Taking a child out of school for a trip to WDW

[MouseMadness]

Originally posted by Yellow Shoes
You are adults and parents and have the right to do whatever you want with/to your children within legal limits.

But please be honest with yourselves and admit that the reason you are taking your child away from school (which is their "job") is for your own convenience.

The educational opportunities at WDW just as available in July just as they are in February.

And I don't think it's fair to expect a kid to do homework whilst on vacation. YOU don't want to work on vacation, now, do you??

It is for convenience... and also for more enjoyment for the kids. Sorry, I would never expect my kids to tramp around in the mid july heat and humidity with the same enjoyment as they do in October through February when the weather is beautiful and the people are scarce. And as far as school being their "job" yes, it is, but they are kids. The parents are going to have work to come home to, too. And let's poll all the kids... Would you rather do homework at night in WDW, or in your bedroom at home. Please stop acting like this is something that will happen once a month throughout the school year. Truthfully, for some, Disney is a rare treat. Go when you can make the most of it.

 

[Disneyanna0521]

THANK-YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i could not agree more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[GenerationX]

Captain Cab:

As long as your children have learned the same material on time as the rest of the class does it really make a difference if they learned it inside or outside the classroom?

Excellent question. Two points:
1. There is no guarantee the kids will learn the same material. Many will get the gist of the material, others will not. It's a risk that I admit can be somewhat mitigated by parents carefully going through the material with the kids. However, I don't believe the excitement of packing or the depression of unpacking are periods conducive to studying.
2. Even if they do learn the same material, the action still devalues school (and, as you pointed out, keeping the kids in school establishes good discipline).

FourFourSeven:

My mother had a trip to London planned (for a big honorary dinner there for a relative).

This raises another issue (a good one). The original concept of this thread was in planning a vacation to WDW. If my wife and I have full control over the dates of the trip, then we'll go during a school break.

In the case of a family function where I have no control over the dates for it (weddings, anniversaries, funerals, etc.), I would weigh the costs and benefits of pulling the kids out of school a little differently. While points 1 and 2 above still apply (and I'm predisposed to keeping the kids in school), I understand it may be a "once in a lifetime" opportunity. So, you got me. I've contradicted my initial statement ("I won't take my kids out of school to go on vacation.") I should have said "I won't plan a vacation which would involve pulling the kids out of school, and I would have to be overwhelmingly convinced to pull them for an unplanned vacation." But then, that statement doesn't exactly roll off the tongue now, does it?

 

[Disneyanna0521]

hehe:lol:

 

[FourFourSeven]

Originally posted by GenerationX
I should have said "I won't plan a vacation which would involve pulling the kids out of school, and I would have to be overwhelmingly convinced to pull them for an unplanned vacation." But then, that statement doesn't exactly roll off the tongue now, does it?

Excellent clarification. I think if a family takes yearly trips to Disney, and pulls their kids out for a week every year, I would find that very strange.

On the other hand, if the Disney trip is a once-in-a-lifetime trip (heck, even a once or twice in a childhood trip), I do agree that the added benefits of visiting in the offseason along with the family time spent together can make it appropriate for concientious students at appropriate ages. Extreme examples - I would question taking a struggling junior applying to college out of school during exam time, but I would consider it with a fourth grader near the top of the class in the middle of winter.

Will I take my kids out of school for a Disney trip? Probably not. (Okay, my daughter missed three days of preschool for Disney - sue me.) Do I have problems with people who do (as a former educator)? No, I usually do not.

 

[mkfan23]

The whole idea of taking a disney vaction with your kid is to have a memorable, magical time. Don't get me wrong, school is very important, but how often do you get the chance to take your family to disneyworld ? I have visited during the heat of summer and peak of attendence when I was in high school and I could'nt imagine how hard it would been dealing with the lines and the heat with a seven year-old. We went this past oct. and it was my wife's first time also. Needless to say she was amazed at how long some of the ques for lines were setup for and very appreciative that we hardly had to wait in any of them.

 

[Disneyanna0521]

i dont think we (people in school) should miss alot school for disney but if it is like u miss the last day of school before Christmas break or the day before spring break thats fine that can happen like twice a year and i am fine w/ that...even missing a week once a school year is fine. any more than that would worry me a little unless it is just for like your bigger birthdays, 10 13, 16, 17, 18 etc

 

[Momx3]

I too have wrestled with this. I am pulling my son at the end of Sept. for 5 days. He will be in 2nd grade. My daughters will only be in preschool and this was my last chance before I would have to pull three kids. I don't like him missing school but we don't go very often, last time was 5 years ago, and I don't want to go in the summer. I'm not as good a parent when it's hot and crowded so even though I know Sept. is still hot the crowds will be less. I do very much value his education and am very involved in it. This is a trip of his young childhood and I know it is for my convenience but that's what I'm doing.

 

[mkfan23]

Originally posted by Momx3
I too have wrestled with this. I am pulling my son at the end of Sept. for 5 days. He will be in 2nd grade. My daughters will only be in preschool and this was my last chance before I would have to pull three kids. I don't like him missing school but we don't go very often, last time was 5 years ago, and I don't want to go in the summer. I'm not as good a parent when it's hot and crowded so even though I know Sept. is still hot the crowds will be less. I do very much value his education and am very involved in it. This is a trip of his young childhood and I know it is for my convenience but that's what I'm doing.

He may not realize it, but it's going to benefit too, and shorter lines do make it easier to deal with the heat.

 

[Disneyanna0521]

yep!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I'm a 7th grade teacher so I have had a lot of experience with kids going on vacations. I usually have no problem with it, although I do get a little jealous if the travel destination is Disney. I have a couple of suggestions
1. Notify teachers in advance. Then teachers have time to prepare work for students in advance. This gives the students time to work on it before they leave (so they don't have to do it on vacation) and then they can also ask the teacher for help if needed. I do hate it when students come up the day before they leave and say they need work for a week or more!
2. Since the travel is usually not during large school breaks maybe try to travel when the kids have a day off during the week. In our district we have some days off for professional developement, and a day off for semester changes. This way the kids would have been missing that day anyway.
3. Bring the teacher a little souvenir! :lol:

42 days until paradise! WDW

 

[MouseMadness]

Hey, po1998!! We've been absolutely no help whatsoever! What a shocker!:lol: You know, this is one of those questions that is going to have so many varying opinions, that you need to do what you feel in your gut is the right thing for you and your family. Myself, as long as my kids are doing as well as they are currently (my 2nd grader is #1 in the class so far, and my preschoolers have their teacher blown away, too. Yep, I'm bragging here. I'm a mom... it's what I do best!) I will let them have an enjoyable, relaxing, uncrowded, unhorrifically hot (makin up words) vacation as long as we can. So, do what fits your family... and have fun!!:wave:

 

[Dizknee_Phreek]

i skipped my last day of freshmen year to go to WDW. it wasn't too bad (getting me out that is....workwise, it was nothing. all i had to do was go to school during the summer to make up the semester exams i missed) by all means, go for it! she'll have a little extra homework, but i'm sure if you help her with it, she should have no trouble getting caught up!
and yes,i agree with others, DO notify principal(s) and teacher(s) in advance. i don't know about where you live, but here, usually the teacher doesn't give out homework (whether or not warned in advance) for the child to do over the vacation. they usually hand it out after and give the child the same # of days the rest of the students had to turn it in.
i hope i'm making sense.
bottom line, take her, have fun, and don't worry about the extra work. she'll pull through!

 

[CoraJack]

I have mixed feelings on this issue. I took my son out for 4 days this year for a WDW trip and I'm not sure I'd do it again. I scheduled the trip around a trip the teachers were taking, so school was closed anyway for 2 days. This gave us 8 good days (due to the weekend), and my son only missed 4 from school.

We notified the teacher 2 weeks in advance, so my son started working ahead. I was so surprised that there was not more work for him to make up during those 4 days, but I didn't question the teacher since I don't know her lesson plan.

Then when we got back--WHAM! My son came home to what turned into about 10 additional hours of missed work. I had to write the teacher and continue to ask for more time to complete it because after school there is only so much time!

I helped my son, but it really was stressful for him to get caught up. He also missed some important math lessons which I had to teach him myself (and algebra is not my strong suit!).

I'm glad we went on the trip, even though the weather was FREEZING (kids swam in 40 degree temps!). But I much prefer summer. I love the heat, and truly the crowds were not that much less than the trip I took with my girlfriend in early June.

Christina

 

[Mr D]

My family is from Alaska, my son is 9, in dec. 2001 we went to WDW for two weeks, and so did many other families all over the state. School hardly batted an eye. Many reasons for why we can do it, one is the cold dark winter of Alaska brings about Seasonal Affliction Disorders or SADs, getting more natural sunlight makes for better behaviour of children and adults. Everyone living in Alaska recieves a dividend from oil revenues in the fall, usually its over $1700 per person including infants over 6 months of age and that gives us incentives to purchase travel packages usually found at that time as bargains, most people including myself work seasonal trade jobs that are long hours 6-7 days a week for 6-9 months and thus I have little time with my family, and mostly is that we are acclimated to daily activities in cooler temps rarely over 75 degrees usually about 20-45 is the yearly average while during winter can be -45 in our area. Anything hotter causes dehydration and heat sickness, took me 4 days to just get used to the near 80 degree days last time we went.

Needless to say we must go to Orlando at its coolest like january, when I am not working and to coincide with better lodging, less crowds and such.

Upcoming next january is a 4 week stay, my wife may not get more than two weeks off but I am planning to have my son with me for the full 28 days, school failed me when I was younger, I still have little respect for for the current teaching instituitions but Alaska schools are better than most, I will just have the teacher e-mail a copy of whatever tests they have from each week and my son will respond in kind, 1/4th of the state does school work over the internet to the far northern communities as its too far and many miles inbetween communities to have schools for all the children, they just log on to the website, hear the teacher via webcam and interact.

The rental home I booked was from Orlando Villas and has included a PC with 24hr. access. Plus I have my laptop.

I would hope in the future Disney can offer PC access in some of their resorts as an option just so kids can keep in touch with the learning process back home.

 

[po1998]

Thanks to all for your opinions!!


An alternative to December... there are two days in Oct. when the school is shutdown for parent teacher conferences. This may be a good time to go and yet keep the number of school days missed to a minimum. This is assuming that the school can give me advance notice when these conferences will be scheduled.

One other alternative plan has come to mind since I first posted this...Go to California in June after school has ended , spend 2 or 3 days in Anaheim at Disneyland and the rest in San Diego which I hear is beautiful(and tons of things to do for the kids). Just an idea??

 

[Yellow Shoes]

Originally posted by po1998

An alternative to December... there are two days in Oct. when the school is shutdown for parent teacher conferences. This may be a good time to go and yet keep the number of school days missed to a minimum. This is assuming that the school can give me advance notice when these conferences will be scheduled.

This is an excellent plan. You can get a 5 day trip and only miss 1 day of school. Far better than an entire week. October is wonderful weather-wise, and you may be able to do the Halloween Party.

Our school district usually has the fall schedule in place by now. You might check with your principal. He/She would probably know even if the calendar is not yet published. You just know that the calendar has already been discussed and finalized at principal's meetings.

 

[RogueHabit]

Originally posted by Yellow Shoes
And I don't think it's fair to expect a kid to do homework whilst on vacation. YOU don't want to work on vacation, now, do you??

Actually I DID!

During my school life I took three vacations during school time and on each one my parents asked the teacher to assign me a mini project to write about the place we were visiting whilst I was away.

These little projects proved invaluable. Not only was I able to further my reading and writing skills, but I appreciated the trip even more because it gave me greater encouragment to learn about the place I was visiting and to put those thoughts and ideas into a written format.

This gave me a chance to exhance my narrative skills, as well as my creative ones as I produced an entire course book or information and photos about the place we were visiting. (Not WDW BTW)

Originally posted by Yellow Shoes
You are adults and parents and have the right to do whatever you want with/to your children within legal limits.

But please be honest with yourselves and admit that the reason you are taking your child away from school (which is their "job") is for your own convenience.

Well I think you will find that in the majority of cases it is necessity, not convenience that is the issue.

Coming from the UK, we have saved around £1800.00 ($2800.00) by moving our trip back to October. In addition the entire family wanted to go to WDW and USF for Halloween, you can't really do that in July.......

Our decision was not taken lightly, in fact it was discussed at great length prior to booking. We have already told our 7 year old that this is likely to be the last time he goes during term time as well.

Personally I feel that the gains and the losses are negligible at age 7, having discussed with his teachers.

The time he is taking off is at the end of a course block and there are no exams to worry about. He knows that he will have to work hard to ensure that pretty much everything is completed prior to our vacation and we will help and support him in this.