Taking kids out of school for FREE DINING???

[Poohbug]

I will not be taking the kids out of school this fall Only because I have one starting Kindergarten and I want him to get used to the new schedule. Now next year is another story-if they keep up the free dining we will definately be considering it. Even if no FD we still like to go in Sep or Oct because of the rates and NO crowds.

 

[danx2plus3more]

i am lucky i guess family vacations are excused at my childrens schools...finally somthing i like about my distric..lol

 

[VickiVM]

I would (and have) for lower elementary grades, but not at the ages your children are. I value their education more than free food. Middle school is challenging enough as it is without burdening my kids with stress of making up lost time. Sorry, but your question specifically asked if you would pull kids out for free dining.

 

[Minniekins]

I think it's perfectly fine, especially if they can make up the work and do, and still maintain their grades the same as if they were there. DD17 is my daughter and family time, even if only 2 of us, is important. Plus Disney is educational, too! Plus, if you can go and save a good amount of money, go for it! In the end, days out for a family vacation shouldn't effect their education or the rest of there life in a negative way at all, but will effect it positively as they will make great memories forever!! Plus, there is a lot more to education than just book learning.

We're are not going for FD but we will go again this Nov. It's just myself and my DD17 now and neither of us would enjoy going as a super busy time, wading thru throngs of guests and waiting in huge lines, Nov is a fairly light time for us and we can do MVMCP, too! When she was little girl we took her out several times to go to Disney and the school had no problems at all. And even now, it works out perfectly fine. The school does have a limit on days missed per semester (10). Anymore than that and you can lose credits. Any sicknesses lasting more than one day are grouped as one absence with a doctor's note. If something drastic ever happened before our trip we could always move it if we had to, but so far these vacation days have been almost the only ones she has missed. Anyway, they allow 5 excused days for family vacations, not sure if that's per school year or semester. You send in a note and they send it to the teachers and they are to give you work for while you are gone. My daughter always gets good grades and this doesn't change when she misses for vacation. The last couple years, and this coming Nov, we take 10 days in Nov. She misses 6 weekdays but they have off 1 - 2 1/2 days for institute and conference times(I don't do these in H.S. anymore anyway), so they usually only count about 4 days which are excused. She's never been overloaded with work and usually gets most of it done in the few days before we leave. Plus, she always has a teacher or two say how great that she's going to disney and to have a great time, and some would like to come with!

So, after all that, I say go and have an awesome time with your family with no worries!!

 

[1DISNEYLVR]

I am & I do take my DD out of school for vacations nearly every year. I think this will probably be the last time I will be able to take her out for a whole week though because after that she will be going to the high school which has a very strict attendance policy.

 

[emalone]

I would (and have) for lower elementary grades, but not at the ages your children are. I value their education more than free food. Middle school is challenging enough as it is without burdening my kids with stress of making up lost time. Sorry, but your question specifically asked if you would pull kids out for free dining.

It's not just getting free food, it's all about us taking ONE trip a year. Just One vacation a year to Disney. We don't have the money to go 3 or 4 times a year on a vacation, not even a little weekend trip. We go to Disney One time a year and no other vacations at all during the year. Things have gotten so pricey, that alot of people can't even afford to take a trip anywhere, much less Disney. For right now this is the only thing we as a family look forward to every year. We are doing good by going when free dining is offered. I had rather not take our children out of school, but if you can only afford to take them when they offer free dining, then I feel like you should and enjoy it, because to us our children's faces at Disney World is PRICELESS. Like someone else said "They don't own our children!".

 

[mickeynut1]

We took our 2 boys out for 6 days each year during free dining at the end of September in 2006 & 2007 and never had a problem (they were 6th/7th gr. and 7th/8th gr.) We actually booked the bounceback for this September, but decided not to go at that time only because our oldest DS is starting high school in the fall and we thought at that grade level it might be too much to pull him out right at the beginning of the year. So we're going right before Christmas instead It is hard to pass up the $1200 savings for free dining But we haven't been to Disney at Christmas time since 2003, so it will be fun to go to MVMCP again and see all the beautiful decorations

 

[twoeeyy]

Our school starts back Sept 3rd ( I believe ) and our daughter will be missing school ( sophmore year ) the last week of Sept for free dining, we are checking in the 26th ( late ) of Sept thru Oct 5th.

 

[myhouseofmouse]

I know it has been said before on this thread, however as long as you let the teacher know in advance, why not? I guess I'm a father that puts a higher mark on family values, then one week of school. Being able to take a family vacation once a year, speanding the time together as a family is not cheap. You should be able to chosse when you want to go. Our family does not care for the crowds costs and HEAT of the summer. We did try it, ONCE, that was enough for us. Now we are back to our yearly, week after Thanksgiving trip. We do Thanksgiving with all of our family, then we take ours to disney the week after. Not putting down schools or education, just putting up families.

 

[kjs1976]

I'm a teacher and a parent. I would love to be able to take my daughter on trips in the future outside of school holidays and summer. However, it will never work. Going on off peak times saves a lot of money and there are fewer crowds...well, with free dining, maybe not! But it would be worth it to me. Four days is by no means a huge amount of time. I have a student gone for two weeks right now!!! And if they let teachers know ahead of time and make up work before hand, then you're good to go. As a teacher, the only thing I hate when kids are gone is when they let you know the day before or not at all or you give them all their work ahead of time, which is work for me, and then they come back with none of it done and continue to fall behind.

Go, have fun, and make some fantastic TS ressies and eat your way through the World!

 

[G&J's Mom]

Right now, we are booked with the bounceback free dining from 9/25 to 10/4. Then my kids school up and changes the fall break shedule to the second week in October. DS will be in 1st and DD in 3rd. I have not cancelled yet but will probably do so. Attendance policies are rough in GA. When I complained to the GA Department of Education about an attendance issue I had at DD's school, they told me that schools can interpret the policy any way they want to, because they are just guidelines. WHAT THE??? . The issue was having a nasty run in with the attendance people, including a social worker regarding 8 EXCUSED days, with doctors notes, that my DD had in Kindergarten when she was ill. They basically called me in and threatened me, threatened to take me to court, jail, yada, yada, yada. I guess they thought DH and I would just sit there and take what they spewed. NOT. I don't think one group of people has ever pissed me off soooo much, because I let them know exactly just how mad I was . Maybe that is why they haven't messed with me again.

Vacations would clearly be unexcused, I know that, and I just don't know if the total garbage I will get from the school will be worth it. I guess my hesitation in cancelling is giving up the discount, because right now there is NO discount yet for the second week of October.

Denise

 

[DznyDreams]

I home school my DD, so it's not an issue for me. However, my SIL is taking her sons out of school for our GG the first week in Sept. This will actually be the first week of school in their district. By missing this particular week, the boys will have no absences counted against them. In this district, the first day of school isn't until your literal first day of class attendance. The district begins Sept 2, but the boys' first day will be Sept 8. We have several school teachers in our family (many teach in this very district), and my MIL is a retired teacher from this district. All say the first week is the best week to miss for a family vacation - nothing but review during that week.

 

[Stinkerbell317]

Our agreement is as long as the kids (who right now are only in 2nd Grade and pre-k) can keep up their grades, we have no problem taking them out for family time vacations. It's simply a waste of $$ for us to go during peak seasons. We go to parochial school, so they can't say much abt us pulling the kids out, so that makes it easier also. Of course it will gt more difficult for the kids to make up their work as they get older, so we'll have to reevaluate. But for their younger years, I feel the family bonding time is every bit as important as the school time.

 

[heimlichfan]

Anytime this subject comes up, I bring up the same story because I think it has such a valid point.

I am a 4th grade teacher and a few years back I had a little girl who missed A LOT of school. She missed almost two full weeks for a Florida vacation the year she was in my room. (In addition to several other absences.)

The following year when she was in 5th grade, her mom passed away suddenly. The Florida vacation her family had taken while she was in 4th grade was their last family vacation together.

Ever since then, I never bat an eye when a kid is taken out of school.

 

[MHTeacher]

Do you think it is worth taking kids out of school for free dining? We are trying this the first time with free dining.

So we think it's worth taking kids out of school and letting them make up their work. They will only miss 4 days, due to labor day. Who is taking their kids out of school? Let us know.

I don't want to debate the merits of taking your children out of school or not. That is everyone's personal business.

That being said, I am a teacher and a parent (14 yr, 12 yr., and a K) and we will all be missing school the week of Labor Day. Because of the holiday, we will only miss four days.

We were planning to visit WDW this year anyway, so when the free dining came out, we just decided to visit at this time of year. With 4 adults, and 1 child, we would typically spend $600 on food, so this is a bargain for us!

 

[Gymbomom]

We are taking our kids out of school. Saving 1200 is just too good of a deal. I hope that my kids teachers will be able to get their school work together before we leave, but I know that is a lot of work for them.....so we will either do work there at Disney or when we get back.

 

[jennyf2]

I have in the past & I didnt think twice about it. I made sure all their homework was done right away. My oldest son is starting HS in the fall & has football practice everyday after school so going forward I will not be pulling them out of school. I think missing both football practice & making up HS homework wouldn't be fair to my son & to his team. So in the future we will have to take a shorter trip (long wkd) or go in the middle of summer & fight the awful crowds (ICK)

 

[Princess Amy]

We have never had a problem taking our son out of school. He had a small amount of make up work....in kindergarden may I add We always give advance notice to the school and the principal always writes us the same thing. School is important..yada yada yada...but Have Fun!

Honestly, I think the only reason why teachers or principals get miffed is because they can't go themselves!!!

 

[Cathy baby RN]

lots of heavy

My 1st grader missed 4 days during last year's FD, and she had 25 pages of work to make up! The teacher let her do this over the next week, but it was a lot of work for a little kid. Good luck!

Wow! That is alot of work for a 1st grader. I taught 1st grade for many years and I bet the majority of it was "busy" work. I always just had kids make travel journals and work a few math pages. After I finished teaching(becane a nurse), we would take our children out of school once a year for 5 days. They always had to do a travel journal and had a good book to read. We now look back on those journals with fond memories. Since we have 6 kids, we usually drove to Florida. It's funny, their first sentence in their journals were usually "we drove and drove and drove and drove"
I have 3 in college this year and all are on the deans' list. A few days missed in grade school each year didn't make a difference is their academic success.
When they were in high school, I didn't take them out because of sports,work,etc. They really didn't want to go anyways, they were much more into their friends and social life and didn't want to "miss" anything.

 

[CarolA]

That is so true!!!! All about the $$$!!!!

So playing Devils Advocate here...

Why is that BAD if it's the school, but GOOD if it's your savings with Free Dining? Isn't that "all about the $$$"?

That said I always wonder why it's better to miss during the first week? Yeah there are fewer things to learn but by the time you get back all the "lunch and playground" groups are made and there you are on the outside.