Parents who take their kids out of school to go to WDW..

[the Fidge]

Actually Because I Notify The School Well In Advance And Request The Packet And Explain My Hubby Can Only Get Off In The Spring, His Absence Is Entered As Excused To My Surprise!!

We Drive Through Each State And I Print Out Worksheets On Each State, And He Fills In The Info About Them And I Send Them In Along With Him.

There Is Plenty They Learn About Too While They Are On Vaction About Geography, Wildlife What Kinds Of Animals And Rivers And All Sorts Of Neat Stuff!!

My Job Is To Teach Him How To Live, Laugh And Love And Isn't That A Lesson Important To Know!!

Just Think About What They Will Learn At Epcot, Animal Kingdom And When I Went 10 Years Ago To Mgm They Had The Tour Where You Could See Behind The Glass They Folks Actaully Working On New Movies And Cartoons And I Think That Was Very Neat!!! Can't Wait For Him To See That If They Still Do That!!!


4/22/95 Offsite
4/2003 Offsite

Headed To Disney 4/24- 4/30/2006

 

[Mermaid4me]

I have been a teacher for 15 years. Last year I took my three sons (ages 10, 8, 3) out of school for 2 days. I am taking them out this year for 3 days. As a teacher I don't usually have a problem with a student missing a couple days- as long as assignments are made up and if excessive abscences are not an issue. As a parent, I think in the crazy busy world we live in that a few special "family days" in Disney can be a time for everyone to truly enjoy themselves as a family unit. Hope you have fun on your trip!!

Mermaid4me

 

[disneyfreak74]

We take DS out. He's in the first grade. Friday afternoon when I was looking through his journal there was a note to me from his teacher that she needed to get in touch with me about Disney. I was worried about us taking Ds out. Come to find out. . .she wants me to hook her up with DISCOUNTS!!

 

[michygoomy]

Ah, this is the very debate I've been having with myself in my head. Good to see it somewhere else.

We took DS out of school in first grade. They gave him a TON of homework, but DH was really smart and made him do it from the time he got home from school into the night before we left the next day. It was a few hours of sheer TORTURE for the guy, but it was well worth it when he only had a couple of hours of work during the week while we were gone. My niece, however, did not do that and every night was doing a couple hours of homework, when she really wanted to be in the pool.

Last vacation we went in August so as not to hassle with school.

This trip I was seriously considering taking them out again just to hit the less crowded times. After much debate (with myself!), I've decided not to. Reasons:
1.) We want to go 10 days, and that's a bit much to miss school, even working in weekends.
2.) My DS (7th grade) is now in a school that is not in our district, and only got in because his grades, standardized test scores and attendence was good enough. I love this school, and don't want to jepordize his place in it for a vacation.
3.) We need to start thinking about high school, and the best school in town has tough admission requirements. Just another reason not to place a risk on his grades or attendence records.
4.) My DD (4th grade) LOVES school! What kind of meanie would I be to take her out of something she loves so much! Last year, my youngest was very sick and we had to put her in a hospital 2 1/2 hours away for a week. My ILs kept the kids and wanted to bring them down to see the baby one day, and my DD put up a fuss because she didn't want to miss ONE DAY of school to visit her sick baby sister.
5.) I don't want the kids' vacation tainted by having to do any kind of school work at all while we are on vacation, not even for a few hours.

Enjoy it, whatever you do!

 

[mrs. magnolia]

Tks for all of the advice! I can't believe this thread has become so many pages. We are taking her out. I think I will let her teacher know a few weeks in advance. The good part is, we are leaving on a Monday. We come home on a Sunday. Sooo...my dd (8) will have all weekend before we leave to complete her assignments. Although I feel fine about my decision, I am a "peacemaker" and do dread telling the teacher..oh well!

 

[blessedby3]

We have taken our 3 kids out of school each time we go. DD15 is in 10th grade (public school), DS10 is in 5th (private Christian) and DD7 is in 1st (private Christian). Our oldest was also in the private school last time we went and I must say they are very aggreable to family time/vacations. Since she entered public school this was our first time taking her out and we had no problems except from her Honors English teacher. I just put it straight out to her, though. This is our DD, an honor student, she will make up the work and Im sorry if it is an inconvience to her (the teacher). She changed her tune and all went well. She made it seem like the world would come to an end if she missed a week, but I reassured her that things would be fine and DD would have everything to her that she would be missing. For our famliy it works better and is less stressful and more enjoyable to travel to Disney during an off time. We went the week after Thanksgiving this past Nov./Dec. so the kids got a very long vacation. Their regular Thanksgiving and another whole week. Things at Disney were VERY slow. This is our new favorite time to go. Do what is right for you family and things will fall back into place at school when you return if you decide to take them out. My 2 youngest had all their work done and turned in to the teacher before we even left. They just fell right back into their routine.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Tks for all of the advice! I can't believe this thread has become so many pages. We are taking her out. I think I will let her teacher know a few weeks in advance. The good part is, we are leaving on a Monday. We come home on a Sunday. Sooo...my dd (8) will have all weekend before we leave to complete her assignments. Although I feel fine about my decision, I am a "peacemaker" and do dread telling the teacher..oh well!

I understand. But try not to dread talking to her... try to talk to her at a time that you actually have a few moments to speak and be sure to address the issue of any missed work- can she do it ahead of time? catch up when she gets back? See which the teacher prefers. Ask her if there is anything she'd like your DD to do while on the trip- journal? Or just write a paper about what she did to share with the class when she gets back? Or nothing? The teacher will probably be fine with it if you're leaving things up to her where she can suggest how she would prefer classwork to be handled or anything she'd like her to do since she's missing the days.

We've taken our kids out before. Years ago my oldest (the younger two not in school yet) missed 5 days at the beginning of school. Not a problem for her or her teachers. Then 2yrs ago my oldest two missed a week near Thanksgiving- again not a problem. Each teacher handled it differently and I left it up to them. My son in K the teacher just said go... he's ahead anyway and he needs to do nothing to keep up. My DD was in 4th grade and her teacher let her do the work ahead of time, and asked that she keep a journal during her trip so she could share with the class about her trip on her return (oh and she asked if we'd take her in our luggage as a stowaway ). They both did journals (son just felt he had to do it too LOL) and they also brought their stuff from epcot/etc.

Now I will say it's up to the child and the school/etc. on taking kids out of school. For instance we had our cruise set for Feb 2005 and we postponed it to May 2006 (even though that meant waiting 3 yrs total for the cruise from the first time it was booked) because it was originally scheduled around a week break they had in FEb- but then they changed the school schedule to NO days off in feb. My oldest was in 5th grade (intermediate school) and now had a bazillion teachers (only a slight exaggeration LOL) and I just didn't want to deal with each teacher. The way it is here- it's up to the teacher. If even ONE didn't want to let her make up the work- she'd have zeros in that teacher's class and her grades would have suffered. She's a straight A student... didn't want to do that to her. HOWEVER, the new cruise is set for may 27th and we simply dreaded the idea of a cruise with a couple days at the park AFTERWARDS... so we're doing it before and leaving on the 25th. Now all 3 will miss the last 2 days of school- and we all know how little they do the last few days of school. LOL So I know they aren't missing anything.

Said all that just to say that each child, what grade they are in/etc, their teachers and the school district (primarily how they handle missing school like this) --are all different and you just have to take all that into consideration before deciding to take your child out for a vacation. As our children grow older- we feel less inclined to take them out of school for vacations. Just our personal choice.

 

[the Fidge]

DOn't think I could put it better myself, I am pretty sure you and your children will not have eraser duty or principle office time!!

Thank goodness schools have a much more understanding today than years gone by!!

God Bless and enjoy!!