Pulling kids out of school for vacation - thoughts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are those dreaded parents who take 2 week trips during the elementary school year. I used to be on the fence about it and discussed it with teachers, and they they have always said, “if it were me I would do it.” My kid gets all A’s, 99%ile MAP scores, top PARCC scores, and excellent behavior reports. I don’t think taking a trip during the school year is a problem for us and I don’t see how it’s a problem for other parents. If you value attendance over travel opportunities, then don’t take your kid out of school for trips. We often have paid opportunities to go abroad for work but are not able to dictate when we go, so either we go as a family during the school year to an educational and exotic location, or we can wait to go to some boring local beach during the summer break. We choose the take the exotic experience and feel our daughter has gained so much more from these experiences than she would have sitting in a classroom. You may disagree and not do this with your kid, but why does it annoy you that somebody else chooses differently?

It annoys them because they are envious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ha ha. "Sometimes these vacations are more meaningful than school." No they're not -- kids barely remember vacations taken at that age. You're not taking your young kids on vacation and away from school for them, you're doing it for you and because it works better for you.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it. But own what you're doing.

Ummm yes the vacations can be more meaningful than school, and yes kids in grades K-5 do remember vacations.

[Anonymous]

I wonder how old the children are of the ABSOLUTELY NO NOT EVER parents.

[Anonymous]

You will know if your child can catch up or not if you take him/her out for a week. Even if it is elementary school, you will know if your child can pick up from being out a week.

You can learn so much going on vacation for some. Alot of vacations are much more meaningful for adults than for kids. And our memory of it is important too. Plus, if everyone travels in the summer, it costs so much more.

[Anonymous]

I generally do not pull my kids out of school for vacation. I have 3 kids ages 9, 7, and 4.

I already have to pull the kids out for the Jewish holidays, and lately I’ve just given up on trying to schedule ALL doctor / dentist appts etc. outside of school hours so occasionally they go in late or get picked up early for that, too.

There is a slightly possibility we might go to Asia in a couple of years due to a friend living there for a few years. I’ve never been to Asia and this seems like a once in a lifetime opportunity with a close friend there to show us the ropes. Anyway I might consider trying to go over spring break but also having to take a few days more either before or after the break. I think that would be worth it and they’d be learning a lot about the world and other cultures on the trip. And as a friend once said to me: you don’t want to let school get in the way of their education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder how old the children are of the ABSOLUTELY NO NOT EVER parents.

My DS is 6. We have pulled him from school for a medical reason (family member in the hospital) and death in the family. I won't say that I would never pull him from school for a vacation but it would sure need to be a doozy of a vacation that couldn't be done at any other time.

I want him to understand that his education is important and that means that you go to school when school is in session. Could he make up the work that he is missing pretty easily? Yes. He is not working on anything earth shatteringly hard. That is not the point. The point is that his responsibility right now is to be getting an education and we have chosen to have him educates at a school so he needs to be in school.

We are a two parent working family. We go on vacation when he has vacation. It works for us and saves us money on camp. I don't have enough vacation time to take off 2 weeks in a row as it is, thanks to snow days and the Federal Government granting impromptu holidays (The extra day at Christmas and President Bush's funeral) so I would not be booking that long of a trip as it is.

I don't think it is fair to ask his teachers for homework packets and make up work or quizzes because we decided to pull him out to go to Disney or visit another country or something along those lines.

I recognize that you can learn a lot while traveling, we visit different National Parks and museums and the like when we travel. It is great. DS has fun and learns stuff! Awesome. Amazingly, he can do that when traveling during the summer and still learn things at school during the school year.

There are good reasons for kids to miss school but I don't count vacationing as one of those reasons. But that is my family, everyone is going to operate based on what they feel works best for their family. That is fine and dandy. But there are very few vacations that are taken during the school year that could not be taken during one of the many vacations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder how old the children are of the ABSOLUTELY NO NOT EVER parents.

My DS is 6. We have pulled him from school for a medical reason (family member in the hospital) and death in the family. I won't say that I would never pull him from school for a vacation but it would sure need to be a doozy of a vacation that couldn't be done at any other time.

I want him to understand that his education is important and that means that you go to school when school is in session. Could he make up the work that he is missing pretty easily? Yes. He is not working on anything earth shatteringly hard. That is not the point. The point is that his responsibility right now is to be getting an education and we have chosen to have him educates at a school so he needs to be in school.

We are a two parent working family. We go on vacation when he has vacation. It works for us and saves us money on camp. I don't have enough vacation time to take off 2 weeks in a row as it is, thanks to snow days and the Federal Government granting impromptu holidays (The extra day at Christmas and President Bush's funeral) so I would not be booking that long of a trip as it is.

I don't think it is fair to ask his teachers for homework packets and make up work or quizzes because we decided to pull him out to go to Disney or visit another country or something along those lines.

I recognize that you can learn a lot while traveling, we visit different National Parks and museums and the like when we travel. It is great. DS has fun and learns stuff! Awesome. Amazingly, he can do that when traveling during the summer and still learn things at school during the school year.

There are good reasons for kids to miss school but I don't count vacationing as one of those reasons. But that is my family, everyone is going to operate based on what they feel works best for their family. That is fine and dandy. But there are very few vacations that are taken during the school year that could not be taken during one of the many vacations.

...unless you have work schedules that do not coincide with the school calendar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder how old the children are of the ABSOLUTELY NO NOT EVER parents.

My DS is 6. We have pulled him from school for a medical reason (family member in the hospital) and death in the family. I won't say that I would never pull him from school for a vacation but it would sure need to be a doozy of a vacation that couldn't be done at any other time.

I want him to understand that his education is important and that means that you go to school when school is in session. Could he make up the work that he is missing pretty easily? Yes. He is not working on anything earth shatteringly hard. That is not the point. The point is that his responsibility right now is to be getting an education and we have chosen to have him educates at a school so he needs to be in school.

We are a two parent working family. We go on vacation when he has vacation. It works for us and saves us money on camp. I don't have enough vacation time to take off 2 weeks in a row as it is, thanks to snow days and the Federal Government granting impromptu holidays (The extra day at Christmas and President Bush's funeral) so I would not be booking that long of a trip as it is.

I don't think it is fair to ask his teachers for homework packets and make up work or quizzes because we decided to pull him out to go to Disney or visit another country or something along those lines.

I recognize that you can learn a lot while traveling, we visit different National Parks and museums and the like when we travel. It is great. DS has fun and learns stuff! Awesome. Amazingly, he can do that when traveling during the summer and still learn things at school during the school year.

There are good reasons for kids to miss school but I don't count vacationing as one of those reasons. But that is my family, everyone is going to operate based on what they feel works best for their family. That is fine and dandy. But there are very few vacations that are taken during the school year that could not be taken during one of the many vacations.

...unless you have work schedules that do not coincide with the school calendar.

Exactly. My work's busy season is the summer because Congress can't get its act together and appropriate funding when it should. I know the response will be to then get another job but I'm not going to leave a job with excellent flexibility just because summer is the busy season. FWIW, I don't generally pull my kids of school for vacations, but I'm smart enough to know there are always exceptions.

[Anonymous]

My kid has learned more about the world and actual useful skills on vacation than they have in school. Elementary school kids remember every trip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid has learned more about the world and actual useful skills on vacation than they have in school. Elementary school kids remember every trip.

And mine goes on vacation, during vacation times. He does remember them and look forward to them. He also goes to school and is learning the basics he goes to need to learn more advanced material. So call the vvacations during vacation time supplimental learning.

There are exceptions to every rule, it would be ridiculous to say otherwise, but that exception needs to be more then vacation time occurs during my works busy season. If that works for you, then fine, but it doesn’t work for my family. There are 9-10 weeks of summer, 2 weeks at winter and a week of srping break. If you can’t find time in all of that to go on great family vacations then you work some strange schedules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid has learned more about the world and actual useful skills on vacation than they have in school. Elementary school kids remember every trip.

And mine goes on vacation, during vacation times. He does remember them and look forward to them. He also goes to school and is learning the basics he goes to need to learn more advanced material. So call the vvacations during vacation time supplimental learning.

There are exceptions to every rule, it would be ridiculous to say otherwise, but that exception needs to be more then vacation time occurs during my works busy season. If that works for you, then fine, but it doesn’t work for my family. There are 9-10 weeks of summer, 2 weeks at winter and a week of srping break. If you can’t find time in all of that to go on great family vacations then you work some strange schedules.

So is mine. Missing a week for vacation doesn't negate that.

[Anonymous]

We have done it for ski trips because spring break is so late here and DH can't take off over Xmas (we are Jewish and he works Xmas so Christian colleagues can have the week off). I wish schools here had earlier spring breaks or that nova would get president's day week off so we could avoid taking the kids out of school. When they are older we will likely have to switch to just tacking another day onto MLK and president's day weekends.

[Anonymous]

I have pulled my kids out of school on numerous occasions to go on trips and I don't regret it for a second. My kids know school is super important to us and do extremely well (older is at an excellent college now, younger is a straight A student).As a college professor I cannot take time off during my kids' vacations (other than in the summer) so when the opportunity presents itself, we go for it. I am pretty sure my son learned more from visiting the British Museum, meeting with a lord at the House of Lords, going to the opera and touring the Tower of London than whatever he missed that week in school. Seriously.

[Anonymous]

Just stop it with the “I want my kids to know school is important.”

I assure you that kids who miss school for vacation know that school is important. We do it 100% to save on crowds, money, or both and we tell them so. We took our spring break Tuesday to Tuesday (got home today, kids missed 2 days.) Our plane tickets to FL were $160pp RT vs the $600-800 pp they would have been traveling Sat - Sat. No brainer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just stop it with the “I want my kids to know school is important.”

I assure you that kids who miss school for vacation know that school is important. We do it 100% to save on crowds, money, or both and we tell them so. We took our spring break Tuesday to Tuesday (got home today, kids missed 2 days.) Our plane tickets to FL were $160pp RT vs the $600-800 pp they would have been traveling Sat - Sat. No brainer.

Awesome! I am so doing this next year!