Letter to School About Absence...HELP!

[kitn]

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[Gales4Goofy]

I know the school handbooks say you need to write a letter, but I think a lot of that is just bureaucratic bullpuckey. Our teachers (kindergarten and 3rd grade) both mentioned it at back to school night and have absolutely no problem with it.

You want to maintain a constructive home/school relationship, but really its not any of their business as long as your within state attendance guidelines. We're planning to write a short note "notifying" them of the upcoming absence.....we are not asking permission!

 

[antmaril]

I agree - do not ask permission. Tell them what you are doing and that's it. You are the parents and you decide what is best for your children.

I will say that it gets much harder as the children get older. We took our son out of school for a few days until he was in the fifth grade. Once he got into middle school, that was it. He really didn't want to miss school anymore. Too much work to make up.

Good luck and have fun on your trip.

 

[disney_family_1247]

As a former teacher, and as a mother, I have to say that your child's school sounds completely ridiculous. Is it private or public? Schools don't have the right to tell you what to do with your own children, or force you to justify taking them on a vacation. There is no way that a kindergartener should have to write an essay on their trip; that is insane!

When I was teaching, I appreciated parents letting me know ahead of time if their child was going to miss a long period of time for a vacation. I would sometimes have a few things prepared that they could work on while they were gone, but most of it was just made up when they got back. That was with fourth and sixth graders, not five year olds.

Your child will only be little for a short period of time, so enjoy it and don't worry about the school! As long as they don't miss more than the days they are allowed to be absent, then ignore the crazy rules

LP

 

[Kevenswife2]

It's a very small public school. I've found out the same handbook was handed out to the sixth graders as to the kindergarteners. I'm hoping the requirements were aimed more at the older kids.

DD is 6 and well ahead of the rest of the class. Her birthday is Aug 12; she needed to be 5 by Aug 1 to start last year, so she has almost a whole year of 'home learning' over the other kids. I can't believe the things she's doing in school! A-B patterns (black, white, black, white...what comes next?). Out of 18 children in her class, 14 got that wrong! What do parents teach their kids? She's been working in workbooks at home since she was 3. She loves them. Oh, and you can't forget the papers she brings home colored with the color red, as that's the color they are working on this week. Don't children learn those things when they're 2 ?!!

After reading all the replies, I'm not worried about DD missing 4 days to go on this vacation. She'll learn much more at Disney (and the eco tour we have planned) than she'll miss at school.

Thanks to all!

 

[Simba's Girl]

DD is 6 and well ahead of the rest of the class. Her birthday is Aug 12; she needed to be 5 by Aug 1 to start last year, so she has almost a whole year of 'home learning' over the other kids. I can't believe the things she's doing in school! A-B patterns (black, white, black, white...what comes next?). Out of 18 children in her class, 14 got that wrong! What do parents teach their kids? She's been working in workbooks at home since she was 3. She loves them. Oh, and you can't forget the papers she brings home colored with the color red, as that's the color they are working on this week. Don't children learn those things when they're 2 ?!!

I also have a youngster that misses the cutoff and is already way ahead of this years K class-especially if you compare to the above . My mom keeps telling me that they "need to know more now" well my 23 month old already knows her colors and her sister (5 next month) is starting to read...so I wonder does she really *need* Kindergarten, other than to learn social skills? Probably not.

 

[JoiseyMom]

I am taking my DD8 out for a week, 5 school days. The week I picked in November is usually our Jersey week. Our district is closed on Th and Fri for NJEA, and the following week they have 4 1/2 days, and are closed for Veteran's Day. At least that is how it has been for the past 15 years that I know of. This year they changed it, and that week is all full days, the following week is 1/2 days. Well, my MIL booked her timeshare already and it can't be changed, so my DD8 will be missing a full week of third grade istead of 4 half days. Oh well. We will be informing her teacher of it on back to school night next week. If she wants to give me work for her that is fine, if not, we will make it up the following week during the 1/2 days. My district frowns upon kids leaving early for doctor appointments. But she is my DD and they shouldn't have changed the schedule . Oh, my mil is a retired NYC teacher, and she has no problem with us taking the kids out of school. I took my older boys when they were in HS out for a week in January, and they were fine too.

 

[tjmw2727]

Originally posted by Kevenswife2
snip,
DD is 6 and well ahead of the rest of the class. Her birthday is Aug 12; she needed to be 5 by Aug 1 to start last year, so she has almost a whole year of 'home learning' over the other kids. I can't believe the things she's doing in school! A-B patterns (black, white, black, white...what comes next?). Out of 18 children in her class, 14 got that wrong! What do parents teach their kids? She's been working in workbooks at home since she was 3. She loves them. Oh, and you can't forget the papers she brings home colored with the color red, as that's the color they are working on this week. Don't children learn those things when they're 2 ?!!

Just wanted to comment that both my dd's just miss our cutoff and don't worry it will get better.

I had a similar situation with my youngest as you descirbed above when she was in K - she is now happy and in 2nd grade. She faked sick to the nurse one day and when I asked her why she would do that she said "You can only talk about Green for just so long".

It took patience and teaming with the teacher but the 2nd month things went much better. The teacher had assessed everyone and was able to better challenge those that were ahead.

It seems by 1st grade they are better able to split the class and challenge all the children appropriately. In the mean time it was a good adjustment for dd to learn to manage herself even when bored, learn the rules and all the other things that go along with school.

As far as absence, we tell the teacher asap and then remind them about a week before hand. Some give work ahead and others wait and make a folder day by day of the assnigments missed. Knock wood the girls have never been penalized in any way for missing school. I do try and limit the # of days and plan around holidays or teacher conference days. We end up with a week over Columbus day with only 2 1/2 days absent!

TJ

 

[Kevenswife2]

I too planned so DD wouldn't miss much school. We're leaving Thanksgiving day, then there's the weekend, then Deer day...ever hear of that? I said she's in a very small public school. She has the Monday after Thanksgiving off as it's the first day of hunting season. So many kids skip that day, the school system worked it in as a day off.

I love Disney during the holidays and, with her scheduled days off, I feel I 'worked' with the school calendar.