School work

[dandbsmom]

We had a great cruise because I wasn't taking the homework on the boat for only 3 days! It probably would have gotten lost or tossed with my luck! I personally spoke to DS(10)'s teacher this morning (he was really worried and wanted me to go in personally) and she said no problem about the writing assignments and he could finish them later this week. I told her that her and the other teacher were driving me crazy (I have a pretty good relationship with her) with all of the work that she gave him and she said that is what they have to do. I wrote a note for DS(6) so we will see later today what comes home. DS(6) doesn't worry as much. Next time I will see if we can compromise on some type of journals, etc. Coming home and unpacking is bad enough but having to jump into homework was even worse!

 

[mackymaddyconnorsmom]

My kids got lots of work to do while we were on the cruise. I asked for it. I got them to do a little each day 15 minutes if we were at a port and 30 minutes while we were at sea. They accomplished a lot of it. What they didnt finish they finished on the plane ride home or on Sunday. My son still had some more work when he got back to school that the teacher didnt give him ahead of time. They missed 4 days, but it was worth getting it done instead of being behind in written workl

 

[CPM]

OMG! I feel your pain. My son had a pile plus a chapter book. He's in second grade!
He only missed 3 days and never missed any other days besides the hurricane days like everyone else. I had him go to the cabin an hour before dinner each night. He didn't finish it all, I wrote a note saying we did what we could. Never heard back from her. So, if his grades fall a bit one quarter in 2nd grade I think we'll all live.

 

[musicgirl]

As a teacher, it's more the norm to give the work ahead of time because it is what the parent request even for 1 day due to illness. In fact, I often wonder why a parent would want to pick up homework when a child is sick. Just me, but wouldn't he/she be resting or not feeling well enough to do it?

Personally, I would rather have it ahead of time. In 3rd grade, we took a long trip and the teachers were nice about getting it to us ahead of time. Which is actually really harder, because the teacher has to estimate at how much might get done. Lesson plans change constantly.

The teachers in my schools would actually prefer to do it after the absence.

Perhaps the teacher thought she was being helpful?

JMHO

 

[mickeyfanmom]

My children got a lot of work when I just took them out for our 7 day cruise, but I asked for it and was happy to receive it. Now we did have 8 hours in the car each way, and our son also worked an hour once we arrived home.

We did not take any work on the cruise, because we were on vacation. But I did want my children to know that if they were going to miss school there would be ramifications and that it was their responsibility to do the same amount of work as their classmates who were not missing school.

It is tough to get done, but can be a good lesson in life too!

 

[NADINENURSE]

I have always struggled with this issue. We are also fiscally average, we go to Disney when we can afford it which is never when school is out. SO, we are taking them out of school when it is cheap. Funny, I get more grief from my Father-in -Law than the school We live in an upper middle class community in Upstate NY with a huge school district (8 elementary schools), they are very help*** with homework packets, and don't seem to get stressed out about it, I really think there are more families that do go away at odd times, rather than the normal school vacations. I had posted in the past about my FIL giving me grief, many posters where so helpful to me then, your advice was to go whcih we did. We brought the homework, left the tetbooks home by accident, so had to do the work at the last minute.

 

[Mickeyhugger]

Jmcross, I think that's very selfish of parents to not appreciate the time and effort you've put into preparing assignments for your students ahead of time. .

We've taken our DD out of school for a Disney week each year since kindergarten, but always let her teacher know far ahead of time, and asked her (teacher) whichever would work better, doing assignments before or after their return.

dandbsmom, I'm exhausted just reading about your kids' homework assignments just for two days. That's and UNREAL amount.

 

[april riddle]

I requested homework for both of our sons (3rd and 6th grades) but we were missing a full seven school days. I would make them sit down for 20 minutes every evening and do some work. They both had a couple of days before we actually flew down to Florida so they opted to do quite a bit beforehand. My problem was that DS (11) assured me that he had handed in all the homework and then when the report cards came out the little darling (straight A student) had two C's for not handing in the homework. When I asked him why he said no-one asked him for it. (I will be bald before the end of middle school! ) Needless to say he had a stiff punishment for lying to me and not handing in his homework - I will say the teachers were terrific in making sure that we had the work way ahead of time.

 

[Mickeyhugger]

April riddle, that is too funny!

 

[pooh luver]

I am also a teacher and appreciate the hard work others put into getting homework for students but I don't believe that much homework is good. When I took my son out of school for 10 days a couple of years ago his teacher gave us a few things before (It took him about 10 minutes) and asked him to write a journal. Well, the journal didn't happen because I refused to ruin my vacation by arguing with him about doing the journal. He is a straight A student who hates homework. I appreciate that his teacher understood what he was getting out of the cruise. The cruise is an education unto itself in many aspects; learning to seat and eat properly, swimming with the fish ect. No better education than to experience it first hand.

 

[dandbsmom]

Well DS(6)'s teacher wrote back that we did fine on the homework. (We did most of it!) She wanted him to write something about the cruise. Although, she didn't tell me that originally. He did write about how to snorkel...it was funny..he wrote..put on the flippers and try to walk! She also wrote back that they cover a lot of material in a day in 1st grade. Since he has good grades I still don't understand why he couldn't slide a day or so. I know teachers have a lot of responsibilities so please don't attack me. Just a frustrated mom that didn't want to end my cruise with a afternoon of dealing with a large homework ordeal!

 

[tvguy]

I was a little annoyed on Wed afternoon when my DSs came home with a ton of paperwork from their teachers since they were missing the next 2 days when we were going on the Wonder. When did they expect them to do this work? Like I was supposed to take it on the ship? Right! Mine you, neither of my DSs have missed a single day of school this year (except for the Hurricanes!) They are also very good students. Anyone else experienced anything like this?

You'd have a bigger problem here in California. They agressively enforce the truancy laws, so you'd be explaining why your kids missed school to a judge. It's a felony. That's if they are in public school. Private school policies vary, which is why parents inclined to take kids out of school here usually opt for private schools.

 

[Tera]

California must be different from my day living there....

 

[tvguy]

After years of fewer and fewer instruction days, and shorter school days and dropping test scores they have decided to add instruction days and make the school day longer, and crack down on truancy and unauthorized absences.

Both my kids are in private schools, and could take vacation time during school, but we don't do that. Because my work forbids vacation in February, May, July and November, our vacation options are even more limited, but that still leaves 10 weeks a year that the kids are out of school when we can go on vacation.
Guess it's a very personal decision, except here in California.

 

[scrapcreator]

California public schools have an independent study option for extended unexcused absences. We took dd out of school for 8 days in Oct.(WDW & cruise)and her teacher assigned work (a minimum of 4 hrs. a day) and we signed a contract that we would do the work. It was quite a bit of work. We did some prior to the cruise, during the cruise (just before the evening shows & dinner) and on the plane. We also had to finish some of it up when we returned. I won't say that it was fun (especially when we came back) BUT because we did the work, the absences did not count against her and she was on the Principal's Honor Roll for that trimester.

Jeanne