Teacher's advice on missing school

[Tebrown96]

Love your input, thank you! We're taking DD out of school for one week next month for our Disney trip. She's in 1st grade and I'm sort of already regretting it. I feel like she's going to miss SO MUCH. She was out sick for a few days last month and the amount of work that came home with her upon her return was insane. I've already been in touch with her teacher about it and she doesn't think our daughter will have trouble with what she misses. She'll have plenty of time to make up the work when we get back, too. We will be having her keep a journal during the trip (writing a bit about each day, probably around dinner time before she gets too tired) and we'll certainly be having her do her daily reading, as well. It'll be harder to keep her active in the math area, which is unfortunately her weaker subject, but we'll try to do something. Maybe I'll stick her flashcards in my backpack for those longer waits in line - just kidding (sort of).

 

[SillySallySews]

I would never hesitate to pull my kids out of school for anything related to family time. Math and science and tests will always be there. My parents and my husband's parents are getting older and one day we won't just be able to jump in the car and go visit them. If we happen to spend a couple days at the beach or Disney while we're visiting, so be it. Of course we encourage our kids to do well in school, but for us life does not revolve around school work. It's been interesting reading everyone's take on this. I would find it very difficult to allow the school district we lived in to have so much say in our family time. But then again maybe we are different because my husband is military. His current mission really puts a lot of limits on when and for how long we can travel. He's often on a 30 minute recall and when that happens we can't even drive to our favorite local park! He's been gone a lot for the last several years and has had very few opportunities to take leave. So if his leave time happens to fall during standardized tests, oh well! A lot of public schools double dip on the funding they get from educating military kids anyway.

 

[Dizneefamily+4]

I'm a high school math teacher.

Forget about year to year-- my lessons change period to period. Would you really want me planning in August what I was going to teach your child the first week of May?? We've missed 4 snow days of school since Christmas.And missed a day for a faculty funeral in September. And I was out one day with a stomach bug in February. And what if your child didn't understand factoring the second week of January? And was absent with a stomach bug the week I taught polynomial division? Am I really supposed to forge on with those pre-made lessons regardless of what's going on in my classes? I realize it would make vacation planning far easier, but is that the education you want your kids to receive?

I've been teaching forever; Noah knew how to count the animals two by two because I taught him math. I'll walk into school next Monday knowing the topic I'm teaching. But each class will evolve its own way. First period will understand it the first time I go through it and will progress slowly from easy problems to more challenging ones. But 4th period will get through many fewer examples because they'll have a lot more questions. (Both are honors classes, and both had their share of 100% grades on the trimester exam. But they're different groups of kids, and tend to learn differently.) 5th period will joke around but still accomplish more than 4th. 8th period will be more like 1st in terms of what we accomplish.

So I don't have a strict lesson plan ready. I know what I'm teaching, and the actual problems we do will depend on how things go from period to period. They may or may not have the exact same homework.

Of course, should we have a fire drill, then all bets are off for that period.

For what it's worth, this year I've started something new: I post a short video online on any topic I teach. But it tends to be a 4-5 minute video. My kids love it-- they hear the same explanation they heard in class, using the same words, with the same emphasis. And it's short and consise enough that they feel it's worth their time to watch. But it's a supplement of what I've taught, not a replacement.

I'll be happy to teach anyone who shows up for class. If you're not there, you're not there. But I can't teach you if you're not there.

Miss a week of my class-- whether it be for a family funeral, the flu, or a Make a Wish vacation (all of that has happened this year)-- and you're going to be confused until you can get the notes, watch the video, and get to extra help. (Extra help is every day after school. ) It's not a matter of me being too lazy to provide you with lesson plans ahead of time; it would be easy enough to find a teacher's edition somewhere (sorry, I don't use one) and print some stuff up. But would it be an accurate reflection of what we covered in class? Not even close.

Oh, and as to the textbook: it's pretty close to impossible for a 14 year old kid to learn math from a textbook. Take a look at one some day-- pick up an Algebra I text and teach yourself to divide polynomials or do factoring by grouping. Or pick up a Trig textbook and teach yourself to verify a trig identity. Or to find the length of the altitude to the hypotenuse of a right triangle from a Geometry textbook.

The reality is that textbooks were never intended to take the place of teachers. They're to aid in the process, not replace it.

My dh is also a high school math teacher and dept. chair (for 20 years) with the exact same teaching philosophy. Never is a class taught the same way day to day let alone year to year!

 

[Magpie]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my question! It's encouraging to see that lots of children are allowed to take courses in higher level grades when they're ready for them.

Our school district has a wonderfully laissez-faire approach to attendance, and we definitely do well on international testing standards, but the "broader, deeper, not faster" philosophy has never sat particularly well with me.

Here, the emphasis seems to be on keeping kids with their age mates. No one is ever held back, and skipping ahead is extremely rare (and often involves the parents opting for a year of private school to game the system).

In high school, he will take courses as he is ready for them, and might have some college courses he dual enrolls in. He will take his first AP class as a freshman.

We have something in common here! Our high schools work on a credit system. You have required credits and optional credits, and some of the higher level courses have prerequisites. But whether a course is listed as "9th, 10th, 11th or 12th" grade isn't terribly important. Plenty of kids will take courses outside their year, and it's not uncommon to have three different years mixed into a single classroom. It's also not uncommon for kids to take 5 or even 6 years to accumulate all their credits. Around here it's called, "Taking a victory lap."

My son and my daughter are both in the same Chemistry class this term, despite the fact that one is in Grade 11 and the other's in Grade 12.

Love your input, thank you! We're taking DD out of school for one week next month for our Disney trip. She's in 1st grade and I'm sort of already regretting it. I feel like she's going to miss SO MUCH. She was out sick for a few days last month and the amount of work that came home with her upon her return was insane. I've already been in touch with her teacher about it and she doesn't think our daughter will have trouble with what she misses. She'll have plenty of time to make up the work when we get back, too. We will be having her keep a journal during the trip (writing a bit about each day, probably around dinner time before she gets too tired) and we'll certainly be having her do her daily reading, as well. It'll be harder to keep her active in the math area, which is unfortunately her weaker subject, but we'll try to do something. Maybe I'll stick her flashcards in my backpack for those longer waits in line - just kidding (sort of).

That journal will become a marvelous keepsake of your trip.

With regards to math... Flashcards straight up can be really boring. Instead of drilling her, try picking up some of these books.

http://www.boxcarsandoneeyedjacks.com/productsmathematics.htm

These are quick fun math games that you can play while waiting in line, while waiting for your food to come, and back in your hotel room. All you need are dice and a pack of cards.

 

[Sacha_L]

Wow any truancy court requests would result in us homeschooling our kids for the semester. Enjoy no money then. Thankfully CA has "independent study" as an option. I'm sorry but we do and will continue to pull our kids for vacations. Next year they will miss the first day or two of school for Disney ( who knows there is still no calendar due to "negotiations" ) and then 2 weeks in January. We are going to Mexico, Columbia, Costa Rica and Panama and will be gone from Dec 26th to January 16th. I feel no guilt. Teachers have over the years requested everything from a report to all the work they missed to nothing. I do give them our it itinerary which usually helps as they can see that we visit educational places during the trip.

My other pet peeve is they complain about absences but I'm sorry I do not send my kids to school sick. Last year we had pink eye one week then back to school for 3 days and then lice. Yuck! I know not everyone has the luxury of a stay at home parent but please don't complain that my kids missed school because some other parent sent their kids to school sick and infected mine. I know we can't always know as soon as a child is ill and that sickness is part of life I'm complaining about situations like the ones above.

 

["Cinder" Ella's Mom]

[QUOTE="Cinder" Ella's Mom;51252193]As another teacher, I want to add: If your child is in high school, PLEASE DO ask for work ahead of time and make sure your child keeps up with it. Having to make up days and days of work at this level is virtually impossible. If my students know they have to read 6 chapters and do it while they are gone, they will be successful! Coming home to current work plus 6 additional chapters...UGH![/QUOTE]

Just want to point out that I teach English. I have a set schedule of chapters (in a novel)kids must read by a certain date and that does not change...ever. We may get behind in our classroom discussion or with an activity, but the basic reading that needs to be accomplished can easily be given to a student ahead of time.
I know many of you have said "I would not ever pull my kids out of school for vacation." My husband travels to WDW in September for work and my children and I can join him free of charge. I take the kids and myself out of school for 2 days for that trip. Those are usually the only days we will miss all year. This year will be DS13's last trip, though, as he begins high school next year. It is just too hard to miss when you are in all advanced classes and really don't want your grades to suffer. I have never had a student miss a week of school and maintain their grade...EVER...in 22 years. It may be a small slip, but there is always a slip. If that is ok with you then you should go.

 

[mom2rtk]

I find it interesting that so many would not even think to pull a high school student out--thinking it would be too much for them. For reference, I am 30 now, so it was about 12 years ago, but when I was a sophomore and a senior I was part of a school business club. I made Nationals both years, and Nationals were during the school week. One year we went to Orlando and the other year we went to California. We participated in Nationals, but when we weren't doing our events we visited Sea World, Disneyland (world), and Universal Studios. We missed at least 4 days of school. There wasn't even a bat of the eye from any administrators or teachers. I find it interesting that these absences were of course excused because it was a school event, but that if I would have done the same thing with my family it would have been unexcused.

I remember that I was a bit behind when I got back, but I put in some hours after school and worked hard to make sure I was caught up. I still graduated with honors as well, so it didn't affect me all that much. Now, I probably would be a little nervous if my child wasn't motivated or had a really hard time in school, and I would probably think twice about pulling them, but it definitely can be done.

I'm glad that we now homeschool so we don't have to worry about this sort of thing!

I think it's possible to miss days, even a week, of high school and still catch up with no lasting consequences. We took our son out for several days his freshman year and he did just fine.

But it's impossible to know going into it whether something critical will be introduced while they are gone. When my son graduated second in his class last year, the ones just below him in class rank were there because of the biology class they all took as freshmen that year. I would have been really disappointed to find out that his final rank turned on us taking him out for a Disney trip.

My daughter is still in middle school, and I still take her out. I don't know if I'll do that with her once she reaches high school.

 

[tiffanymarie813]

I use to miss two weeks of school every year to go on vacation. We were allowed to have up to 14 days of unexcused absents. I always had my work given to me before I went and about 95% of the time the class hadn't even done it by time I got back. I did this until 7th grade and I never found it hard to keep up. I would have continued to do this but once entering highschool you could only miss 4 days.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I would never hesitate to pull my kids out of school for anything related to family time. Math and science and tests will always be there. My parents and my husband's parents are getting older and one day we won't just be able to jump in the car and go visit them. If we happen to spend a couple days at the beach or Disney while we're visiting, so be it. Of course we encourage our kids to do well in school, but for us life does not revolve around school work. It's been interesting reading everyone's take on this. I would find it very difficult to allow the school district we lived in to have so much say in our family time. But then again maybe we are different because my husband is military. His current mission really puts a lot of limits on when and for how long we can travel. He's often on a 30 minute recall and when that happens we can't even drive to our favorite local park! He's been gone a lot for the last several years and has had very few opportunities to take leave. So if his leave time happens to fall during standardized tests, oh well! A lot of public schools double dip on the funding they get from educating military kids anyway.

I work 2,500+ hours a year. Kids are in school 1,080 hours a year. Working around THEIR schedule is usually the easy part




And yeah, I know it's not true of everyone, but it is for many.

 

[Skjhjb]

As another teacher, I want to add: If your child is in high school, PLEASE DO ask for work ahead of time and make sure your child keeps up with it. Having to make up days and days of work at this level is virtually impossible. If my students know they have to read 6 chapters and do it while they are gone, they will be successful! Coming home to current work plus 6 additional chapters...UGH!

We did this.

We are travelling in May this year, and our middle DD is in Grade 11. So at meet the teacher night we made sure each teacher knew she would be away. Oddly enough, the only teacher with any concerns was her phys ed teacher! Math teacher said "no worries, we cans catch up when she gets back" which is what the other two teachers said.

But the gym teacher was all concerned because it was a week they were in the weight room, so her participation marks would reflect poorly. So she has to put together a whole package of work for her to do when she gets back.

Lol....because spending a week walking all over Disney wasn't enough physical activity! Lol

 

[Tebrown96]

Jumping back into this thread because I've done some research that I admittedly should have done long ago and am now freaking out, waiting to hear back from our daughter's principal. In January, our town adopted a new truancy policy stating that a child will be deemed truant when they have 4 unexcused absences in a month or 10 in a year. Vacation is NOT an excused absence and since our daughter will miss 5 days of school, all in May, she will be deemed truant. I think this means that we'll be asked to attend a meeting with the administration to discuss the reason(s) for the truancy and a formal letter will go into our daughter's file. I am hoping that, since the new policy was adopted in January and our trip has been booked since last fall, we may escape any penalty, but I'm not holding my breath. I wouldn't be surprised if we are told we should have canceled our trip when the new policy was made public. Our daughter has missed 5 days of school this year due to illness (over 2 separate occasions) so our trip brings her to 10 days absent total. I am FREAKING OUT about what the principal is going to tell me and what our repercussions may be.

 

[nalajms]

I just checked our truancy policy. It states no more than 10 unexcused days per school year and no more than 4 per month. It's not clear whether vacations are considered excused or not if you tell them ahead of time. Luckily our Thanksgiving trip will be split between Nov & Dec But I'm still questioning whether or not to cancel other trips during non-school vacation times.

I might be in the minority here, but I'm more worried about taking him out of school in the early years than later. I'm worried that he won't have a good foundation. Once we get to middle & high school, those are subjects I can easily tutor him on.

How does your system deal with kids who get too far ahead in elementary school?

Our town is ranked in the top 10 for CT, and our property taxes are high. Last I checked, over 37% goes towards the schools. Even with that, "gifted" kids only advance above the standard lesson plan if there are parent volunteers willing to take on a group. I know a few stay-at-home moms who go in for a few hours to work with a group of advanced readers or other subjects.

I got into multiplication and fractions with my pre-k 5 year old last night while watching Peep and the Big Wide World...

Did your 5yo get it? I've been casually talking to DS4 about multiplication. But the way I think about multiplication doesn't resonate with him. My parents claims that my siblings and I went to K know simple multiplication. I can't tell if I'm just a bad teacher or DS is just not ready

And we love Peep

 

[nalajms]

J In January, our town adopted a new truancy policy stating that a child will be deemed truant when they have 4 unexcused absences in a month or 10 in a year. Vacation is NOT an excused absence and since our daughter will miss 5 days of school, all in May, she will be deemed truant.

Must be a state rule. Let me know what they say!

 

[Aliceacc]

Or pick up a Trig textbook and teach yourself to verify a trig identity.

In a funny coincidence:
My kids are in different schools, and as a result on different schedules, from my husband and I . The kids returned to school today (my husband and I are off all this week.)

My son just finished his Trig homework: they started verifying Trig Identities today.

Any kid who took one extra vacation day is going to be VERY lost tomorrow!

 

[AndreaA]

Jumping back into this thread because I've done some research that I admittedly should have done long ago and am now freaking out, waiting to hear back from our daughter's principal. In January, our town adopted a new truancy policy stating that a child will be deemed truant when they have 4 unexcused absences in a month or 10 in a year. Vacation is NOT an excused absence and since our daughter will miss 5 days of school, all in May, she will be deemed truant. I think this means that we'll be asked to attend a meeting with the administration to discuss the reason(s) for the truancy and a formal letter will go into our daughter's file. I am hoping that, since the new policy was adopted in January and our trip has been booked since last fall, we may escape any penalty, but I'm not holding my breath. I wouldn't be surprised if we are told we should have canceled our trip when the new policy was made public. Our daughter has missed 5 days of school this year due to illness (over 2 separate occasions) so our trip brings her to 10 days absent total. I am FREAKING OUT about what the principal is going to tell me and what our repercussions may be.

Stop freaking out! First, they probably will just let it go. Second, your daughter is SIX. Do you really think that even a "letter in her file" will amount to a hill of beans by the time she is in high school or even middle school?

I refuse to be bullied by any school. I just looked up my kids' school policies and it's 10 days unexcused, and family vacations require prior approval. I wouldn't care if they said that family vacations weren't allowed, I would still do it. They are MY kids, not theirs. I think that the schools - and sometimes even parents!- too often forget that.

 

[Magpie]

Did your 5yo get it? I've been casually talking to DS4 about multiplication. But the way I think about multiplication doesn't resonate with him. My parents claims that my siblings and I went to K know simple multiplication. I can't tell if I'm just a bad teacher or DS is just not ready

Your DS might not be quite ready for multiplication, but there are some fun things you can do to lay a good foundation for when he is.

Draw a chalk number line on the sidewalk in front of your house. Let your DS jump from number to number, counting aloud. Then challenge him to jump over every other number, skip counting by twos. Next he can try skip counting by threes. Forwards and backwards! Play with him, and see what you can do, too. Be creative! Use mathematical terms, where appropriate.

If you have a house with stairs, put numbers on them, making the ground floor zero. Steps that go up to the second floor are labeled 1, 2, 3, etc. Steps that go down to the basement are labeled -1, -2, -3, etc. Play games along the lines of "What time is it, Mr. Wolf?" and ask him to take two steps up or down. Have him look at what number he's on. Another one or two steps. Where is he now? This teaches adding by ones and twos, and also the concept of negative numbers.

Play with Legos and blocks and simple board, card and dice games. Division can be discovered by cutting up fresh fruit, and all four functions can be explored while playing with Cheerios.

Multiplication is nothing but repeated addition. If he can skip count, he can multiply. Division is simply sharing with your friends. Even very simple algebra (solving for the unknown number) can be introduced at this age. One plus what is five? 1 + x = 5

I love this age, when it comes to teaching math concepts!

 

[disney74352]

Stop freaking out! First, they probably will just let it go. Second, your daughter is SIX. Do you really think that even a "letter in her file" will amount to a hill of beans by the time she is in high school or even middle school?

I refuse to be bullied by any school. I just looked up my kids' school policies and it's 10 days unexcused, and family vacations require prior approval. I wouldn't care if they said that family vacations weren't allowed, I would still do it. They are MY kids, not theirs. I think that the schools - and sometimes even parents!- too often forget that.

We went on vacation and my children missed a week of school ( 1st grade) along with missing a couple of days for illness throughout the year and now we have to answer to the local police department for it. It is not worth the headache.

 

[Ava]

Your DS might not be quite ready for multiplication, but there are some fun things you can do to lay a good foundation for when he is.

Draw a chalk number line on the sidewalk in front of your house. Let your DS jump from number to number, counting aloud. Then challenge him to jump over every other number, skip counting by twos. Next he can try skip counting by threes. Forwards and backwards! Play with him, and see what you can do, too. Be creative! Use mathematical terms, where appropriate.

If you have a house with stairs, put numbers on them, making the ground floor zero. Steps that go up to the second floor are labeled 1, 2, 3, etc. Steps that go down to the basement are labeled -1, -2, -3, etc. Play games along the lines of "What time is it, Mr. Wolf?" and ask him to take two steps up or down. Have him look at what number he's on. Another one or two steps. Where is he now? This teaches adding by ones and twos, and also the concept of negative numbers.

Play with Legos and blocks and simple board, card and dice games. Division can be discovered by cutting up fresh fruit, and all four functions can be explored while playing with Cheerios.

Multiplication is nothing but repeated addition. If he can skip count, he can multiply. Division is simply sharing with your friends. Even very simple algebra (solving for the unknown number) can be introduced at this age. One plus what is five? 1 + x = 5

I love this age, when it comes to teaching math concepts!

I love these ideas! My daughter is almost 5 and will be starting K in the fall, but she seems to show an aptitude for numbers. She started teaching herself simple addition I can't even remember how long ago, so I try to do some math with her when she's receptive. She understands adding more than two numbers together, like 2+2+1=5 so I could probably try explaining multiplication to her as well.

She also likes to sort her Legos by color and size, and then count them.

 

[Cyrano]

Moving to TP Community as the discussion has moved to home school and education at home

 

[Magpie]

We went on vacation and my children missed a week of school ( 1st grade) along with missing a couple of days for illness throughout the year and now we have to answer to the local police department for it. It is not worth the headache.

I think it's important to know what you're walking into when you sign your kid up for school, and if you agree to the terms then you have to accept the consequences of your actions.

But, that said, I couldn't see myself ever agreeing to those terms. It'd feel like I was surrendering entirely too much of our family's freedom of choice to the authority of the school.

It's my job to teach my kids. I turn to schools to assist me in that task. The school system is working for me and my child, not taking over the parental role. I'm still the ultimate authority on issues concerning my child. Pulling your child out for a week's vacation is not child abuse, and should not result in your rights being taken away.