Pulling 7 year old out of school. What do you do?

[Missingthejob]

Does the school follow a similar 180 day schedule as it's surrounding public schools, or is it adapted to the best times to travel? ...or adapted to something else?

Where did your oldest go on their trip?

I love that traveling is encouraged. Life is an adventure.

Legally yes they do have to follow a 180 day schedule. It's a year round school, which is broken into weeks on and weeks off. The year is broken into these weeks, but has nothing to do with travel times. They are just scheduled 180 days. We have other optional days, which most kids take advantage of.

She went to the Grand Canyon. She won't leave the country until 6th grade. They start them off slowly. she will go to Virginia this year. Hopefully she will do what the six graders did this year, go to Heidelberg, Germany. I've never been, I want to tag along....er, I mean escort, lol, that trip.

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

You missed 30 days of high school and had no problem catching up and they let you graduate early because your health deteriorated?? How did you meet the academic requirements?? I don't understand this as even when I was in high school we had to complete certain courses to graduate and they were broken down by grades.

I know even now the kids are required to complete so many courses in particular subjects in order to graduate. I also know that it would not be very easy to miss 30 days of school (of course we have homebound student programs here for those kids that have to miss more than a week of school) and just cacth up .

I guess it all depends on where you attend school because where I went to high school and here does not make it easy to miss that many days and just catch up.

I know at our high school (several years ago) the homebound/independent study program could be done at an accelerated pace. I had a few friends opt to do that their senior year and be done with school after one semester. By my senior year I only had 2 required classes (english and goverment) plus PE.

 

[Missingthejob]

That sounds really cool. It's funny how different people are schooled differently, yet very much the same. What part of the country are you in? My kids go to a magnet school. So our schooling is different from a traditional public schooling, but in no way as different as your school.

What is a magnet school? Is this a private school? I live in the Boston area.

 

[princessmom29]

Yep, mine wants to go to school tomorrow but has strep again. The doctor said no school tomorrow and she was begging for them to let her go. She has to be on the antibiotics for 24 hours before they will let her go and by that time she would be getting ready to go home.

Our rule is 24 hours fever free. DD fights that too.

 

[Leajess99]

You may want to reread it, I said "if" and If you read other responses you would see we follow a home program that follows the school program. If you are also following a homeschool curriculum how do you not know what will be taught all year? Is your homeschool curriculum approved through the school?
We send our kids to a private school. In our school knowledge of the current studies is much more important then physical paper work. Mostly our grades come from test scores and projects. We aren't really doing homework every night. I do understand that thats the direction public schools are taking. where you are getting graded on how many homework papers you pass in and how many days you attend. In this case yes you would have a lot of busy work to make up if you missed. In our case, if you know and understand the material, you get a passing grade.

I don't follow a homeschool curric as it is stupid to add that much work on a kid. The homeschooling we do is to add on to what is taught in school. Also, the homeschool programs the homeschoolers that I know here use is not the same as the schools. It is done at a varied rate as they do not have so many to teach.

My kids education is enhanced with activities that are more hands on and challenging. We make all trips educational but fun. I am my kids number 1 teacher but I also repsect their teachers and school personnel as well.

Sorry but I would not be sending my child to the same school you send your children to. Kids need to know how to write and work out problems and that does require physical paperwork. I guess that explains the need to do a full homeschool curric on top of sending them to school.

It's easy to memorize something but much harder to do the actual work.

 

[imthatgirl]

What is a magnet school? Is this a private school? I live in the Boston area.

I live south of Boston. If you don't mind I would be very interested in this school your kids go to?
A magnet school can mean many different things. It's considered a public school, as we don't pay for it. but children have to test into it. So unlike a public school they can be picky about who they accept. We don't take state mandatory testing, MCAS here in MA. The specific school my kids go to focuses on the performing arts, but thats not typical of all magnet schools. Some have specialties, while others don't. So with our school they not only have to test in academically but also through a talent.

 

[princessmom29]

What is a magnet school? Is this a private school? I live in the Boston area.

Our definitiopn of a magnet school is a public school with a sepcial porgarm of some sort that pulls from other schools in our syatem. we have a math and science, performing arts, communications, and enginerring magnet program. Students from anyt school in the district can apply. Students in K are chosen by lottery, but must exhibit acceptable performance to stay. Open spots in upper grades are filled through a merit based process.

 

[Missingthejob]

I don't follow a homeschool curric as it is stupid to add that much work on a kid. The homeschooling we do is to add on to what is taught in school. Also, the homeschool programs the homeschoolers that I know here use is not the same as the schools. It is done at a varied rate as they do not have so many to teach.

My kids education is enhanced with activities that are more hands on and challenging. We make all trips educational but fun. I am my kids number 1 teacher but I also repsect their teachers and school personnel as well.

Sorry but I would not be sending my child to the same school you send your children to. Kids need to know how to write and work out problems and that does require physical paperwork. I guess that explains the need to do a full homeschool curric on top of sending them to school.

It's easy to memorize something but much harder to do the actual work.

Hmm, yes I said my kids didn't write or work out problems, yes thats exactly what I said.

 

[Missingthejob]

I live south of Boston. If you don't mind I would be very interested in this school your kids go to?
A magnet school can mean many different things. It's considered a public school, as we don't pay for it. but children have to test into it. So unlike a public school they can be picky about who they accept. We don't take state mandatory testing, MCAS here in MA. The specific school my kids go to focuses on the performing arts, but thats not typical of all magnet schools. Some have specialties, while others don't. So with our school they not only have to test in academically but also through a talent.

I will send you a message, I don't think I'm comfortable putting too much info on this site.
May I ask what your kids talents are? That is very interesting, so is it like fame?

 

[imthatgirl]

I will send you a message, I don't think I'm comfortable putting too much info on this site.
May I ask what your kids talents are? That is very interesting, so is it like fame?

I don't know if it's like fame, I'm embarrassed to say I've never seen it, lol. My kids talents are, for my daughter Clarinet. We are very proud of her she was placed first chair 3 years ago and has remained there. which is quite a great feet at her age. She is 12 and plays with highschool aged kids.
My son's talent is drums. He is 7. He does quite well.

 

[Missingthejob]

I don't know if it's like fame, I'm embarrassed to say I've never seen it, lol. My kids talents are, for my daughter Clarinet. We are very proud of her she was placed first chair 3 years ago and has remained there. which is quite a great feet at her age. She is 12 and plays with highschool aged kids.
My son's talent is drums. He is 7. He does quite well.

Fame is old. I guess I'm showing my age. Congratulations to your daughter. I hope to see her play one day. Clarinet is an interesting instrument. Those that play it make it look so easy, yet it's quite complicated.

 

[princessmom29]

I don't know if it's like fame, I'm embarrassed to say I've never seen it, lol. My kids talents are, for my daughter Clarinet. We are very proud of her she was placed first chair 3 years ago and has remained there. which is quite a great feet at her age. She is 12 and plays with highschool aged kids.
My son's talent is drums. He is 7. He does quite well.

That is pretty awesome. Our performing arts magnets concentrate on dance and theater. Our high school dance company is an extension of the middle school magnet, and we get some pretty fantastic dancers from the magent program. We are sending 2 on to top notch college dance companies this year. I am glad to hear someone is doing the same with music.

 

[spacemountainmom]

Why must these discussions always end up with, "your school must really stink and your students really suffer if you can take your kids out for a week and not have a problem"? I don't come back and say "gee, your students must be kinda dense if they have a rough time catching up" because I don't believe that. Everyone learns differently which can be an issue in the public school. There just isn't enough time or money to teach to each child's specific learning style. This is why I feel parents need to be actively involved in the children's edcuation. Sadly, most have the attitude that all learning happens at school and it's all the teacher's job.

To my knowledge Alabama is not known for it's high quality educational system so I am not so sure I would be throwing stones at everyone else. My in-laws have lived in TN, MS and GA since leaving MN 12 years ago. They are not very complimentary of the educational systems they've run into since they left.

What do you all do if your child is sick and misses a week? Is it really any different? Maybe they do some work, but likely not all of it. My ds missed 7 days of school as a first grader. He had a nasty virus that he just could not shake. He was so worn down and sick that I didn't have the heart to make him do school work while he was recovering. We waited until he was better to buckle down and take care of all his work. It wasn't fun for him, but we got through it. I'm sure he would have rather not been sick in the first place.

I ended up sick with Mono in April of my senior year. I missed a pretty good chunk of school. My teachers were absolutely fantastic and worked with me. In fact, the prevailing attitude with most of them was that I was a good student who had good grades so they many times modified an assignment or let it go altogether for me. Two of them even told me that would not feel right working me so hard that I made myself sick again. All this happened two months after I missed a week of school to go to WDW. I managed to graduate with my class and go on to earn a BA.

It's really sad that these discussions always are reduced to these battles. I do take my kids out for reasons that I've detailed previously. If it was a huge issue for my kids, I wouldn't. In the end each person needs to evaluate their own children and school obligations and make a decision. Some kids do stress out missing class and others are more go with the flow. Some kids can catch up very quickly and others struggle with it. Some schools make it very difficult and others say have a great time. Ultimately, it still is my choice and I apologize to no one for it.

 

[princessmom29]

To my knowledge Alabama is not known for it's high quality educational system so I am not so sure I would be throwing stones at everyone else. My in-laws have lived in TN, MS and GA since leaving MN 12 years ago. They are not very complimentary of the educational systems they've run into since they left.

.

Wow, this attitude never goes away does it? eveyone in the south must be an ignorant hick. Sorry, but no.
As with ANY state or city, it would depend on the school. We have several top notch high schools in our area, buth public and private, that continually graduate students with perfect or near perfect ACT/SAT scores and scholarships to Ivy League schools. I happen to work at such a school. We have 2 IB schools, just in our district. There is also a school in our district that teaches a pre-engineering program developed by the Boston Musesum of Science. Only about a dozen schools in the country have been certified to teach it. We have acouple of schools that habitually place nationally in robotics competitions, and several that are competitive on the national level in academic competitions. DD goes to a private school that is nationaly ranked. Everyone in Alabama is NOT stupid, and every school in Alabama is NOT substandard, far from it. Do we have our share of poor schools? Yes, but most of the state is also rural and living below the poverty level.
I am sorry to disagree with some here, but I still say that if my DD could miss a week of school and not have ot do anything to catch up I owuld question why that was the case. I am not asying no one should be able to catch up from missing a week, but that there should be something that needs to be done to catch up. My students in high school typically need at least 2 afterschool sessions to catch up on the concepts missed, and that is just in my subject. They also have to do this for the other 4 classes they take. A week missed is big chunk of material to recoup.

 

[catra121]

You missed 30 days of high school and had no problem catching up and they let you graduate early because your health deteriorated?? How did you meet the academic requirements?? I don't understand this as even when I was in high school we had to complete certain courses to graduate and they were broken down by grades.

I know even now the kids are required to complete so many courses in particular subjects in order to graduate. I also know that it would not be very easy to miss 30 days of school (of course we have homebound student programs here for those kids that have to miss more than a week of school) and just cacth up .

I guess it all depends on where you attend school because where I went to high school and here does not make it easy to miss that many days and just catch up.

Well...they weren't 30 days in a row so I guess that probably makes a difference...although that was just junior year. I think it was 26 my soph year and only 10 or so my freshman year. I was taking AP classes as a junior and tested into advanced classes even as a freshman that met requirements for math courses and such. After junior year I only had two required courses that I hadn't taken yet: government and consumer ed. I took those the summer between jr and what would have been my senior year. Straight A's help...and I got permission to take additional english courses instead of gym my sophmore and junior year because of my health. I rarely had to do actual homework to understand the material so between tests and papers I got great grades. Some people need that personal instruction with an instructor to understand stuff...I never did. I could read a text book and just get it. I also read a lot as a child and MANY of the books we had to read in high school I had already read before so that worked in my favor as well.

 

[tink15823]

Wow, this attitude never goes away does it? eveyone in the south must be an ignorant hick. Sorry, but no.
As with ANY state or city, it would depend on the school. We have several top notch high schools in our area, buth public and private, that continually graduate students with perfect or near perfect ACT/SAT scores and scholarships to Ivy League schools. I happen to work at such a school. We have 2 IB schools, just in our district. There is also a school in our district that teaches a pre-engineering program developed by the Boston Musesum of Science. Only about a dozen schools in the country have been certified to teach it. We have acouple of schools that habitually place nationally in robotics competitions, and several that are competitive on the national level in academic competitions. DD goes to a private school that is nationaly ranked. Everyone in Alabama is NOT stupid, and every school in Alabama is NOT substandard, far from it. Do we have our share of poor schools? Yes, but most of the state is also rural and living below the poverty level.
I am sorry to disagree with some here, but I still say that if my DD could miss a week of school and not have ot do anything to catch up I owuld question why that was the case. I am not asying no one should be able to catch up from missing a week, but that there should be something that needs to be done to catch up. My students in high school typically need at least 2 afterschool sessions to catch up on the concepts missed, and that is just in my subject. They also have to do this for the other 4 classes they take. A week missed is big chunk of material to recoup.

Your missing the point here . We all understand you do not feel comfortable about pulling you child out of school. My children also go to a private school and they have no problem with them going to Disney. They Also Went to New York city to do mission work . Again with no problem. They have to show they can do the lessons that are being taught do a class room presentation and a 3 page report. All of this in no problem because we work on it at home . Yes we also have a busy schedule Sport youth group scouts . My older children don't mind the extra work so why should you !Oh and they have a 98% grade point average . So we understand you would not pull your child out so don't. I feel I can and have the right and will . That should be the end of it .

 

[spacemountainmom]

Wow, this attitude never goes away does it? eveyone in the south must be an ignorant hick. Sorry, but no.
As with ANY state or city, it would depend on the school. We have several top notch high schools in our area, buth public and private, that continually graduate students with perfect or near perfect ACT/SAT scores and scholarships to Ivy League schools. I happen to work at such a school. We have 2 IB schools, just in our district. There is also a school in our district that teaches a pre-engineering program developed by the Boston Musesum of Science. Only about a dozen schools in the country have been certified to teach it. We have acouple of schools that habitually place nationally in robotics competitions, and several that are competitive on the national level in academic competitions. DD goes to a private school that is nationaly ranked. Everyone in Alabama is NOT stupid, and every school in Alabama is NOT substandard, far from it. Do we have our share of poor schools? Yes, but most of the state is also rural and living below the poverty level.
I am sorry to disagree with some here, but I still say that if my DD could miss a week of school and not have ot do anything to catch up I owuld question why that was the case. I am not asying no one should be able to catch up from missing a week, but that there should be something that needs to be done to catch up. My students in high school typically need at least 2 afterschool sessions to catch up on the concepts missed, and that is just in my subject. They also have to do this for the other 4 classes they take. A week missed is big chunk of material to recoup.

Well........you never to seem to hesitate to point your finger at what you perceive to be everyone else's "sub-standard" education. Over and over and over again.

I don't believe too many people claimed that there wasn't any make up work to be done. My kids had make up work to do. They did spend time outside of school to complete their missing work. It just wasn't the major maladjustment that you try and make it out to be. Everyone just puts on their big girl panties and deals with it.

Don't take your kids out of school. I don't care what you do. Stop telling everyone else that they are bad, uncaring parents for letting their kids miss school to go to WDW.

 

[imthatgirl]

Well........you never to seem to hesitate to point your finger at what you perceive to be everyone else's "sub-standard" education. Over and over and over again.

I don't believe too many people claimed that there wasn't any make up work to be done. My kids had make up work to do. They did spend time outside of school to complete their missing work. It just wasn't the major maladjustment that you try and make it out to be. Everyone just puts on their big girl panties and deals with it.

Don't take your kids out of school. I don't care what you do. Stop telling everyone else that they are bad, uncaring parents for letting their kids miss school to go to WDW.

Funny thing is she actually stated that she DOES take her kids out of school for vacations. If you notice she only wants to argue. It's tiring. I think missingthejob summed it up perfectly earlier....a waste of time.

 

[imthatgirl]

Fame is old. I guess I'm showing my age. Congratulations to your daughter. I hope to see her play one day. Clarinet is an interesting instrument. Those that play it make it look so easy, yet it's quite complicated.

Thank you. And yes you will see her one day, I guarantee it

 

[spacemountainmom]

Funny thing is she actually stated that she DOES take her kids out of school for vacations. If you notice she only wants to argue. It's tiring. I think missingthejob summed it up perfectly earlier....a waste of time.

I hear ya. Sometimes, I just can't help myself. It's like watching a train wreck.