cruiser21
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2016
- Messages
- 3,311
As a homeschooler you look at everthing as educational or as a opportunity to educate. It's kind of the mindset you have to have. When people say traveling isn't educational I have trouble wrapping my brain around that line of thinking. I would be "that parent" telling the school I was pulling them out for a British Isles cruise and that it's educational. I woulnd't be trying to spin it because I truly believe a week on a European cruise is more educational then sitting in a classroom studying for standarized testing. I think many teachers would agree. Most kids don't have the opportunity to travel outside of the US. They only get to read about it in History or Geography book. If traveling to Europe or Asia in the shoulder season is the only way we can afford it my priority would be take the trip.I am commenting because I have experienced having to make the choice to take my daughter out of school for a vacation or waiting for school break. I have done both. My DD started school a week late when she was in 5th grade because our vacation to China and Japan extended into the school year. I also took her out of school for two days in 8th grade to go to Quebec for Carnival because we were flying on airline miles and Delta only had flights on specific days. I'm not against taking kids out of school for vacations and I don't think people are "bad parents" for doing it. I do think that once kids are in middle school and high school it becomes much harder for them to make up lost time even if the teachers send work with them. Because of that, I do not recommend that people take their older kids out of school for more than a day or two. In any case, I have certainly never spun a vacation as "educational" even though my DD has seen the real Eiffel Tower, real Japanese Temples, the real Chateau Laurier, real British pubs, real German towns, real Mexican marketplaces and the real Temple of Heaven. Seeing a real stave church is on my DH's "bucket list" and visiting northern Africa is on mine (although I would prefer Egypt over Morocco).
FTR, My daughter is a freshman in college. Not only don't I consider her "grown" but I have also had to pay for summer vacations as recently as last August and winter break vacations as recently as December/January. I still have to consider her school schedule if I want to vacation with her and it's even more imperative that she not miss any school.
My kids can do in a few hours what it takes kids all day to do in school. The concept of not being able to catch up is hard for me to grasp too. I've heard it from numerous posters on here so I'll assume it to be true.
I think my kids would benefit from the social part of high school. Although a lot of my friends kids haven't turned out so well. I'm not sure I can retrain my brain to think like a lot of you think when it comes to school. It's all food for thought. I have to August to decide...so I have a little time.