Would you/do you take your kids out of school

[TinkerBell9988]

Since I live in South Florida, my mom and dad would take me out of school on a Friday about every other month and go to WDW for the weekend.

I always had First Honor Roll, and I graduated high school in the top 10 percent of my class.

Now I'm a college student, and I missed classes last Monday and Tuesday for EPCOT's 25th. So I also believe in the mantra "you only live once."

And look how I turned out... :lol: A Disney freak!

Now on the other hand, my brother has a learning disability, but we give the teacher many weeks notice and we also ask her for the work ahead of time. So either my mom, dad, or I will help him in the car on the way to WDW or in the hotel room during downtime. And he gets by just fine.

But do what YOU feel is right according to what kind of a student your kid is. And remember, Walt Disney World IS educational.

 

[MickeyFan77]

I have taken my son out twice so far for vacation and in 4 yrs of school those are the ONLY days he has been absent!!! He is a great student and I too make him do a journal and read when we are there. He had a little bit of homework to do on vacation and TONS when he came back. We got home about 2 wks ago from our last trip and he just caught up on everything. As long as he continues to be a good student we will continue to go whenever we want. Plus this is my husbands "slow" time so since he pays for the trip we go when he can go.

 

[eagles]

i took my son out of school this past april/may. he missed 6 or 7 days of school. i had told the teacher months in advance, and i really wanted to get the work ahead of time. every chance i got, i spoke to the teacher, and no problems, til the day i picked him up from school to start vacation. i asked for all his assignments, and the teacher said. I am going to be nice to you and not give you any work. wow, i was really excited about this. til we got back and then she decided to give him all his make up work. i did not appreciate that in any way.

so this year i have already spoken to his teacher, we are planning another april/may trip a couple days shorter though, but i am being a bit more firm with the assignments now, i want them ahead of time.

now my son can not miss school for any other reason. he really really has to be sick to stay home. and he has to keep his grades up and do all his assignments. he does his part and we do ours.

i also believe in "you only live once"

and to me, disney is too expensive to go when the parks are more crowded than during school and not to mention the heat.

 

[The Mom]

I live close (relatively) to WDW, so have only taken my daughter out for a day or two when she was in elementary school. By the time my son hit school age, my daughter was in MS/HS so it was no longer an option. She was an A student, but really didn't want to go through the hassle of making up work. I did take her out for a week at a time to go sking, however, and I remember faxing completed homework back to her school.

My son is in HS now, and missed classroom discussion would be my main concern. The school is online, so the homework is posted weekly, with nightly updates, is needed. Most of his assignments could be emailed in, but he would prefer that we not schedule vacations during the school year.

 

[ann0d1]

We do about every four years. This year we are taking our 8 year old out for 7 school days in December

 

[WI DISNEY FAN]

mInE Pairents taked mee oot of skool evvere years four a weak and I Terned out Fine!:ROFLOL::ROFLOL:

 

[Mikieboy84]

My parents always took us out for a week to go on vacation and it was never an issue. Grades did not suffer at all and we always learned something. I'll tell you something else, I will always remember those trips in great detail and I can guarantee I don't remember what I was being taught that week in school. Having those memories is a heck of a lot more important than missing a few days of the endless yawn of grammar school!

 

[hokieamy]

Lucky for us, we live in a school district that has year round schools...every nine weeks, we have three weeks off. I don't have to worry about taking my kids out to go to Disney, they are already out!

 

[imamouse]

Only a day or 2 before the holiday break, and only if there aren't any exams or actual school work scheduled for those days. Our schools (even the HS) tend to wind down just before holiday breaks and sometimes show non-educational videos in class (sorry to say). When that's the case, our son can get a better education at Epcot.

 

[kirst_al UK]

I would if i had children - they should reduce the prices in summer holidays if the goverment :fork: don't want children to miss school !!

 

[DisneyMusician2]

I have always been opposed to this...travelling during school and missing a whole week is not the way to go. A couple of days, I could see. A whole week, especially for HS kids, is asking a lot here in NY. That is an entire unit they have missed in most classes. Call it a moral compunction, but I think its wrong.

 

[luvGoofy]

We live in a resort town and most employers strongly discourage taking vacations between Memorial Day and Labor Day so it kind of makes the decision for us. Our school district allows for up to 7 days for a family vacation as long as the teachers are made aware of it and the work is completed within a week of returning. Most teachers are nice enough to pass out the work before leaving for vacation so there is plenty of time to do it. I do agree that it does make it harder when in high school but for my younger children it doesn't seem to be a problem so as long as they can handle it and their grades do not suffer I will continue to have a family vacation and take them out of school for it.

 

[eeyoremum]

I have/will continue to pull my kids out of school. I think family time is just as important as school time. My kids are average students and always make up the work missed but I do not take work with me. When I am on vacation I don't take my work along why should they. Anyway just my thoughts.

 

[happymom52003]

Lucky for us, we live in a school district that has year round schools...every nine weeks, we have three weeks off. I don't have to worry about taking my kids out to go to Disney, they are already out!

I've never liked the idea of year round school, but I never thought about how easy it would make Disney vacations!

 

[makonyy15]

My sister and I are now 15 and 19 respectively. While we were both in elementary school and I believe junior high, we'd take a week off for vacation sometime during the year. For 4th and 5th grade, I took 2 weeks off. One in the fall and one in February. Once I got to high school I wouldn't take a full 5 days in a row off, the biggest would be a colorado trip in which I took 4 days off before President's Weekend which was a 3 day weekend.

We usually ended up going to Disney for spring break, which for us was a Friday, plus the entire following week off. If we wanted a really long vacation, we'd leave wed. night and take Thursday off.

Now in college we just take vacations when I'm on break. Our next Disney trip will be right after my sister gets out of high school for summer vacation, towards the end of June.

I never had a problem in making up work nor did I have a teacher not give me work or say I shouldn't go. I always let them know a week or two in advance and they were always very accomodating. My parents are physicians so we get to spend very little time together at home, so vacations were our family time.

The one that got a little iffy was my senior year in high school. The school got rid of Spring Break in exchange for a break in February, but we already made our plans for Disney at Spring Break. I thought I'd be fine but the Varsity Tennis season started very early, the day I went on vacation. My coach was a little upset that I'd be missing two matches, but we ended up getting an early flight back on our last day so I could play in the match. She said that family will always come first, so once she found out it was a family vacation, she wasn't too upset.

So long as you can make sure your kids can keep up with the work and they don't easily fall behind I say do it. Sometimes it's helpful to keep our minds from burning out.

Just my $0.02

 

[Disney Couple]

I have seven children in each level of schooling and make a trek to Disney every three years for one week. We always go to the World the week after Xmas and enjoy every minute of it. We make sure that we give the teachers enough (2 months) advance notice and take any school work with us that cannot be done before we leave. I often find that my kids are ahead of the rest of the students when we return as the teachers tend to give more work than they actually cover.

We dedicate specific time during our trip as study and homework time and it works out fine.

I would agree with the majority of the people posting, you need to form your own opinion and work with your school. They are often very accommodating if you approach them with a good attitude.
:sohappy:

 

[dubba10]

Shoot my DW is a school teacher and they let her take 5 vacations days any time ,so why wouldn't I take the kids and go to the Happiest place on Earth.

 

[ThinkTink721]

to go to WDW during a more favorable time of year?

The next time we go back to WDW, our DD will be in school and I'm not looking forward to visiting the parks during the only times school kids can...Spring Break and Summer because of the crowd and heat factor.

So is it common to pull kids out of school to vacation on an off peak season?

We did this year w/ no problems.
We plan to do it again next year.

 

[MIDisneyFamily]

We have and will again. We pulled them our for a week to go a few times. They have never fellen behind.

 

[mickeymouse2818]

I never see it as a problem as long as the student keeps up her/his assignments. My family would take us out of school in HS for a half week and we would be fine. In college its a little hard to do but luckly I have a four day weekend every weekend so it makes it a little easier on me. In fact I'm leaving Thursday but I have to make sure that some of my assignments are done before I leave to make it easier on myself. Again if the child is able to keep up with there work, I don't see a problem with it.