i just want to echo that even if a student gets realy good grades it can be difficult being pulled from school for a vacation.
we've pulled our kid's each year for a week (most recently in november for hawaii)-but it involved their doing all of their regular work (spelling books, handwriting, math, bible, reading assignments/workbook, grammer...) BEFORE WE LEFT. when they got back they had to do all of the homework that was assigned during their absence as well as any other work that was done (and it's not easy doing science and social studies worksheets/writing assignments when you've not heard the lecture that went along with it). since so much of work in jr/high school is lecture based i can imagine it could be very overwhelming for someone struggling to maintain grades to be able to do that work that will be missed (as well as having to do subsequent work they've not received instruction in). it's not going to just be a matter of pulling up grades to be able to go, it has to be that the student is capable of keeping up once they've returned home.
i'm fully in favor of family vacations, and the fact that some (including dh and i) can't take them during traditional school breaks, but i don't think any vacation is worth endangering a student's learning process. vacation destinations will always be there, and sometimes we have to forego doing things we want to when we want to-in favor of taking care of things that need to be addressed. it's well and good if you decide to go and leave the child under the care of someone else, but i would hope it is someone who will ensure that the child does'nt view this as a 'parental vacation' and neglect even more studies/homework such that you return home to an even larger academic problem.
we've pulled our kid's each year for a week (most recently in november for hawaii)-but it involved their doing all of their regular work (spelling books, handwriting, math, bible, reading assignments/workbook, grammer...) BEFORE WE LEFT. when they got back they had to do all of the homework that was assigned during their absence as well as any other work that was done (and it's not easy doing science and social studies worksheets/writing assignments when you've not heard the lecture that went along with it). since so much of work in jr/high school is lecture based i can imagine it could be very overwhelming for someone struggling to maintain grades to be able to do that work that will be missed (as well as having to do subsequent work they've not received instruction in). it's not going to just be a matter of pulling up grades to be able to go, it has to be that the student is capable of keeping up once they've returned home.
i'm fully in favor of family vacations, and the fact that some (including dh and i) can't take them during traditional school breaks, but i don't think any vacation is worth endangering a student's learning process. vacation destinations will always be there, and sometimes we have to forego doing things we want to when we want to-in favor of taking care of things that need to be addressed. it's well and good if you decide to go and leave the child under the care of someone else, but i would hope it is someone who will ensure that the child does'nt view this as a 'parental vacation' and neglect even more studies/homework such that you return home to an even larger academic problem.
