of details about the rooms and which were near noise, etc. It's where I learned about the secret porthole rooms too (along with pictures). I'd like to check about those rooms again to make sure I'm correct that those were the noisey rooms numbers. I'm not going to be happy if they are!

 

[mmouse37]

You probably mean Dave's site....

www.dcltribute.com


MJ

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Yes, thank you... that is the website I was referring to.
And yes, the rooms they gave us are listed as noisy rooms... the rooms we had for the Feb cruise were 2622/2624 and not listed as noisy rooms. I sure hope they can switch us at this point- I'm not too keen on ending up in noisy rooms.