WHEN to take kids out of school?

[msmama]

No debate about the ethics of taking kids out of school please. My son is in Kindergarten and even several teachers in the district have said to take him out rather than travel during breaks (flights are ridiculous!!!).

Anyway, if you have a whole year open to you, how do you decide WHEN to go?

We're looking at Disneyland, instead of WDW this year (well, next year). Probably sometime between Jan and March (but not the week of Presidents day because that's the crazy spring break prices out of NY).

Would teachers know at this point if there is something important happening in that time frame? I don't necessarily want him to miss something cool (though I guess Disneland and Legoland are cooler no matter what).

At this point I'm ready to just throw a dart to pick a week!!

(Oh, and I did ask over on the Disneyland boards when the best time to go was, and I think 12 people gave me 12 different months as the "best" month, lol).

 

[Angel Ariel]

If you are talking about pre June 2014, yes schools should know important testing dates by now. I would ask your district what those dates are and pln around them as much as possible.

As for best time to go, just keep in mind that with dlr there is more that closes or doesn't run as frequently in off season. Like fireworks, fantasmic, etc only run I think Fri-Sun in off season (maybe thurs-Sun). If those are important to you to see, and I do highly recommend seeing remember dreams come true and fantasmic, then plan accordingly. Also haunted mansion and small world go down in Jan to remove the holiday overlays, and splash is usually closed for a bit in that time as well.

I've gone to dlr in march, April and may and had wonderful experiences during all of them. May and April were the easiest to plan with fireworks as they were busier (food and wine festival and spring break respectively). I don't know that they've restarted the dca food and wine festival, though, or I would highly recommend going for that.

 

[Ashlander]

I think the end of October and all of November is a good time to pull kids out of school. We have also looked at February, which in our school district is after exams, but before the big push for SOL's. We took the kids out of school the third week of school the first time we went to Disney (first child was in Kindergarten) and the timing was a bit awkward.

 

[candyrn]

We always take the kids out in January, the week after MLK holiday. Our mandated testing is in March. I presently have a 7th & 5th grader and a kindergartener. We get our mandated testing dates the first week of school, which here, is the last week of August. Because we take the kids out for more than 5 school days, our education leave has to be approved by the board, it's not as intimidating as it sounds. In fact, I have often been tempted to just write "because they are my children, that's why" when filling out the form, that 's how much attention I think they pay to them. Make-up/homework has been pretty light for previous trips. We drive from Pa so they take the down time during the drive to get it most of it done before we get there. Hope this helps.

 

[Moodyzblu]

I usually talk to the teachers well in advance and let them know what I am planning. Last school year we went to both DL and WDW and I made sure there was nothing important going on during those times. The teachers were real supportive and encouraged the kids to write journals about their experiences.

 

[mousehunter3]

We're pulling ours out the last week in October.

I don't think it really matters for kindergarten. Find a week that suits you best!

 

[wiigirl]

We're pulling ours out the last week in October.

I don't think it really matters for kindergarten. Find a week that suits you best!

 

[ness0905]

Make sure you talk to teacher before you pick dates a classmate of my daughters missed kindergarden graduation because it was in may and the mother thought it would be in june other than that for me it was fun what do we wanna see decorations food and wine but we are going to wdw don't really know much about dl but I would say what season do you want to see

 

[poohfriend77]

I think you're probably fine anytime in kindergarten. My kids are a bit older, so I make sure to avoid weeks of standardized testing, as well as the last week or two of each quarter (when they often have big tests, book reports, projects due, etc).

Maybe check with the teacher to see if there are any planned field trips. My older DD has missed a field trip or class party (principal moved the Valentine's party to the Friday before) on all four of our trips. It's almost comical at this point. I let the teacher know when she'll be gone, and just wait for the note to come home about a field trip. She was really upset about the one in 2nd grade, but her teacher kindly offered to let DD stay with her for the week, if she really thought a morning at the nature center was better than a week at WDW. DD stopped complaining pretty quickly after that.

 

[RedHeadedFairy]

We're pulling ours out the last week in October.

I don't think it really matters for kindergarten. Find a week that suits you best!

For us it always has worked well to plan our trip so that it overlapped with the end of the quarter/beginning of the new. I have found that our district schedules teacher service days around that time & most of the class work is reviewing previous lessons. This way at least a a day or 2 of our trip isn't considered an absence... it falls on their scheduled days out.

I always check with her teacher to make sure that we won't be gone during any important testing & her teachers have graciously offered to test her separate from the other kids before our trip if she'll be out on a test day. If for some reason she needs to play catch up when we return I think it's easier to do that in the first few days of the quarter because she has PLENTY of time to get caught up.

DD has always been a straight-A student so her teachers have never batted an eyelash at our requests. We've taken her out for one trip or another every year for KDG-4th.

I don't think it will be as easy in middle school, so we're enjoying the flexibility now.

 

[MSSANDRA]

You should be good anytime with Kindergarten. We love mid-January. Low crowds, cool weather and a nice mid Winter break!

 

[Ariel on Land]

We are taking our 1st graders out in a couple weeks. It's the week after report cards come out so hopefully they won't miss many tests. But really, they are in 1st grade and make all As, so I'm not stressing!!

 

[cel_disney]

We have taken DS out of school the past two years and will do so again next year. We traveled in September before school was in the picture so we have just kept our typical plans now that school has started. A few notes- I have looked at the mandated state test schedules the past few years - I will always avoid those times for travel. Last year we went the last week of September/beginning of October (school started last week of August) and it was perfectly timed. This year, we went to DLR instead of WDW because of the BC-USC football game - sept 12-22 (again school starting the end of August). This was not the best week to go - I missed parent info night and we missed school pictures. BUT - academically - DS did not miss anything, it's primarily a kindergarten review time and a 'learn the 1st grade routine' time as many kids have not attended full day classes or specials yet - but DS has done both of those things because we paid for all day kindy...

Now - as far as DLR goes - I would not recommend September if I was going to do it again...the weather can be very hot and the park hours are VERY short...we had a good trip and we saw alot in our 4 park days, but it was tough to make the 10-8pm hours work for us - we had to skip afternoon breaks and balancing eating dinner with park time was a challenge as well...I think a 9pm closure would have given us many more options like we are used to at WDW...but we had a good time anyway!

DS had some jet lag but we all managed to bounce back within about 4 days of being home...my one issue was that we flew home on the red eye to Boston and it was TOO SHORT! Only 4.5 hours inflight - we really would have preferred 6!! But I had the kids nap when we were driving to the airport for an hour and then they slept again when we drove to our house from the airport...We landed on a Sunday morning so first day at school was Monday after a real nights sleep...plan accordingly

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

We pulled our kids out the week before Memorial Day and they only missed three days of school because we traveled on a day that was a teacher in service day and came back on Memorial Day Monday. We found this week to be a good time because it was towards the end of the school year so all state testing and major projects/assignments were done, spring field trips, spring orchestra/band concerts, awards banquets, etc. were done for the school year, cold/flu season was out of the picture, crowd levels at the parks were moderate and manageable, and the weather in Orlando was pleasantly hot (84-89 degrees) during our trip but not rainy or real humid like our prior trip in August. We are considering this same week for our next trip. We have also thought about the week of or after Labor Day in September or the week after Thanksgiving; but to avoid hurricane/rainy season, higher airline rates, cold/flu season, and our kids missing more than three days of school we may just go back the same week we went this past May.

 

[cel_disney]

I forgot we also went away in May this year! School ended June 19th but we went away for 5 nights Memorial Day weekend...we left Thursday afternoon (pulled DS out at noon so he got credit for that day) and then came home on Tuesday night. Friday was a half day. As far as missing school it was a great time - there was VERY little - almost no - curriculum remaining!!!

We would go this time of year again to WDW (star wars weekend!) but not sure about DLR - you would have to check what APs are blocked out - I think that if many AP holders were eligible for those days that it would be VERY busy for the weekend there...

 

[AnnaNonamus]

I looked at times of the year we like (for seasons, and holidays), and the crowd calendar. We ultimately decided on Halloween, after Columbus Day crowds are gone. My oldest does online school year round- her going was not an issue. My 11yo's support staff at school (she is SN, and has a teacher, an ASD teacher, OT, speech therapist, and her principal are all on her "support staff"- we jointly make choices regarding her therapy, and meet bi-monthly to see how everything is going, and make changes as needed) were all excited for her back in April when we first brought it up to them.

She usually misses 1-2 days per school year, so it was not a. Issue for me to decide to pull her out. We all LOVE Halloween, so MNSSHP has a huge draw for us. Lower crowds was another big draw. The weather was not a huge draw, as I would almost prefer a slightly less warm time frame, but I am not going to complain about that.

 

[disneymommagic]

I usually plan our vacations for the week before school vacations. This year we leave dec 14 but the kids are not out until the 23rd so my kids end up with an extra week of vacation and we tend to miss the crazy schools out times.

 

[SandyinMonterey]

I don't think children really miss much in Kindergarten. Not like in the upper grades. I noticed someone posted about testing...do they start standard testing in your Kindergarten? October is a nice time to go to Disneyland especially when all decked out for Halloween. A friend told me the least crowded time to go to Disneyland was SuperBowl weekend. She had asked a cast member when she last went.

 

[drstrangelove]

No debate about the ethics of taking kids out of school please. My son is in Kindergarten and even several teachers in the district have said to take him out rather than travel during breaks (flights are ridiculous!!!).

Anyway, if you have a whole year open to you, how do you decide WHEN to go?

We're looking at Disneyland, instead of WDW this year (well, next year). Probably sometime between Jan and March (but not the week of Presidents day because that's the crazy spring break prices out of NY).

Would teachers know at this point if there is something important happening in that time frame? I don't necessarily want him to miss something cool (though I guess Disneland and Legoland are cooler no matter what).

At this point I'm ready to just throw a dart to pick a week!!

(Oh, and I did ask over on the Disneyland boards when the best time to go was, and I think 12 people gave me 12 different months as the "best" month, lol).

We pull our kids for vacations each year. We try to do it around a scheduled day off to reduce the time out by a day. this year we are going around the MLK holiday in January, so they won't lose that day. We have done it in the past around presidents or veterans day too. Good luck.

 

[SEA333]

We stay away from the very beginning of the school year when the kids are getting their schedule down pat, the very end of the year because they want to do all of the fun things the teachers have planned, and most of March because ISAT testing is always the first few weeks of March.

I hate crowds, so Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Spring Break are out. I love early May, the end of April, and November for travelling. I am scared to fly or drive when there could be a snow/ice storm, so it's hard to plan much in Jan/Feb in the Midwest. My kids play football/cheerleading, so we cannot travel anywhere between the months of late July-early November (football and cheer REQUIRE attendance and 100% participation in order to earn playing time, and cheer teams cannot practice the routines/dances if there are girls missing, so both sports are a HUGE commitment that we are willing to embrace)

So....we have gone the last week of March, are going this year from Nov 14-19th, and I would LOVE to go in late April/early May at some point in the future.