Favorite Time to Visit With School-Aged Kids?

[moose81]

My oldest is heading into pre-Kindergarten in the fall, which means we will now have to pay attention to the school calendar. Somehow I am finding it daunting to think about this, even though ironically, our two recent trips to Disney were both over school vacations (April and August).

What are your favorite times of year to visit with your school aged kids? Do you time it with vacations or take them out of school?

I have always wanted to do a Fall trip and am kicking myself now for not doing it earlier. We planned to just go for it in Fall 2019 (kiddo will be in K, in basically the same class as the year before, so I don't feel it will be a big deal to pull her out of school). But with the hoards coming for the new Star Wars land around that same time, I think we will nix that idea.

 

[DisneyPrincess1984]

We pull our kids out of school. We did in 2016 and will again in 2019. We don't go every year so I think that helps justify it a bit. I remember feeling guilty about pulling them out for a week the last time we went, and their principal actually said to me - "Kids learn by traveling, too."

I think as they get older - junior high and high school age - it will be harder to pull them out. In elementary school, it's not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things.

 

[J'aime Paris]

For pre-K, I wouldn't even give it a second thought. Go when you'd like.

In our case, we pulled DD out anytime from K-8 grade. She was an excellent student, with few absences. We gave the teachers plenty of notice of our travel dates.

High School is when we decided not to pull DD for more than 1-2 days at a time. She had a packed academic schedule, sports and many club commitments.

DD is a freshman in college now....and I wouldn't have done it any differently. We have years and years of special memories!

 

[2019TripIdeas]

We're kind of going through the same thought process. Our plan is to go this coming Feb or March (2019) when our daughter will be in PreK. She'll also miss a few days earlier in the year for a family vacation.

Once Kindergarten starts, I have mixed feelings about pulling kids out. I'm a teacher, and in general I didn't mind when kids were pulled for Disneyland or WDW, as long as parents gave me sufficient notice. I did usually ask them to journal or send the class an email midway through the trip or something like that. Parents were always fine with that and the kids always wrote the sweetest things about their trip- win, win all around. They had so much fun, and life experience is learning too!

That said, it truly did bother me when parents of a child who was struggling academically pulled him/her out for a trip, especially if it was a full week (or even 2!) I've had kids get behind the class even in K/1/2 when important concepts can be taught so quickly (blending! Double digit addition! How to use quotation marks!) In those few cases, I sent the kids with a fair amount of work, as well as a super specific email or letter to parents letting them know what new concepts they'd be missing out on and what I'd need help in reteaching them.

Given that I don't truly know where our kids will fall on the academic spectrum, nor what they might struggle most with, I think we'll probably play it safe and not do long trips during the school year (or maybe do shorter trips- 5 days instead of 7, backed up against a long weekend or something so kids only miss 1-2 days).

 

[Calee]

My kids are in K, 2nd, and 4th. We are taking them out for a week in May. Last school year we took them out for a week in September. We were going to do September again as we loved that timing but got hurricaned out my kids teachers have been supportive both times.

It would not even cross my mind o 4K to even consider the school calendar.

 

[rdaky]

We have pulled out ours out of school several times during elementary school and it was not a big deal at all and as long as our kids did some easy work, the school considers it an educational opportunity similar to a field trip. This year our oldest is in middle school and it would have been much more difficult to pull her out for more than a day, so we opted to just go in the summer instead.

So how the child is doing in school plays into it, the grade, and also how willing the school is to accept it. Our district makes it easy, but we met a family one year at Biergarten who also had pulled their kids out of school and they were sent truancy letters.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

My oldest is heading into pre-Kindergarten in the fall, which means we will now have to pay attention to the school calendar. Somehow I am finding it daunting to think about this, even though ironically, our two recent trips to Disney were both over school vacations (April and August).

What are your favorite times of year to visit with your school aged kids? Do you time it with vacations or take them out of school?

I have always wanted to do a Fall trip and am kicking myself now for not doing it earlier. We planned to just go for it in Fall 2019 (kiddo will be in K, in basically the same class as the year before, so I don't feel it will be a big deal to pull her out of school). But with the hoards coming for the new Star Wars land around that same time, I think we will nix that idea.

for our family pulling out of school is not possible by court order and having to have mother to agree so we usually go in August

 

[kreckl]

We love April, as long as it’s not near Easter that’s a great time to go. However, I’d not worry a bit about taking a kid out of school until they are in high school. And I’m a teacher, too.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I pulled my kids out even they were young and would do end of February, beginning of March. Once they got older i really liked last week if Augustine for the good deal abd low crowds. Next trip I’m doing jersey week.

 

[Capang]

We like summer but have travelled in the fall. I’m a teacher and I pulled myself out this fall to go. Several of my students were there at the same time as me. I will say this about pulling kids out, pay attention to what kind of student you have before deciding if you should pull your child. Some kids can make up the work and catch on to anything missed. Some kids are really anxious or struggle to catch on to concepts and leaving for several days may not work well for kids like this. I had one miss a week in October and it has killed her whole year.

 

[Gussie Granger 1969]

When our kids were elementary school age, we pulled them out and it was never an issue. We would go during March/April/May. Now that my oldest is in middle school, we go during school breaks. The last one was in February for Presidents Week. Our next will be February as well.

 

[ClapYourHands]

We do pull kids, but try to minimize the disturbance by adding on to established breaks. We went for a week in February when they were off for Monday, Tuesday for break anyway, so they only missed Wed, Thurs, Fri. Our elementary schools usually have election day (Tuesday) off and half-days Monday, Wed, Thursday for conferences. Last year we went Friday-Tuesday, so they only missed 1 1/2 days.

My best advice is to look at your school calendar to see what niches of time you might be able to find that are out of the usual. Maybe there are teacher workdays or non-Christian religious holidays (we get two Jewish holidays off in the fall in our district) that might work to stretch out into a vacation.

 

[SmallWorld71]

I am a teacher, so going on school vacation weeks has never been an option. By far, our favorite week is April vacation. It has the best weather and everything is so pretty that time of year, especially Epcot! I also find that the ride refurbishments are minimal that time of year.
We have also taken a number of mid/ late August trips. The weather is brutal but the crowds are pretty light. We have also gotten really good deals this time of year.
Christmas week was a ton of fun, but it’s insanely crowded and I would not recommend it for children under 10. The extended hours are great but they can really mess with your sleep schedule. Minimal refurbishments this time of year too.
Our February vacation is a mixed bag. I have seen such huge variations in both weather and crowds.

 

[heath92681]

I'm a teacher and have used my personal days the past 6 years for our Disney trips. I am luck I can add them on to our scheduled breaks to lengthen our vacation. I haven't hesitated to pull my boys from school the last 2 years. But, I'm also the kind of teacher that often tells my students to read a good book and just have fun on their vacations.

 

[isabellea]

Our favourite time to go is during our Spring break, the first week of March. Crowds are moderate, weather is generally good and no humidity like in the summer. We try to minimize the number of days we pull them from school to a maximum of 2.5 missed days. We usually pick them up at lunch time the Thursday before and they go back to school either the Monday or Tuesday after school break.

 

[yaya74]

Pre-K is no brainer... go whenever you feel like.
I too work in an elementary school. Parents do pull kids out of school to travel. Some may be as long as 3-4 weeks.

 

[Good&Plenty]

We will be pulling our 2nd grader and K kids out of school (mid-October) this fall for a 1 week trip. Mid-fall or Mid-spring are our favorite times to travel for longer trips with them.

 

[KenHutch]

Because my daughter is now a Junior in High School we are forced to a more narrow time period. School lets out May 30th, we hit the road on June 1st. When she was small thou I just took her out of school. Her homework for 1st grade was to do a report on WDW for her class. This was back when they had those mystery bags with stuff for $7 so I sweetened the report by getting everyone in her class a bag and a shirt for teacher.

 

[Average Joes]

We are going the day after their first day of school for 1.5 weeks (aged 7 & 10). I was told by a teacher that this is a great time to pull the kids but maybe not?

 

[moose81]

Thanks for your responses, everyone. This is great food for thought and is making me realize we still have a lot of options. Glad to hear so many teachers are ok with kids being taken out of school for trips!