pulling kids for Disney trip

[GWhitten98]

I am not trying to start a debate on if its OK to pull your kids from school for a disney trip, but our mind is already made up on the decision to do so. We are just debating on timeing. My two will be in 1st grade and PreK at the time, if that make a difference. Last year we went the week before they started xmas break. It was great timing as far as being in the park and the fact that there wasn't much "school work", but it is kind of a pricey time and the kids missed on the xmas activities at school that week. Dh does not like the hot so we want to stick with Nov-Feb. So is there a better week to pull the kids?

 

[MandiC]

IMO Pre-K and 1st grade there isn't any bad time to pull them from school. For the most part if you keep up with reading practice and occasionally work with them (there are plenty of opportunities in the parks to work on counting and simple math appropriate for those ages, Epcot is great for teaching about different cultures, AK for learning about different animals) I think it starts to get harder to pull kids out in middle/high school. We had zero problems with our girls missing 6 days in late Jan/early Feb and they are in 2nd and 4th grade.

 

[powellrj]

If it were me, I would go mid to the end of January. You aren't in the holiday season and the crowds are pretty low at that time of year. Just avoid your monday holidays and you should be fine.

 

[msmama]

Can you ask the teacher's advice?

That's what I did. I figured she'd know better than anyone what days not to miss. That said, it's not really for academics, but I knew he wouldn't want to miss any parties or celebrations or anything like that. (We are going when we are so he has time to plan for the mothers day celebration the week we get back - and I didn't want to be gone for that)!

They don't have exams or anything to worry about at that age. I do plan on having my kindergartener keep a journal- just maybe write and draw about his favorite thing each day.

 

[ajwolfe]

We've not had any issue with the January/February time. And our school already has a couple days off in those months anyways. Maybe look at your school calendar and see if there are any days off that you can tag on to.

 

[SEA333]

I vote for November. Low crowds, nice weather, good prices, and you don't have to worry about snowstorms like you do after December, depending on what part of the country you live (or ANY part of the country this past winter!!)

We went from the 14th -18th - the marking period had just ended, and it was a quiet week at school. All teachers were on board in the elementary school level (4th and 2nd grade).

 

[TNS_Tinkerbell]

November is when we have and are choosing to pull our DD from School. She is grade 3, and November is just after first term report cards, but close enough to Christmas Holidays that not much critical learning will happen.

When she was in grade 1 we went to Disneyland, and we had her teacher give us extra work, one week prior so we were not behind, plus each day DD had to write in her journal.

I am planning this to be the same experience for Nov. 2014.


My other thought would be at the mid to end of January, but it depends on your child's school and when second terms ends.

Good luck.

 

[Kristian]

We are pulling our five year old out the week of September 6th - 13th. She will be in Kindergarten next year and school start's mid-August here, so she will more than likely be out the 3rd week of school (give or take). We love traveling in September and if free dining is offered then that is just a bonus for us I expect dd's principal and teacher to be ok with her being out...or at least I hope so anyway. Last September I called the school to discuss taking dd out for the second week of September and the staff that I spoke with on the phone basically told me that I would have to speak with the BOE regarding he matter. So, I called up the attendance administrator for our district and he basically informed me that they usually excuse Disney as somewhat of an educational trip so long as the child's grades and attendance are in good standing. If it were me I would probably travel in either September or sometime in January/February

 

[tanyaandallie]

I would find a crowd calendar, find the lowest crowds with weather you like and go then. In 1st and pre-k I would not stress over timing that is best for school. There is very little in 1st that cannot be made up.

 

[MSSANDRA]

I would avoid the first couple weeks of school since that is a important time to learn how the classroom operates, and new friendships are made but beyond that anything is fine at that age. We like mid-January really well. Low crowds and cool weather.

 

[MandiC]

One thing I'll point out about January/February in case you don't already know is refurbishments. Since it is cooler and the crowds are lower it is also when Disney chooses to do a lot of refurbishments. The weather was fine (downright cold some days/nights) and the crowds were low but in the future we will be looking more at September-December due to the refurbishments.

 

[jezebel73]

We go in November where we can overlap parent-teacher conference week which has less homework and a couple of half days at school. The crowds are pretty low and the weather can be decent to great (and at any rate is better than what we leave behind in Buffalo).

Late Jan-early Feb would probably be lower crowds and prices, and somewhat cooler for weather. You do risk a lot of things being closed for refurbishment then, though.

 

[scrapquitler]

I am not trying to start a debate on if its OK to pull your kids from school for a disney trip, but our mind is already made up on the decision to do so. We are just debating on timeing. My two will be in 1st grade and PreK at the time, if that make a difference. Last year we went the week before they started xmas break. It was great timing as far as being in the park and the fact that there wasn't much "school work", but it is kind of a pricey time and the kids missed on the xmas activities at school that week. Dh does not like the hot so we want to stick with Nov-Feb. So is there a better week to pull the kids?

If there isn't a better time work wise for you and your spouse, then I would personally consider a week that already has a day where school is closed one or more days. Columbus Day, Election Day, Veterans Day or some random day off scheduled for staff development would be where I would first consider. For example, in our district, we have Monday and Tuesday the week of Election day as staff development, and we also have Veterans Day either the same week or the day after...so many families in our district take that week to travel because they can take a full week + and only miss 2 or 3 days of school. In our house, we call this phenomena "no school November" because between these days off and Thanksgiving, there are very few days of school.

 

[treemi01]

I don't think it matters much at that age. In fact, we are pulling our 1st and preK boys out in a few weeks to go the first week of May.

 

[crisi]

We always picked a long weekend. For Minnesota, there is a Thursday/Friday in October that is teachers conferences - We'd pull them Monday, Tuesday Wednesday and get a week off. A lot of people pull that week here, so the academics is pretty light in early elementary school. October has good weather and used to have relatively light crowds.

 

[horselvr77]

As a teacher, I don't care when kids are pulled from school. The only time I get irritated is when they are gone for 2 weeks and want all the work. That's great. But sometimes we get behind if I change the lessons if the kids aren't learning as quickly as I thought they would. I'm pulling my son out of pre k for a week in November to go to
Disney. I'm not too worried about it. He's missing school in 2 weeks because we are going back home to see my family.

 

[kohlby]

Check with the school's policy before pulling the first grader. If it's a private school, then you have wiggle room likely. But if it's a public school, then unexcused absences are likely very strict. Also, ask about any standardized testing timing.

One idea is to go the first full week after T-giving. You could drive/fly down over T-giving break, giving you a little extra time. (On Fri/Sat). The crowds rapidly decrease by that Sunday. Check the school calendar to see if there's any sort of fall break as well.

We've been several times in Nov and the start of Dec. It's our favorite time of the year to go! Crowds are quite manageable, the weather is great, and the Christmas season is in full swing! We went the last week of Jan/start of Feb one year and the crowds were the lowest I've ever seen - so that was a great perk! However, that was a record cold winter so that made it a little harder. There were some rides closed, but they were rides that my kids didn't want to do anyway, like splash mountain.

 

[GWhitten98]

My husband and I have difficulty getting more then a week at a time off work. We drove b/c airfair for 5 plus rental car(DH will not go without a car) was A LOT. Last year we left at like 2am sat moring and were there by mid day Sunday. Then left Sat so we were back at work monday. Kids were off for xmas so they had time to recoup. We are thinking of moving it up to the week before thanksgiving; school here has the entire thanksgiving week off so they again would have time to recoup and we might be able to squeeze out an extra day or 2 if DH and I could swing getting it off without the kids missing extra school.

I like the idea of limiting the time off, we are in TX and truency laws here can be a little touchy depending on the school district. Last year DS was in private Kinder and they were fine with it; not sure how the public school will be.

 

[mm1971]

I am not trying to start a debate on if its OK to pull your kids from school for a disney trip, but our mind is already made up on the decision to do so. We are just debating on timeing. My two will be in 1st grade and PreK at the time, if that make a difference. Last year we went the week before they started xmas break. It was great timing as far as being in the park and the fact that there wasn't much "school work", but it is kind of a pricey time and the kids missed on the xmas activities at school that week. Dh does not like the hot so we want to stick with Nov-Feb. So is there a better week to pull the kids?

Between Nov. and Jan. I would say right about the middle of January would be the lowest for crowds. Avoid MLK day weekend and you should be OK.

 

[ktlm]

Those years we pulled DD out the week after Thanksgiving. The kids are so wound up about the start of the holiday season that they don't get a lot of work done that week anyway, and it is too early to interfere with holiday activities; parties; programs etc. You have to work around the taping of the Christmas parade the Friday and Saturday of that week, but if you just go to other parks those 2 days it is no big deal. We love the holiday season at WDW.