ques re taking kid out of school for a couple days for a family vacation -- 8th grade AAP

[Anonymous]

Quick question -- we're thinking of taking a family vacation that would extend a long weekend from the county. It would be the start of 2nd or 4th quarter -- 3 days out of school. I'm not worried about our 5th grader as he'll be able to catch up quickly.
Our older kid would be in 8th grad taking geometry and maybe Spanish.
Is three days too much to catch up if the kid has time to prepare (we tell the teacher and he is sure to get the work done)?

I know everyone says it is hard to take off time in MS. I'm just trying to get a sense if it is manageable.

Our kids are rarely out for extra days so unless there is something like an unexpected, extreme major illness, we wouldn't anticipate many absences during the year.

Thanks for any insight.

[Anonymous]

It is hard to take time off in MS. Missing a couple days will mean lots of makeup assignments and tests. It's stressful for kids who are already stressed.

Is your older DC in 7th grade currently? Have they missed school and had to make up the missed work?

You can plan your family vacation around the entire family instead of just the adults.

[Anonymous]

Take the trip. Easier to catch up middle school than high school. Before and after the trip focus on getting ahead and then catching up on the two high school classes and don’t worry about the rest. Have a good time.

[Anonymous]

I think it would be fine, and 3 days could be just one day of the high school level classes depending on the school day.

[Anonymous]

We’re doing this, one last time, with our 8th grader. Kids can easily be sick for 3-4 days, so I feel like 3 days will be okay to catch up on.

[Anonymous]

We were told 1 day should be easy, 2 is doable and 3 is where it starts to get hard. But we haven't done it.

You mentioned start of the quarter. I would think that is easier than the end of a quarter for sure.

School balanced with family memories.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is hard to take time off in MS. Missing a couple days will mean lots of makeup assignments and tests. It's stressful for kids who are already stressed.

Is your older DC in 7th grade currently? Have they missed school and had to make up the missed work?

You can plan your family vacation around the entire family instead of just the adults.

That only matters for classes that will be on the HS transcript, realistically math and language. 3 days absence with block scheduling means a maximum of two classes missed- they should be able to make up two days of homework in two classes. For history, english, science, there is no reason to make anything up

[Anonymous]

I have an 8th grader in AAP and geometry. Last year (7th gr) we pulled him out a few days for traveling and he asked us to stop doing that - that’s it’s too much make up work now that he is in MS and he would rather not miss school to travel. I took his point & have not pulled him again to travel.

That said, we are sadly expecting to my grandmother to die any day. I did just tell him that he would likely have to miss a day or two of school for her funeral and he said of course he understood and that would be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is hard to take time off in MS. Missing a couple days will mean lots of makeup assignments and tests. It's stressful for kids who are already stressed.

Is your older DC in 7th grade currently? Have they missed school and had to make up the missed work?

You can plan your family vacation around the entire family instead of just the adults.

That only matters for classes that will be on the HS transcript, realistically math and language. 3 days absence with block scheduling means a maximum of two classes missed- they should be able to make up two days of homework in two classes. For history, english, science, there is no reason to make anything up

That's a lot of mixed messages for your kid.

My kid asked for us not to do that to him anymore after the last trip, and we listened. YMMV

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is hard to take time off in MS. Missing a couple days will mean lots of makeup assignments and tests. It's stressful for kids who are already stressed.

Is your older DC in 7th grade currently? Have they missed school and had to make up the missed work?

You can plan your family vacation around the entire family instead of just the adults.

That only matters for classes that will be on the HS transcript, realistically math and language. 3 days absence with block scheduling means a maximum of two classes missed- they should be able to make up two days of homework in two classes. For history, english, science, there is no reason to make anything up

That's a lot of mixed messages for your kid.

My kid asked for us not to do that to him anymore after the last trip, and we listened. YMMV

There is no mixed messaging. When you have a time crunch, prioritize. That's a lesson that they need to learn at some point

[Anonymous]

My 7th grader has asked that we not make her miss any classes, because it becomes increasingly difficult to make it up. She had to miss 2 days from being sick, and it was a lot of work for her to make it up (it always works out that the complex assignments and unit tests and burdensome work fall during the missed period). Teachers have been pretty unforgiving, regardless of whether the absences are excused or not.

In your shoes, if you must, I would do it at the beginning of the 2nd Q instead of 4th. And work with your child ahead of time, so they aren't completely lost when they return.

[Anonymous]

Just FYI, many teachers won’t prepare anything in advance. (Logistically it’s way too much of a special request!) Most don’t have assignments ready until a day or two before they teach them anyway. It will all be posted to schoology, so you will need access to the internet and/or a printer if you want to actually do the work.

1 day is okay. 2 days of math becomes very difficult to catch up. I would be very careful.