Missing School

[FOTM_Ring_Bearer]

In our school district they have a cow if you take your children out of school for vacation. We know from experience. In 1999 we took them out 2 days before Christmas vacation started. (Not like they're doing anything) I made the mistake of sending in a note for our 6th grader. They sent her to the principle and then each teacher to sign off on the note. She was pretty upset.

Elementary school is not bad. But once they start middle school school, it's really hard. My dd's hate to miss the time, because it's so hard to make it up.

So we go in the summer, Thanksgiving or Christmas.

 

[OneMoreTry]

The older they get the harder it is to miss. There's not only classes, but sports and friends and then, the worst, a JOB. Then they don't even want to go.

 

[Cruelladeville]

Well, you did ask....I think parents who pull children out of school are acting irresponsibly. They are telling their children that there are things more important than school. If you feel that way, I applaud your honesty. There are 365 days in a year, school takes up 180. That's 1/2 a year--can't you possibly find some days to vacation in the other 1/2 year? I don't mean a day or two, I am referring to those who take their kids out of school for 2 weeks to a month during the school year. It doesn't make any difference whether a child is 6 or 16, the message is still the same--school isn't your top priority. Now you're sorry you asked, aren't you?

 

[Alexander]

I used to feel the same was as you Cruella. It was such a pain to get kids work together (from the teacher's standpoint) and when they came back most of the work wasn't done. It also often seems to be the kids who can least afford to miss school. However, when I became a parent, I completely changed my mind. I have said over and over again, the best teachers a child can have is their parents (or worse I guess as the case may be).

There is a huge difference in cost when traveling during school vacation periods, and yes, this includes summers. Airfare during vacations from Syracuse to Orlando is as high as $600 per person. During non-school vacation time it's as low as $200 per person or even less. This is a huge difference for families with 2 or 3 or 4 children. We also know the difference it costs in points to vacation during Premier or Magic season, and yes these fall during school breaks.

This is such a sticky issue.....you really have to do what you feel in your heart is appropriate for your children. Honestly, I think it's funny that people send notes to school asking for permission to take their children out of school! If they said "no" would you cancel your vacation? I get these notes from my students all of the time and just wish them well. I mean come-on is your child going to have life-lasting memories from one week in school, or from a magical family vacation.

FOTM....I would have had the principal's head for doing that to my child. It was your decision and not hers, therefore to put her through that was absolutely unacceptable! Oh I hate principals that take pleasure in making kids feel small and unimportatnt!

 

[SnowWitch]

My children are now in 7th and 9th grade, both honor roll with distinction, etc. In elementary school- no big deal. We would miss a week at a time and had no trouble. That being said now that there are stricter guidelines on missing and their course load is much more challenging it was a headache our last trip in Dec.

We have ruled out future trips that require missing school, its just not worth the headache.

If the kids are still K-5 and have no acedemic trouble I say go for it, otherwise think twice.

 

[laceemouse]

I find the "family time is so important" excuse hard to swallow. As Cruella said, school is 180 days per year, you have lots of time for family time. I know it is less money, less crowded, better weather, ect. to go during school but really, is any of this a good excuse? There are lots of other places to have family time. But I do agree that the older kids get the harder it gets. We live in a highly regarded and very competitive school district. I like dis-happy's response, we are thinking about switching to homeschooling. If you want full control over your kids schedules it is the only way to have it. (lots of other good reasons to HS, this is just one perk )

 

[Disney1fan2002]

I started going Thanksgiving week, because as the kids got older ( my oldest is in 3rd grade now) it has bothered me more and more, them missing school. Thankgiving week, they are only missing Monday and Tuesday. We have done Thanksgiving 2 years now.

But, this year, I have used our points for the member cruise. It is the 1st week of September. My kids 1st day of school is August 31, which is a Wednesday. So they will go the 1st 3 days of school, but they miss the next week. It will only be 4 days, because of the Labor Day Holiday Monday, but it is bothering me a little. My little guy will miss his 1st day of Kindergarten. But he won't miss orientation, where he meets his classmates and teacher.

Anyway, this is bothering me to a point where I am now looking at August dates for future trips. I have always said we will never go in the heat of the summer months, but what can you do? I guess we can continue our Thanksgiving trips, but the crowds! THE CROWDS!!!!!! LOL

 

[Degli]

Our children go to a Catholic School. Their policy is to not give any makeup work ahead of time. This is fine with me as long as my children have the appropriate time to make it up. They usually do. It is always the parents choice as to whether we take them out or not. At least in this school system. Heck, we're paying for it. Look, the way I feel is this. As long as your child is doing well in school and can handle the make-up work. Go for it!!!

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

Take em out. Life is too short and the family memories last a lifetime. The school psyche at my sons school says it is invalueable.

Of course everyone should take into consideration what is right for their family.

 

[Johnnie Fedora]

Missing school really does depend on your childs grades and attitude. As long as they are doing well, and especially when they are in the younger grades, I say pull them out if you choose.

In many school districts, a main motivation for maximum attendance is due to the fact that the state government often provides education funds to local districts based on attendance. So, your school district has more than just "what's best for the children" in mind when they make up attendance rules. They are also thinking about the $$ they lose when your kid is out. What's the moral lesson in that?

 

[AFMom]

You're right, Cruelladeville - school isn't our top priority! That's why we started to HS. Our top priority is learning - the 3 r's and learning about life. Learning is what the school's top priority SHOULD be - but we've found in our "7 states in the last 4 years" tour, that test scores, attendance, and reigning in 25 kids per class is the school's top priority!
Anyway - there are a lot of people who can't plan their vacations around school calendars - 180 days or not. My hubby is in the AF - special operations - and we take our vacations whenever we can get them. If that means Sept or Jan, that's when we go. It may be only 180 days - but those are spread out all over the place! Year round schoolers may have a bit easier time finding chunks of time to go - but we've never been in a district like that - so I wouldn't know. We've only been HS-ing for about 4 months - and taking vacations with Dad was a big reason for switching.
My whole point here - children are sponges and learn everywhere they go. The more they are exposed to in early life the better! WDW included. As far as older children - well - I can't say since I've never had them! I'll leave that to the parents of "big kids".
Good luck in your decision!

 

[LuvnMickey]

We have 3 boys who are now older (college and HS) but when they were young (in elementary and even middle school) we took them out for vacations. They were all good students and didn't have any trouble catching up on their return. We set aside a time each day at WDW when we returned to the resort for a swim and break, and they worked on any homework the teachers sent along.

All of their teachers were very understanding and felt family vacations were as important as what they were doing in school. I agreed at that time. As the boys got older (upper middle school and HS) it just wasn't worth it to take them out because of all the work they would miss. We now do our WDW vacations during Spring Break when everyone else is there!

I miss the quiet vacations we spent at WDW without crowds. If I had to do it over again--I wouldn't hesitate to do the same thing. It worked for us for a period of their lives and we have some wonderful vacation memories as a result!!

As many have said, there are a lot of variables for each family. All the best in your decision.

 

[FreeTime]

Thanks for your resposes everyone! Our DD will be in 1/2 kindergarten and will be missing 4 days in October. Her spring break is over a weekend! A Friday and a Monday, so I have been debating about whether we should take her out another 4 days then or take 2 trips next summer. Her school allows 5 family / appointment days per semester.

We have discussed home schooling our kids as well, but I am afraid that I would not be a very good teacher. Does any one work FT or PT and HS? How do you manager to get everything done?

 

[gracelrm]

We do not take our kids out of school for family vacations - because DH and I are both teachers!!!!! Except for this year, we took off one day early before Christmas Break in order to make it to MVMCP. They missed their Christmas parties and were a little sad about that until they got to Mickey's party! We have many families in my school (an elementary) who do take their kids out for vacations. I think it's fine, generally speaking they are pretty strong students usually. The only thing that tends to make the faculty/administration a little mad is when people have made vacation plans thinking that spring break or fall break are at a given time, then they aren't. One parent made plans for a vacation 1 month before fall break and picked the wrong week - didn't even bother to check the school calendar. So her child missed the week prior to fall break and then was out fall break as well. A little better planning might have been called for. I'm sure the family time was important - but a phone call ahead of time might have helped!

 

[Moose for Sprite]

We will be making our first and second trips "home" this year. First in July and the second will be in October. We have three daughters (15,8,4) and all will be going in July.
Our eldest will not make the trip in October due to AP/Honor classes and soccer schedule. The younger two are home schooled by DW and it will be no problem - in fact, we we use any available moment for fun and learning.
For me I will need to take a personal day from my job as a middle school teacher. It is a day before a 3 day weekend and I will need to write our superintendant for permission to use a personal day prior to a "holiday." That is MSTA day.

DW and I are both educators and we decided it would be best for our children if she left her job to home school our daughters.

 

[sprite]

We have discussed home schooling our kids as well, but I am afraid that I would not be a very good teacher. Does any one work FT or PT and HS? How do you manager to get everything done?

Even thogh my dh always tells people I "left my job" to homeschool our dds - I do work 2 part time jobs. I work about 32 hours a week, mostly evenings. It is a struggle (dh does all the running around to activities in the evenings) but we think it is worth it. As far as not being a very good teacher - who knows your children better than you do? I have a degree in education, but I still use a pre-packaged curriculum because I do not have the time to put it all together myself. My lesson manual lays out exactly what needs to be covered for each lesson and is very easy to follow.

If you are considering homeschooling, find some homeschoolers in your area and asks lots of questions. It is the best decision we ever made.

(Now - if I could only get the school system to let my dh take time off during the school year, we would be at Disney when it isn't as hot as the surface of the sun )

 

[Bojo]

In many school districts, a main motivation for maximum attendance is due to the fact that the state government often provides education funds to local districts based on attendance. So, your school district has more than just "what's best for the children" in mind when they make up attendance rules. They are also thinking about the $$ they lose when your kid is out. What's the moral lesson in that?

Additionally, some districts allocate funding to individual schools based on the average daily attendance. So, in essence those who miss school (for whatever reason) are hurting ALL students in the school. Maybe it is "best for the children" when all of them are present. (Not a flame on anyone - JMHO.)

 

[CarolA]

I am going to say that if you don't think you would be a good home school parent don't do it just for vacation LOL! (I know a few families who homeschooled thier kids and were pretty amazed that when their "Bright" kid started high school she was WAY behind. Yes, she met the state criteria, but in our school district that isn't enough apparently)

However, having friends who are teachers I would say that once they hit high school I would not take them out of school. For example, if your child is in AP Chemistry I doubt you are going to be able to help them catch up (unless you are a chemist, but you get the point) THe classes get much harder and the grades much more important. A C in 3rd grade isn't going to keep you out of the college of your choice, A C in high school could. Plus those kids are under so much stess now that I can't imagine them enjoying the vacation knowing how far behind they are going to be!

 

[Alexander]

Thanks for your resposes everyone! Our DD will be in 1/2 kindergarten and will be missing 4 days in October. Her spring break is over a weekend! A Friday and a Monday, so I have been debating about whether we should take her out another 4 days then or take 2 trips next summer. Her school allows 5 family / appointment days per semester.

Personally, I would take her and not even think twice about it. I don't mean to sound like Kindergarten is unimportant, but it is only Kindergarten. And since it sounds like it's 1/2 day, she really isn't going to miss that much. I do have a question too...Is Kindergarten mandatory in Ohio? I ask because in NY it is not. Children do not have to attend school until they are 6 and can go right into first grade. Now, I'm not saying that this should be done, it's just the law. All schools do offer kindergarten. I also am asking because you have a set number of days you can take your child out of school. Again, this cracks me up....What if you take 7 or 8, are they going to make you repeat kindergarten?

 

[NMW]

Alexander, kindergarten is not mandatory in PA either.

We take our kids out of school, but they are young. For our Dec 2005 trip they will be in 3rd, 1st, and preschool. We are taking them out for 7 days. Officialy our district allows 5 days for a vacation, but the office staff told me that the school has never not allowed more days to a family. We just have to fill out a form and submit it. We plan to have them miss 7 days in OCT 2006 also. Our oldest is a strong student and the teachers in our elementry school seem great about it.
We plan to do Disney trips in Oct, Nov, Dec (not holiday times). However, if when our kids are in upper grades (jr high, HS) they seem to have too much work to make up, I guess we will vacation in the summer. Really not looking forward to this prospect, I hate FL heat in spring, much less summer!
We already are planning to add on enough points to give us a 2 bdr for 9 days in the summer (with the whole school thing in mind).