Taking Kids out of School.

[Golter]

My wife (32DW)and I (30DH) have always taken our oldest child (DD 11) out of school for our trips to WDW. Our two younger children (DD 5, DS 3) have not been in school, just a mother's day out program, so that has not been a problem. My concern is Junior High. In the past we always told our daughter's elementary teacher about our trips at the first of school, and they have always worked with us. My daughter is a great student, never more than 1 or 2 absences a year, and a member of the Gifted/Talented program. Now in Junior High she will have 5 or 6 teachers to coordinate with, does anyone have any advice or expierences to share.

 

[nsyncraider17]

I was out of school for 5 days last year in jr. high to go to WDW. I was also in a gifted and talented program, and we moved at an accelerated pace. (we did 3 years of classes in 2 years) I let my teachers know about 2 weeks before I left, and kept reminding them so that they could give me work for while I was gone or as soon as I got back. While they weren't thrilled, most of them gave me the work and I didn't have much of a problem catching up. This year I'm in high school, and I have lecture courses, so unfortunately I can't miss school for vacations anymore. But in jr. high it worked fine.

 

[seashoreCM]

There is no one answer, every school is different.

If you did pull kids out of school, could you "home school" them both before and after to get them re-synchronized with the classes?

However you should not pull kids out of private school, or college bound kids out of grades 9-12.

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[punkin]

Why not? I have a 9 yr old in a private school and I'm pulling her out. Did the same thing last year and plan on doing it again. As far as high school, my mother always pulled me out for familly vacations and the ONLY teacher who ever had a problem with that was my shop teacher. Guess what, I went to one of the top 10 colleges in the country anyway.

 

[AF Brenda]

I was wondering too, why not private schools? We are pulling our kids (7 & 5) out for a week and a half in March, and I found that the private school is working it out with us much better than did the public school when we did it before.

 

[nativetxn]

I'm going to moe this over to our Disney for Families Board for you.

Katholyn

 

[Carolann]

We always pulled our kids out of school. My pediatrician once told me the children will benefit more by being with family than missing a week of school! Of course, we always checked with teachers for any work that needed to be done. Most of the time their teachers wanted them to keep a journal of their daily activities at Disney.

 

[jillhou]

In jr high - it really depends on when you are pulling them out. If you are pulling them out early before Christmas - it is very hard for the schools to accomodate that. They are giving finals at that time and really do not want to reschedule those at all. Some jr high will not be cooperative if that is when you are taking them. Other times of the year, it should not be such a huge deal......

 

[Angel717]

We just took our 13 yr old son (7th grade) out of school for 4 days last month. He is also in the gifted program, so I wasn't too worried about him making up the work.

After getting the okay from the school, I wrote each of his teachers a letter telling them when he would be out of school, and asked them for any work they could give him so he wouldn't fall too far behind. He got work for his 4 major classes (Science, English, Social Studies and Math), and was able to do most of it on the flight down. When he got back to school, the teachers allowed him to stay after school the first few days to make up the rest of the work he missed.
I was a little concerened beforehand about dealing with so many teachers, but I had no problems. One of his teachers even told us to have a good time!

 

[SueM in MN]

If you didn't already see it, CLICK HERE for a link to another thread about the pros and cons of taking kids out of school to go to WDW.

 

[catwho]

I had a friend whose family took a winter cruise every year. Her father was in the pool busines and couldn't take summer vacations (obviously) When she was in high school she was the only kid with a tan in February (this was before tanning salons were widely available) Her parents always wrote to each teacher, got her assignments ahead of time and she went.

Some ideas would be to photocopy stuff out of her books rather than have her tote her books with her. See ifyou can get the assignments a week or so ahead of time she she can do the bulk of it ahead of time. And have her take work with her when you eat so she can work on them at dinner instead of interupting another round of RnR!

Have fun!


36 more days til WDW!!!!

 

[NotTooGoofy]

Some teachers may not like it but most of them will work with you if you give them advanced notice. I look at this the same way I do my job. When I'm on my death bed, I won't wish that I spent more time in the office. I will, though, cherish the time I spent with my family, and I'm sure the kids will as well.

 

[lookingforward]

My son's principal last year was a very cranky, rigid nun and she would not let kids have any slack with missed work. She forbid teachers to give the assignments/homework ahead of time so that the child could pace themselves. She told me that he would have to "suffer" when he got back. It was tough for him to make up all the work plus keep up with the new work when he returned. (he missed one week). This year there is a new principal who is much kinder and hopefully she won't punish the kids.

 

[Ityldu]

I can answer this question from every angle. I was a child that was taken out of school for a week every year, I'm now a parent of two small kids and a teacher (from a family full of teachers). From all points of view, the only answer is it's a very personal decision.

Student - I was an A student up thru 7th grade, but never seemed to be able to recover from a week away in 8-12 grade, especially if I ended up missing more school due to illness. Some kids have no problem, for others it can be devastating - especially in the higher grades and those with block scheduling.

Parent/teacher - there's nothing more important to the success of a child then a strong family.

Teacher - it's so heartbreaking to watch a student who was having a little trouble before s/he left, come back after a week away. I'm thrilled to see students go on vacation, except that it makes me envious. The only thing that would/should upset a teacher is when we are notified the day before that the student will be out for a week and needs to have all the work, then nothing gets done. I also agree that recess should not be missed to catch up.

Work with you child's teacher - from the minute you learn about your vacation. If possible, discuss it with the teacher(s) even before you make ressies. Most importantly observe how well your child bounces back each year. Every year will probably be more difficult, so keep that in mind when booking next years trip.

 

[tinkerbell1967]

I found that if you give the school and the teachers enough time before your trip, usually I send a note with my DD about 3 weeks before our trip, they have enough time to get the assignments together and let her know if she will be missing any tests or any projects. We have never had a problem coordinating anything and it never seemed to affect her grades later. I think alot of it depends on your school system and also how well your child does in school.