What DS's school said about his Disney absence...

[nilseks]

I had to share this b/c I have read some of the horror stories people have shared about getting flak from their children's school. Now, before I go on, I should say that my son is only in 2nd grade so he's not missing anything too major when we go on vacation next month, and on top of that he is a pretty advanced kid. He's already well ahead of what the 'average' child his age is doing, so I'm not stressing about him being behind when we get back. Younger DS is thankfully in preschool--if he had been in school I would not have taken him out b/c in his case he would have a hard time catching up.

That said, I notified his teacher as soon as school started and she was like, "Okay thanks for telling me. Just remind me the week before you go and I'll get work together for him." We're going in 4 weeks so today I e-mailed the school and told them about it, and asked if I needed to fill out a form or anything. The secretary e-mailed me back and said, "Nope, no form. I'll just print this out and put it by my monitor and when your son is missing in a month I'll remember where he is. ;-) Hope you have a great trip!"

Wow, I love our school! Heehee!

 

[twinsplusone]

I talked with the kids teachers too and even the principal. They were all great about it too. My principal even shared her vacation story when her kids were little. My kids are good students too. I think I feel more "guilty" about them missing school then anyone else. We have a 3rd grader and 2 kindergartners. Have a great trip.

 

[tavettava]

Ours don't care either. They just make sure you aren't doing it during MEAP (state testing). Ds's teachers have never had any work for him (he is in 5th now) just to write in his blog. Dd is in 8th this ear and they have her take a form to her teachers and she gets some work but not a lot.

 

[mom2zandjsquared]

Our school was great about it last year especially since the boys had already missed earlier in the year for a trip to Cleveland for the playoff series of Indians v Yankees.

This year its a different story for my MDS so we will pick him up at lunch time and head up to Disney.

 

[tebi73]

My son's principal and teachers were really great about him missing class too. He is also in 2nd grade and we are also going next month! Of course, my mom is the school secretary & she is going with us and also the principal is going 2 weeks after we get back & pulling his kids out of school too! So I guess they really couldn't say much to us!

 

[Carlyzmom]

My daughter is in 2nd grade and a plan on telling her teacher in a couple of weeks at the parent-teacher conference. Her teacher seems really easy going so it should not be a problem.

 

[shaunaday]

Now, before I go on, I should say that my son is only in 2nd grade so he's not missing anything too major when we go on vacation next month,

Yikes! As a second grade teacher...this is somewhat insulting.

Having said that, I am also one of those teachers who thinks that family time and real life learning experiences are important and should be valued. So I am glad that your school is working with you on this!

 

[disneymom2003]

I am glad they were so good about it. Last year we went to Hawaii for a week First time there as a family (me Dh, Ds20, dd 17) My daughter gets good grades. She was also attending a magnet school. My daughters DANCE teacher made her write a page a day on dance while we were gone. Huh?

 

[MinnieVanMom]

We live in a community where the school is important but they also feel that a child learns from the family. They support out of school activities with the family as long as there are no other issues.

My children don't miss school, we turn in all homework, we make up work after the trip or during and they are not disiplinary problems.

It is so nice when you have the support of the school rather than the things I have read about.

 

[parkers*momma]

Our school is fantastic. I think they were as excited as we were when we vacationed in September. Our daughters teacher (2nd grade) allowed her to adapt her reading, science, and history journal from the normal classroom things into things she did and learned at Disney. In reading, her journal was about all the fun things she did. In history, she talked about Dinosaur, the presidents, Epcot and the countries, and Walt Disney (I was even impressed with the things she remembered). For science, she wrote about the lizards, the day at the beach, bird of wonder, and we must not forget the lengthy entry on the dreaded LOVEBUGS

Upon our return to Ohio, we had recieved emails from the secretary, principal, and her teacher basically saying that they hoped she was having fun and learning wonderful things about Florida and WDW.

No wonder we decided to open enroll her in this school!

 

[RMulieri]

Wow good for you! I can't wait till next year when i pull dd out of school ( kindergarten) for our trip.Especially since our district has a staunch "no vacation/strict abscence policy"..wish me luck!

 

[nilseks]

Yikes! As a second grade teacher...this is somewhat insulting.

Having said that, I am also one of those teachers who thinks that family time and real life learning experiences are important and should be valued. So I am glad that your school is working with you on this!

So sorry, I should have worded that differently. I didn't want to word it in a 'bragging' way, but my son is very advanced for his age--well above the 2nd grade level. So in 2nd grade when you are that far ahead it's pretty easy to do the 'make up'. For example, he can multiply in his head, so missing a week of "6 + 8=" really won't have a big impact. Not so easy if you are in say 6th-8th grade, where kids ability level tends to even out and missing a week of school can be a big ordeal. Like I said, my younger son is NOT advanced, so for him it would be a big deal to miss a week of 2nd grade. He's not even in school yet but already struggling to keep up with his preschool classmates. We will NOT be missing any school for trips once he goes to elementary school!

 

[matthew&haleysmom]

Glad you had a good experience with your child's school. We took DD out of school last year for WDW. She was in 2nd grade. I went and talked to the principal. She told me to send in a note the day before and she would excuse all absences. Then, I went to talk to the teacher. She prepared some homework for DD. She also caught DD up when she got back.

For about 2 weeks before we left, DD couldn't stop talking about her trip. Her teacher kept telling her she could only go if DD packed up the teacher in the suitcase and took her! The day before we left, DD wrote her teacher a note. She told the teacher to be at our house early the next morning to get in the suitcase! Don't be late and don't drink anything before coming over! DD's teacher called me at work to read me the note. She could not stop laughing! I love DD's school!

 

[santa's surpriz]

I was so stressed about taking DD out in JAnuary. But at kindergarten orienation and the principal made a point of saying to us, "try to keep in under 10 days. If more timeout of school is needed, let us know and we will un-enroll him and re-enroll upon returning to school." It seemed like no big deal. I am not sure if that is because of exceeding absence allowances or the no child left behind program, none the less I still feel a little guilty. But it's not going to stop me...I figure the guilt will subside once reach the "welcome to Walt Disney World" sign!

 

[Aunt Flancy]

We also had a good experience. My boys are in 9th and 10th grade at a charter high school and I had no idea what to expect since I had never taken them out of school for a vacation before. I talked to the principal and the registrar and they were both great. They said to get any work ahead of time that we could and make up anything else when we get back and have a good time.

 

[h518may]

We toke DS out of school in Sept. for a week. We told his teachers, he's in kindergarten, about the trip at parent/teacher conferences. His teachers were great about his trip, talked about how much he would get out of it. Then mentioned bringing something back that was not a character to share with the class about his trip.

Funny thing with our trip. We left Sun. 14th, Ike had moved inland, but had a lot of wind still. Our area got hit with 75 mile per hour wind Sunday afternoon. Over 75% of our county lost power, many for days. Public schools were out the whole week we were gone. DS's school got power back Tuesday and went on a two hour delay until Friday. DS is in a half day program so only missed one full day and an hour and a half the other days. And My DH, who works for the electric company, was just glad to be out of the area and unavailable for the week. If he had been home he would not have had a vacation that week.

 

[livie1205]

my ds10 principal sent me a e mail saying it was ok for him to go to wdw as long as he rights a paper on somthing he learned so I told him we were doing the sunrise safari and he said my ds could do a dvd report and bring it to show the class. I thought it was a great idea!

 

[shaunaday]

So sorry, I should have worded that differently.

No problemo!

 

[jojo0612]

We went to WDW Sept this year and on the bus back to the resort was one of my son's teachers!

 

[drcbpearce]

When we went, we informed DS's teacher, he was in 2nd grade, when we would be going during our spring conference, and that we would get his work ahead of time. She said, oh, don't worry about it, go and have fun. The year's nearly over, we won't be doing anything major. Great fine. Well, I should probably preface this with the fact that we had been butting heads all year and I really should've requested to change teachers, but discovered the true problem too late in the game. when we got back, DS's friend who lives 3 doors down who was in the same class came over bearing a grocery bag FULL of his work! I was livid I sent her a note and asked just what the heck 'don't worry about it' meant from her side. It was all a huge mess, and thankfully,we don't have her this year. But I'm really glad your school is being so easy about it. You all have a great time!