Oh dear.. :(

[C.Ann]

Thanks!

 

[ttm999]

I wouldn't worry about. I think you can easily justify that Disney is an education and worthwhile vacation. I will be taking my daughter out of kindergarten for 4 days for our trip. I'm not going to ask for permission. I'm going to drop the teacher a note in advance telling her of our upcoming trip and ask if there is anything my child can do ahead of time or during the trip to stay caught up with the class - and maybe a suggestion for something she could bring the class back. I also think sending a postcard to the class is a good idea too!

 

[mforbach]

We took our DD out of Kindergarten for a week last year. She did not miss anything. She made a journal of her trip and the teacher asked her to share it 2 weeks in a row. We will be taking her out again this year for a week along with my 2 DNs which are in Kindergarten. Just make sure there is nothing too important that week.

 

[Jordan's MOM]

Don't even give it a second thought! We do it most years and DS is 10. In kindergarten we took him out for a week in October. We however did not plan to have him miss a week in November for surgery and another week in January for a bad case of the flu. This, with a few "sick days" here and there, added up. Did it hurt him at all? Not a bit. He ended up winning the cream of the crop award and has been an honnor roll kid ever since. I would not even ask for makeup work in kindergarten. Most teachers would not give any anyway (ours didn't) but I have heard horror stories of kindergarten teachers giving kids like 20 work sheets.In most states kids don't even have to be enrolled in school until they are 7. Have a blast and enjoy the time together.


Jordan's mom

 

[C.Ann]

Thanks all!

 

[travelitis]

I wouldn't hesitate a second taking her out of Kindergarten for a week.

 

[BethC]

I don't see any problem with a child in kindergarten missing a few days of school to go to Disney World and I definitely say you should go for it!

BUT, you'll definitely want to check with the school first. Some schools have stricter attendance policies than others and many count vacation days as unexcused absences.

Good luck, and have a great trip!

 

[Disneyphile's Wife]

We took DS out of Kindergarten for 3-4 days (2 years ago: my memory's shot ). When we spoke to his teacher, she was of the "spending time with your family having fun is very important to children" philosophy and just made a couple of suggestions for making the magic educational. It turned out to be even less of a problem than we initially thought, because we had a big snow storm as we were supposed to come back and school was closed anyway. (Plus, we would up staying an extra day. And it was the best time of the vacation. )

It was a good experience for all of us.

 

[vicb]

I say "go for it!". We have been taking our 2 children out of school for a one week vacation (not always to WDW) for the past 5 years.

This year my DD is in 5th grade and asked if we could try to schedule our vacation during her school break. We are going to San Diego and were able to arrange things so she will only miss 2 days of school.

Next year she will be in middle school and while I wouldn't be too concerned about her missing a few days, she has already said she'd rather not. So we will be paying the big bucks to go back to WDW during her school break. Fortunately it is the week AFTER Pres. day so won't be as crowded... I hope.

You and your granddaughter are very lucky to be making Disney memories together!

 

[SheDaisy0088]

My son is in Kindergarden this year. We are leaving in 13 days. He will be missing a few days of school. We have already told the teacher this and she is fine with it. She wants to wait and see where he is before she lets us know if she will give him some work to do while we are gone!!

13 more days before our trip!!

 

[POOH&PIGLET]

I don't think it will be a problem.

If possible, I would avoid the first few weeks of school. You want your granddaughter to get comfortable in her new school environment and a trip at the very beginning of the school year might interrupt that.

Whenever you do go, have a great trip.

 

[Shannie]

said it would be no problem to miss a week in kindergarten. All she said about it was that she will be jealous she isnt there with us......LOL 2 more days, and we will be at Disneyworld for our first trip ever!!!....yes, I am excited!!!

Just talk to the teacher, and see what she says.

Shannie

 

[cgcw]

What an experience we had with our DS's kindergarten teacher. I told her at the very beginning of the year we had a trip planned for late September. I reminded her several times we were going and repeatedly asked for any work he would be missing which we never got. Vacation came and we had a wonderful trip. Our DS goes back to school and we never hear anything of the trip until a couple weeks later I go in for regularly scheduled parent/teacher conference in October. At that time, the teacher tells me that alot of people look at kindergarten as "only kindergarten" and don't realize the impact of taking a child out of school. She goes on to ask me whether or not my son went to preschool (he did) because he's so far behind, she's not sure he's going to be able to catch up. According to her he didn't even know his colors!! I went home in tears. When DH came home, he said, call her and set up a conference for all 3 of us to talk. I called her and she backpeddled away from what she had told me the previous day. "Oh, I didn't mean to give you the impressions he was having problems". I could have killed her!! Needless to say, DS went onto to 1st grade and became one of the top students in the class. We'll be taking him out again this December (2nd grade now) and I have no worries at all. I say, go for it and have a great time.

 

[mforbach]

cgcw-- I didn't know my DD's teacher could be in two places at once!! She sounds exactly like my DD's teacher. She wrote us a nasty note when we took DD out of Kindergarten but gave DD a great note about having fun etc. She also tried the same thing as yours with a friend of mine. When she had a conference in front of the school principal she backed down and said I don't think he's having problems--- This after telling my friend that DS could not go on to 1st grade. Of course when we brought back a great gift for the classroom she sent a nice thank note.

 

[cgcw]

mforbach....oh no, she's been cloned!

 

[samijake]

Missing a week of school over spending a week with their family or grandparents?!! Please tell me you don't think school is the only place to be where our children will learn! If I had spent a week with my grandparents during my childhood, I probally could have skipped a semester of high school history!!

We took my daughter out of Kindergarten for six days of vacation last year; I wouldn't think twice about doing it again.

FYI- My wife is a 1st grade teacher (on extended maternity leave) and she had a say in this also!

 

[pizzap]

I also think you should go for it! However, I would check to see what the school policy is first. My kids are in Kindergarten and first grade and I was required to put our vacation plans in writing to the principal of the school. He encourages family time and as long as the kids are doing well in school, the trip is not a problem. He wrote "approved" on the note and gave a copy to the two teachers. Now it's up to me to remind the teachers of our trip and to make sure the kids do any assignments the teachers gives while we're away.

Last year we took our daughter out of kindergarten for a few days and the work she had to do was very simple. Practicing her name, circling things that start with L and practicing patterns. If you know what the teacher is teaching that week, it's very simple for you to introduce it to your child and help reinforce it. Disney is 12 hours away for us so that's going to give us LOTS of time during the drive to do some work!