Keeping children out of school to go to WDW

[luvGoofy]

We live in a resort town which is very busy in the summer and most employers don't allow vacations during the summer months so for us it's either out of school to go in the winter or not at all. The school system here works very well with that allowing 7 days for family vacation as long as all the work is made up. They usually get it ahead of time and since we drive to Disney they do some of it then and then they have a week after they get back to finish it up. I love going in Jan./Feb and am so glad we are able to.

 

[tigsmom]

We used to take our kids out of school for 2 days to tack onto a holiday weekend when they were younger. They would have to make up the work or receive a zero, I had no problems with that. As they became older and the work more involved we stopped taking them out of school (around 5th grade) and started to go to WDW in the summer...I really miss my mid winter vacation in WDW.

We were not required to tell anybody ahead of time, but I always did to make sure there would not be a test missed. Some teachers were kind enough to send the work home to be done before returning.

Although my school district does not encourage you to miss class for vacation they are aware that in the real world sometimes there is not much choice as to when a parent can schedule one and that family time (in this day & age ) is important too.

 

[SewIn2Disney]

as long as my child can maintain an A average, I should be able to take her out school as much as I want. The schools have been dumbed down so much some students could maintain A's & B's just showing up for test.

I'd love to know what school you're talking about! As an educator, I know that's hardly the case by me! Students are doing algebra (with letter variables) as young as 2nd and 3rd grade. They are expected to know how to read and write before they even enter kindergarten, and high school classes go further then some college classes I took.

Anyway, we always managed to go to WDW even when my sister and I were past elementary school. We usually backed it up against NJ Teachers Convention week (or Jersey Week as FL locals call it!) or against Thanksgiving break (the crowds aren't too bad then). Our school had no rules about taking students out. You basically had the same amount of days to make up the work as you were out of school.

 

[tigsmom]

I'd love to know what school you're talking about! As an educator, I know that's hardly the case by me! Students are doing algebra (with letter variables) as young as 2nd and 3rd grade. They are expected to know how to read and write before they even enter kindergarten, and high school classes go further then some college classes I took.

Anyway, we always managed to go to WDW even when my sister and I were past elementary school. We usually backed it up against NJ Teachers Convention week (or Jersey Week as FL locals call it!) or against Thanksgiving break (the crowds aren't too bad then). Our school had no rules about taking students out. You basically had the same amount of days to make up the work as you were out of school.

Same here and kindergarten kids are making PowerPoint presentations for class reports!

 

[Nemo14]

Same here and kindergarten kids are making PowerPoint presentations for class reports!

That's so true here too - sometimes I wonder if I would have made it through school the way things are now! ...and don't get me started about "summer homework"....

 

[SewIn2Disney]

You're both right, my third graders are making Excel spreadsheets, complete with graphs to show their grades! And in HS, we ALWAYS had summer homework! We always were assigned a book to read and fill out this packet of information to go with it. We were then tested on it the first week of school. That's our system's way of making sure our brains don't turn to mush during the summer.

 

[Nemo14]

You're both right, my third graders are making Excel spreadsheets, complete with graphs to show their grades! And in HS, we ALWAYS had summer homework! We always were assigned a book to read and fill out this packet of information to go with it. We were then tested on it the first week of school. That's our system's way of making sure our brains don't turn to mush during the summer.

Required reading doesn't bother me so much - I'd prefer that they got to choose what they read for a change, but at least they're reading. It's all the other "packets" - math, science, social studies, "projects",... makes me wonder how we all ever made it through the summer without it back in the day....

 

[jozzmenia]

Here they don't like you to take your children out at all. I do know some that do but we never have except for the last day of school.

aww, not the last day of school! that's the best one!

i would take my kids out in elementary school, but only if they had already missed a day because i think it would be cool if they had perfect attendance.

it's not that big a deal to miss in elementary school but high school is a different story. i agree that vacations are educational though, depending on where u go. i went on school trips to DC and also chicago, cleveland, and toronto. all VERY educational with the museums and things. It was educational AND fun. But I never saw disney that way for some reason. i just saw it as fun. But that's because we avoided Epcot because at the time it seemed TOO educational. I went to Paris in 11th grade. Try catching up on missed work in Chemistry, Trig, and Honors English. I wouldn't reccommend it. :hammer:

 

[kachow]

And besides the classes missed, once you're in high school there's extracurricular stuff too. Even if I could miss some classes for a family trip, which I really couldn't, you absolutely can't miss sports practice, or band practice, or theatre practice, etc. and expect to get anywhere with it. And when I went to school, those things continued even through Spring breaks.

But honestly, the schools give a week around X-Mas, and at least one, if not two, weeks between Feb-April, plus obviously the two months in the summer. How is this not enough time for a trip? Oh, it's crowded? Sorry, just suck it up and deal. What, should they give each child a seperate vacation week so that no one has to be too crowded? It's ridiculous. When parents so nonchalantly put education on a secondary level it drives me nuts.

 

[FanofDinsey1981]

When I was a kid, mom and dad took us out once or twice for a WDW vacation, but it was 1) in conjunction with a holiday so work was minimal 2) mom is a teacher and would help us with our work, and would make us to our work before we left or on vacation and 3) only for 2 or 3 days, never a week. I think I was in the 3rd grade for the easter trip.

We don't plan on having kids for a while, but we are looking into some of the year round schools. I know they just went back this week after their 6 weeks break, and they get another break in later september. I am hoping some day we can do vacations in Sept, since it would work so much easier with my schedule at work, assuming I am in the same job.

 

[tigsmom]

Required reading doesn't bother me so much - I'd prefer that they got to choose what they read for a change, but at least they're reading. It's all the other "packets" - math, science, social studies, "projects",... makes me wonder how we all ever made it through the summer without it back in the day....

We don't have summer homework here, but the reading does come home. There are usually about 50 or so books that are "suggested" reading, no reports required though. My kids read like crazy anyway and always belonged to the school's summer reading program...one library is open for the summer, you sign up, read and write reports. They get little prizes for each book and the person who read the most and did the reports gets a big prize at the end.

On this summer's list of books, my youngest (the only one still in the district) had already read 20 out of the 50, some a few years ago...start them reading early and there will be no holding them back!

 

[tigsmom]

And besides the classes missed, once you're in high school there's extracurricular stuff too. Even if I could miss some classes for a family trip, which I really couldn't, you absolutely can't miss sports practice, or band practice, or theatre practice, etc. and expect to get anywhere with it. And when I went to school, those things continued even through Spring breaks.

But honestly, the schools give a week around X-Mas, and at least one, if not two, weeks between Feb-April, plus obviously the two months in the summer. How is this not enough time for a trip? Oh, it's crowded? Sorry, just suck it up and deal. What, should they give each child a seperate vacation week so that no one has to be too crowded? It's ridiculous. When parents so nonchalantly put education on a secondary level it drives me nuts.

As I stated earlier, it is not always possible for parents to get the same vacation time as their kids. My DH's vacation is the first week of November this year, guess what? My oldest will be away at college and my youngest will be in school.

He had some vacation time in June too...school was still in session here so there was no going away either.

You do what you have to do.

 

[Miss Bell]

We took our daughter out in 4th grade for her 10th birthday, and again in 8th grade to tag along when my husband had a business trip. Both trips were arranged to miss only two to two and half days of school, with assignments to be done on the plane. (I'm a teacher, so that is also as much as I could get away during the school year.)

I'm glad that we did them--the 8th grade trip was much harder to miss the school, and even weekend school activities. Now that she's in high school, we will have to stick to summers, Christmas, or spring break.

Especially while your kids are young, as long as you work with them and their teacher to make up the work, I say go for it. Disney can be a very educational experience. There are many times that going on a ride or to an attraction has reinforced something she's learned at school, especially at Epcot.

 

[Nemo14]

We don't have summer homework here, but the reading does come home. There are usually about 50 or so books that are "suggested" reading, no reports required though. My kids read like crazy anyway and always belonged to the school's summer reading program...one library is open for the summer, you sign up, read and write reports. They get little prizes for each book and the person who read the most and did the reports gets a big prize at the end.

On this summer's list of books, my youngest (the only one still in the district) had already read 20 out of the 50, some a few years ago...start them reading early and there will be no holding them back!

My kids are the same way - voracious readers, so required summer reading was no big deal, since they'd be reading anyway. It's just all the other stuff that really gets to me, particularly the projects! So much time and effort (and expense) involved, then the teacher hands them back like a day later with an arbitrary grade (or check mark).

End of rant....

 

[PSU_Princess]

My mom took me out of school for a couple days in 5th grade to go to WDW...I did the work on the plane with no problems. I missed the first two weeks of high school (10th grade) for a trip to Germany. The biggest problem with that trip was that I didn't know my way around the high school. In 11th and 12th grades I missed a week each to ski in Colorado, but I again had no problem making up the work. I think you just need to know your child and whether or not they can handle the work. As for schools letting your children out...shouldn't the ultimate decision lie with the parents not the schoolboard...you know your children and their abilities better than they do :wave:

 

[kachow]

As I stated earlier, it is not always possible for parents to get the same vacation time as their kids. My DH's vacation is the first week of November this year, guess what? My oldest will be away at college and my youngest will be in school.

He had some vacation time in June too...school was still in session here so there was no going away either.

You do what you have to do.

You don't have to share the same priorities as me, but I'm saying school comes first in my book, period. I wasn't making my statement to personally attack you. This thread is essentially getting everyone's view on the subject. Everyone has their priorities.

For me, I would re-jigger things at work before I tried to re-jigger things at school, or oh well, that's the breaks. Again, I'm just talking about high-school level here, and by that point a trip to Disney falls way down on the totem pole next to classes, extra-curricular activities, and part-time jobs.

 

[cdunbar]

Yeah here in FLA, they are very strict about taking time out from HS classes; I even know some kids who I go to a very difficult private college with who will skip 2 or 3 days of their classes to go to Disney.

 

[tigsmom]

You don't have to share the same priorities as me, but I'm saying school comes first in my book, period. I wasn't making my statement to personally attack you. This thread is essentially getting everyone's view on the subject. Everyone has their priorities.

For me, I would re-jigger things at work before I tried to re-jigger things at school, or oh well, that's the breaks. Again, I'm just talking about high-school level here, and by that point a trip to Disney falls way down on the totem pole next to classes, extra-curricular activities, and part-time jobs.

I did not take your post as a personal attack. :lol:

If you look back you will see that I originally said we had taken the kids out of school when they were small (but only tacking on a day at each end of the holiday weekend), but stopped once they got older. I was just pointing out that it is not always possible to travel when the kids have vacation because of parent's obligations at work and sometimes they cannot be re arranged.

And you are correct in saying that not everyone has the same priorities so none of us should jump to judge anyone (and I'm not saying that you are), we all do what we feel is best for our families and should have to apologize to nobody.

 

[dixiegirl]

I'm always amazed at how many school aged children there are at WDW during school year.

Parents, how do you make your case to the school? Do they give you a hard time, or has it now become an accepted thing?

Well I will welcome you to the boards!!! Now this has been talked about on here many, many times..And I'll warn you now if someone gets snipy....I have in the past and will as long as we can take our kids out of school to go to disney...Our daughter last year was in all day kinder...and lets just say we told the teacher quite a few times about our up coming trip she knew. in advance...we were going the second week in september..this for us is when we can go ..do to our work scheduals and such...yes I know this to many teachers and children is a vital time to be in school... But anyway..we had the truency officers at our house while we were away....callls on our machine at home from the principal...after we came home I immediately called the principal explained...all set...But yes we will continue to do this for as long as we can....As long as the kids keep doing well in school...I'm sorry I know children and their education is very important...But so is family time,,I feel fortuate enough that we can afford to take them to disney or any vacation in the first place..I never had a chance to do this with my father and mother growing up (do to A very bad divorce at a young age) To go with my kids even if it means taking them out of school...so be it..it's a week.......But welcome to the boards iris!!!!!!!!!!

 

[hankhill]

Keeping kids out

To offer my two cents on the issue, we have pulled the kids out each time we have gone each of the past four years. I have one in Kindergarten and one in Third grade. I have alot of respect for my kids schooling but I also believe in work hard play hard. We go but they earn it. Just my thoughts.