Missing School for Disney

[kilee]

I am curious to see what others do and how they feel about this. However, I am not looking for a debate, just respecting each others thoughts would be great.

We always take DS on vacation (particularly to Disney since 4out of 5 trips are there) when school is in session. I usually hear about this at work. DS is 10yr and is doing well in class. Our school district doesn't have a problem with missing for family trips. He usually misses only 5 school days. This October though, he is going to miss 7 days, and I plan on trying to go back in February for another trip-- which he'd miss 5 more for. We don't like to go at the height of travel season, which is Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, or Summer. This is why we go when we do. Also, the prices are down and it's easier to get off from work at these non-peak times.

Looking to see what other families do regarding this.

 

[buddyboo]

I think it's fine when kids are in the lower grades, especially if they are doing well in school. The older they get, however, the harder it gets to catch up. I think two trips in one year might be a bit much,, but talk it over with your child's teacher.

 

[Simba0319]

I have done both. My kids and the teachers have never really had a problem. I think it is better to take them out of school. Easter break at Disney was a nightmare. 2 trips sounds like a lot but if it's cool with the teacher then go for it..I definitely would!!!

 

[jeankeri]

I will be taking my DS6 and DS8 out of school this December as well- full week after Thanksgiving. I'm in full agreement that there is not much in grade school that can't be made up on return. There are some good suggestions in 'Walt Disney World with Kids (Kim Wright Wiley)' on suggestions of WDW related projects (Epcot & AK) kids can do for school if there is resistance from their teacher (or you want them to remember it is a school week!)

 

[m&m's mom]

I took DD out for a week in Kindergarten (1/2 day school only).
I am planning on taking her out for 3-4 days in her 1st grade.
We always said we would not - not take her out (Make sense?)
I was originally planning on not taking her out this year but my DH had a heart attack 3 weeks before we were scheduled to leave for July trip (I told him he will do anything to get out of another trip) so we had to reschedule for Oct. and we are taking her out.
Bottom line: I will hire a tutor if I needed to but I prefer going off-season wherever we go so that's the only option.

 

[Crazy4mandms]

Just took my kids out this past May for 10 days..my 11 yr old enjoyed the spotlight 4 x at his 5th grade graduation ceremony with special awards he earned over the school year and was on the honor roll again so I don't feel that those 10 days off hurt him one bit!! I got with their teachers months ahead of time and had my kids do journaling, reading and math every day (took them about 20-25 mins a day during our "down" time, usually while they were eating lunch in the hotel room) and my 11 yr old spent his 1/2 hour a day recess time the week after we got back catching up (he didn't mind at all since he had just spent 10 days at WDW!!). Before we left I posted on this board looking for advice on educational things for them to do while traveling and boy did I get slammed big time for even considering taking my kids out of school!! I think that ur post is right on...respect others decisions and values no matter what ur own are! We had a wonderful vacation, they got to spend lots of time with workaholic Dad and they were none the worse academically!! Life is too, too short! Go for it!

 

[mamamia]

The first time we went to Disney in February 2000, my kids missed 10 days of school - they were in 4th(DD), 1st(DS), and preschool (DS). The only one who had h.w. was my 4th grader - it was math and social studies h.w. and she had to do a one-page report on one of the shows in Epcot (i think it was the American Adventure). The whole time we were in Disney, I was worried about what would happend when she went back to school. I vowed to never take the kids out of school again. Well, she went back in on a Monday and the class was taking a math test that Friday. I thought for sure that she would do poorly on the test - it was on new material that the class had learned while she was on vacation. Well, it turns out that my DD got the highest grade on the test (it was somewhere in the 90's). I was shocked.

The next time we went to Disney was in Nov. 2002 and my kids were in 7th (DD), 4th (DS), and 2nd (DS) grade and they missed 5 days of school. My 7th grader got a lot of h.w., but we weren't leaving until Sat. morning, so as soon as she got home from school, she did all of her work (it was like 7 1/2 hrs. of homework) and it was her choice to do it all at once - i thought it would be better for her to do it on the plane ride. She went back to school and there was no problems at all - she made honor roll that quarter. Now, my 4th grader got all the math dittos that the class was doing in class and for h.w. for the week plus a few science dittos. He also decided, against my wishes, to do it all at once. The problem with him was that he was too distracted by the trip the next day and was having a hard time concentrating and he wound up crying and he rushed through. We still had to take some of his work on the plane. When he went back to school he handed in the work, his teacher gave it back to him and told him to redo it (which he never did) because she could tell that he rushed through it. But he also made honor roll. My 2nd grader just had to keep a trip journal so that was not a problem.

Taking them out of school was fine with my daughter, but for my son it was stressful - even though they both did fine when they got back to school.

Now, our next trip is scheduled for Sept. 2003 and my kids will be missing 3 days of school. I decided that 3 days isn't a big deal and I don't think I'm going to tell my son's teacher. Last winter when my kids were sick with the flu or strep or a cold they wound up missing 3 days in a row and it wasn't a problem. I'm also hoping that when we go in Sept. we get a little taste of the summer weather to see if we could handle a trip in the summer months. My husband doesn't think we can (but I do). Which is why for my family if we didn't go when crowds were low and weather cooler my DH never would have agreed to go and was very against the summer months. When we went the first time in Feb. the weather was wonderful and crowds low, so my DH couldn't wait to go back. My plan for Sept. is to take it easy and drink lots of water and if its really hot we'll just go in the pool a lot more.

 

[FallDisney]

and while I always said I never would, here I am. DD5 and DD8 are really looking forward to this, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there's very little they're going to miss in K and 3 in one week's time. I'll be talking to their teachers as soon as school starts and both girls do well academically. I figure we can work ahead and not take school work on the trip. We're "stuck" with an October trip to WDW because of my job change. I'm not able to take any vacation until then, but honestly, I'm glad it worked out this way.

 

[Talking Hands]

As an Army brat I used to miss as much as a month of school when we trasferred overseas and back. Never hurt me at all. Why would a week at Disney be a problem.

 

[disneyjunkie]

DS 11 starts 7th grade this Sept. I do not take him out of school for vacation because we can always go during school breaks.

However, this October I'm taking him out for 2 days. The only reason I'm doing this is to have a special, surprise trip for his birthday. I think this will be the only time I'll be able to take him to WDW for his birthday without missing alot of school. We'll get to do MNSSHP on his birthday. Luckly school is closed on Oct. 6 for Yom Kippur.

There's no way I'd take him out for a week. He'd have way to much work to make up.

I don't mind going in the summer. The heat and crowds don't bother us and taking vacation time is not a problem.

 

[Beauty]

John-Cole will miss 2 weeks this year, one in September and one in December. He will be in 6th grade. We have taken him out every year for the past 5 years and have never had a problem. The teachers work with us to get the work done BEFORE the trip and every single teacher he has had agreed and told us that he will learn much more in these weeks with his family than he would in one week of school. J.C. has always been an excellent student and until I see a problem from taking him out we will continue to do so until he graduates.

 

[4greatboys]

We do take ours our of school. Never for more than 5 days and this time it will probably be only 3 day (maybe 4). Once they get into high school its harder. I live in Texas and our state is completely against taking kids out for family vacations so its makes it a little tough but there is no way Im going in peak season. My kids have good grades so as long as its not a problem for them I'll keep going during the school time.

 

[Blondie]

We've taken our boys out of school several times in the past, but will no longer.

Now that they will be in 7th and 8th grades, it's too hard for them to catch up when they return. Schools are covering more and more in a just a short amount of time, especially as they get in the higher grades.

When we pulled them out of school for our January trip (this year) my 7th grader stressed the whole time we were at WDW because he was worried about the make up work!

When he found out that we were going in August, he was so relieved that he wouldn't have the school issue to worry about!

I don't like going in the height of travel season either, but it's that, or not at all.

I think in grades K-5 it's not that big of a deal. But once they hit middle school, it's a whole new ball game.

 

[jfulcer]

ooooh, I'm surprised you haven't been slammed yet - this is a touchy subject with a bunch of folks here..

Anyway, we take our DD out for a yearly vacation to WDW. Last year she missed 7 days and we received a note from the district telling us that she could be considered 'truant' if she missed more school. When we went to the school about the matter (who had approved us going, from the teachers to the principal) they laughed it off and said not to worry about it - which we didn't.

Her school this next year (shes switching to a private Lutheran school) has a section in the school handbook that says students are allowed to be taken out for vacations as long as the work is made up either before or after - at the teacher's discretion. I don't think we'll have a problem for our halloween trip this year...

 

[Harambe]

but this is one of my pet peeves. We also take our kids out. Last time was Nov. 2002. DS in 1st and DD in 3rd. First grade teacher was ringing her hands about how much it would impact him (we missed five days). Third grade teacher gave DD tons of work and said she would have to stay after school for a few days once she got back! I am a sped aid at the school and my principal gave me h**l for going during school. Told a table full of teachers, with me sitting there, that parents who take their kids out of school to go to Disney are idiots!

Now we're going in Jan2004 and DD 5th gr. and DS 3rd gr. will miss four days. My daughter had perfect attendance this past year and DS only missed 2 days (flu). I will make sure that both kids have perfect attendance up until our trip, if possible.

I have decided that I'm not saying anything to anyone (beside the teacher I work for so she can plan around me for four days) until after the Christmas break - and I'm going to tell my principal that this "idiot" will be taking four unpaid days!

As someone else posted - Life is just too short! I ain't spendin' it sweating with a hundred thousand friends!!!!

 

[disneygals]

I've done it twice and will do it again in January 2004 for 5 days. My girls will be in 6th, 4th and 2nd, so this may be our last time.

We had no trips this year and between the three, they were out 53, (yes 53 days!) for sickness and still got good grades. Hopefully, next year will be better for our health!

 

[scarlett873]

we don't have any kids yet, but i've always said that as long as they do their school work and have good attendance and are good students, i wouldn't have a problem taking them out of school for a family trip. i would work with the teacher though to make sure that the kids had homework and such to do while we were gone to make up for the school time missed.

 

[Beast fan]

I will do without the venom this time.
I just don't agree with removing kids from school for vacations for 3 reasons.

1) I pay a fair amount in taxes. I want my children to get my monies worth!

2) I regretted going to WDW (in late May, 1979) when I was in the 6th grade. It was just before leaving an "Elementary" school and entering a "Junior High" school. It screwed up the fun I wanted to have.

3) DS5, through Nursery and Pre-School, has not yet missed 1 day of school (only seems to get sick when school is not in session. He absolutely thinks school is AWESOME and loves being with his friends! Who am I to deny that.

I absolutely blasted a post on this topic a few months ago. It's just a touchy subject for me.
Dave

 

[HookdonWDW]

Okay, here's my viewpoint as both a parent and a teacher... we've been known to take our child out for 1-2 days around a holiday in order to go on vacation (ie - take off all of Thanksgiving week instead of just W-F). We check with all of the teachers involved, and make sure that the kids do any work required. If they are going to miss a test, we'll either cancel our plans, or see if the teacher will let the test be taken early/late. It's usually not a problem.

We don't take our kids out of school for longer amounts of time in order to go on vacation. I look at school as their jobs, and figure that you can't expect your boss to let you take time off whenever you want. Sometimes it means we have to vacation for shorter time periods or when it's more crowded. Those are the breaks. It works for us.

That's the parent in me. As a teacher, I go by the theory that I'm not going to tell a parent how to raise their child. If you choose to take your child out of school, that's up to you. The child will be responsible for making up missed work (concepts, not every worksheet/project) within 5 days of returning to school as per school policy. This really isn't meant to punish the child. The fact is, that the longer the child takes to complete the missing work, the greater the potential of the child falling dangerously behind the class.

I don't usually give a ton of work to children who will miss class. I also don't let students write reports on where they were to substitute for the work missed unless the report somehow relates to what we are learning in class. I'm into hands on cooperative learning, so that means there aren't a lot of worksheets to hand out. Most of my teaching involves group activities (I've taught grades 4 - 8). I usually tell the parents what we'll be covering, where it can be found in the textbook, and an idea of what the class will be doing to master the subject matter. Some of the things I do with the class are hard to do outside of class (like when we cut up 12 pumpkins to determine if larger pumpkins have more seeds, or building electronic circuits). I think that I'm pretty easygoing on the whole issue. I do think that children lose out when they miss time from school (but so do kids who are sick).

The one pet peeve I have though, is when parents want me to re-teach a concept that their child missed when the parent pulled them out of school for a non-essential reason. I feel that my time is as valuable as anyone else's. I've already taught the material once (sometimes more), and they chose to have their child miss the explanation. It should then be up to the parent to make sure the child understands what was taught during their absence. JMO

 

[4greatboys]

Originally posted by Beast fan
I will do without the venom this time.
I just don't agree with removing kids from school for vacations for 3 reasons.

1) I pay a fair amount in taxes. I want my children to get my monies worth!

2) I regretted going to WDW (in late May, 1979) when I was in the 6th grade. It was just before leaving an "Elementary" school and entering a "Junior High" school. It screwed up the fun I wanted to have.

3) DS5, through Nursery and Pre-School, has not yet missed 1 day of school (only seems to get sick when school is not in session. He absolutely thinks school is AWESOME and loves being with his friends! Who am I to deny that.

I absolutely blasted a post on this topic a few months ago. It's just a touchy subject for me.
Dave

Dave, Thanks for not blasting anyone. Its always nice to see a post with differing opinions that are not nasty.