Which would you choose?

[wanderlust7]

Have you asked about independent study? At our public schools, you can do them for absences of 5 or more days. If you complete it (sign a contract with the school, teacher assigns homework), then it doesn't count as an absence and the school still gets their funding.

 

[Anna Chassereau]

The school is a non-profit operation. No one there gets to keep the money from improved attendance. Good attendance, bad attendance: their salaries stay exactly the same. The money goes toward funding the children's educations. So your indignation is a bit misplaced...

I know they don't personally see that money and I know it's a non profit organization. I also understand that more attendance=more school funding from the government. I was just saying that I was frustrated that the reason they push for your kid to be there so hard and have good attendance is bc of money. My Dad was a teacher. I know how it works lol

 

[Anna Chassereau]

Have you asked about independent study? At our public schools, you can do them for absences of 5 or more days. If you complete it (sign a contract with the school, teacher assigns homework), then it doesn't count as an absence and the school still gets their funding.

This sounds great!! I will definitely ask about it...thanks!

 

[elvispursley]

In our school the teachers don't even bother assigning homework when it's a few extra days around breaks. They tell us they aren't doing much because so many kids are out for extra days during that time. So I'm not the only mother doing it. Now that I have one in high school, though, I'm more hesitant to take him out for too many extra days.

I totally agree! When we took our cruise last year, my oldest DS's 7th grade teacher gave him his homework for the 2-week he'd be missing and was gobsmacked when he returned to class with it totally completed. She told me my son was the first she'd had who'd actually had it all completed by the time he returned. We've been somewhat blessed by having our kids in private school and the teachers have been quite supportive of us taking our kids out for vacation. At the time, I worked at a trauma center and summer was considered "trauma season" and it was next to impossible to get time off approved. So the only time we had for family vacation was during the school year. But we actually had to reschedule the southern caribbean cruise we booked because my oldest DS told me he didn't want to miss any school this year (his 8th grade year). I feel this was our last year we could take him out since high school has so many classes with labs, etc. So while I'm proud of him for making that decision, it now bumps us into the high $$$ summer cruise season for DCL

@FigmentSpark, what do you do with your son who's in high school? Do you guys still take vacations in the off-season or just take extra days around school breaks? (Sorry ya'll to hijack the thread)!

 

[3monkeys4me]

@FigmentSpark, what do you do with your son who's in high school? Do you guys still take vacations in the off-season or just take extra days around school breaks? (Sorry ya'll to hijack the thread)!

I'm not FigmentSpark but my kids are getting close to high school (my oldest is 8th grade) Right now, we live somewhere that taking kids out of school during the school year is somewhat expected. A significant number of kids miss school for family reasons. We will be here for another 18 months and during that time my kids will miss several week of school (spread out). They are all good students and they are able keep up with the school work and don't have any trouble getting back into the swing of things when we get back.

However, after we move in 18 months the kids will be back in a more traditional school environment. At that point they will be 10th grade, 8th grade and 5th grade. We wobt be pulling them out of school anymore at that point, at least not for a significant amount of time. We may pull them out for a day or two around school breaks or extend a long weekend here by a day or something but even that will depend on their school and and sports schedules.

 

[elvispursley]

I now foresee blackout cruise dates and $$ summer prices in our future!

 

[Anchors Away 2016]

Pulling kids out of school depends SO much on the individual situation. Like @jrabbit, I wish I had pulled my kids out of school more when they were in K-8. Now that they are in high school, it is my sons themselves who tell me they don't want to miss school. Clubs, Karate, school plays, singing, band, Boys Scouts, and now Science Fairs. Yes, I too struggle with "over-scheduling" but I swear, we don't require them to do any of it. We do ask that if they want to end something, they try to do it at the beginning/end of a school year so that it doesn't break the commitment they made to that organization. I think they feel a bit overwhelmed at times too, but they LOVE all the things they are doing, and don't want to lose any of them. Actually, they have dropped a few things, but only to add others. Over all, their grades are still good, so I guess they know what they are doing, and are getting good experience at time management. LOL.

Of course, some schools do have very strict policies, so you do have to know what the policies are. Also, some kids, even in elementary school, struggle academically or socially, so missing a few days for them is hard, even at that age. But in our case, we did take them out a few times, and it was educational (as well as fun!) and they did do homework on the trip, which is a good lesson too.

Whatever you choose, embrace your choice, and enjoy it. We are all lucky to have such choices to make. You are going to have a great time!

 

[jrabbit]

The school is a non-profit operation. No one there gets to keep the money from improved attendance. Good attendance, bad attendance: their salaries stay exactly the same. The money goes toward funding the children's educations. So your indignation is a bit misplaced...

school district Budgets are built on how many attendance days times then number of students times the dollars allocated per student. But you are correct that "no one" gets to keep the money received by attendance, but the money received by the student's attendance goes to pay all of the bills. Most schools have a hard time making their revenue meet expenses. And NO, teachers are not overpaid.

 

[elvispursley]

And NO, teachers are not overpaid.

It's such a shame how little our teachers are paid for such an important role in our kids' lives! For many, these individuals spend just as much time, or more, with our kids as we do (waking hours, that is). Now that I've said that, I can stumble off my soapbox!

 

[oakleycat]

We take our kids out every year to travel at off-peak times and plan to continue to do so until they're in high school (now in 3rd and 6th). The teachers have always been very supportive, and now send work along for the older one. I just ignore the nasty phone calls from the district and tell them we were gone for personal/family reasons.

 

[FigmentSpark]

@FigmentSpark, what do you do with your son who's in high school? Do you guys still take vacations in the off-season or just take extra days around school breaks? (Sorry ya'll to hijack the thread)!

Last year we took 3 days before spring break and 1 day after. We will do the same this year again. I struggled with doing that, but he said he hadn't missed anything. By doing it around spring break, at least the teachers have some expectation that it's going to happen.

We'll be doing it again this year, when he's in grade 10, but I'm a little worried. In our province, they have a provincially assigned date for a standard English test that all grade 10 students must take. If it falls on one of the days that we are away, that could be a real problem. I'm hoping they'd have enough sense not to schedule it around spring break or Easter. Last year's test was at the end of March, but Easter was in April, so I don't know what they will do for this year.

 

[elvispursley]

We ended up having to reschedule our cruise last year when we found out the the standardized tests were going to fall during one of the weeks we were gone. Those are quite a pain to make up if missed so we moved to another month. So I hear you on missing that English test! I think we will do what we did when we went to Hawaii a few years ago for Christmas--we left a few days before school let out and came back a few days after it was back in session.

 

[dad of 3 addicted to DCL]

Our kids' teachers have been very supportive. Around 6 weeks out, I shoot an email to each teacher (DS is a rising 8th grader, twin DD are rising 6th). They've all been very appreciative of the head's up and allowed for working ahead/sending home homework. DS's Latin teacher even waived a test for him because we reached out early. Granted, the administrators sent 'nasty grams' because they missed school for cruises (plus the usual doctor, dentist, sick days...). I ignore them. As long as the kiddos are raking in As & Bs, I'm not too worried. As the PP mentioned, standardized tests are another kettle of fish. May/June are out for us here in VA because of that.