Missing school for vacations

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is impossible once your child is in middle school. I have had numerous honors students drop multiple letter grades after missing a week of school. It's just too hard to catch up.

Does honors matter in middle school? My totally average kid earns straight As in 6th grade at mcps---and I feel the grades are pretty meaningless.

Does your kid take language classes? In MCPS those grades go on the high school transcript.

No we don't miss school, particularly now that we are out of the ES years.

I do like that long weekend in November this year, but you do realize that exists partly because of the election? Are you planning to vote absentee or not at all? What about the half days - are you planning to attend parent-teacher conferences?

What moron planned *that* concept?

Why would middle school grades impact a hs transcript?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Preschool? Miss as many days as you want.
Kindergarten? Maybe a week tops.
1st-3rd Grade? 1-2 days
4th and up - I would not let my child miss school for vacations.

I have a preschooler and 1st grader. My child has missed 1 day for a Disney trip. We tacked on a long random FCPS weekend. We pay $$$ to pay to go away during school breaks. We have double or triple what we used to pay when we did not revolve our vacations around school breaks. Spring break cost us like $12k this year. Same trip cost around 5k previously.

Because the mom of a 6 and 3 yr old really gets the big picture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is impossible once your child is in middle school. I have had numerous honors students drop multiple letter grades after missing a week of school. It's just too hard to catch up.

Does honors matter in middle school? My totally average kid earns straight As in 6th grade at mcps---and I feel the grades are pretty meaningless.

Does your kid take language classes? In MCPS those grades go on the high school transcript.

No we don't miss school, particularly now that we are out of the ES years.

I do like that long weekend in November this year, but you do realize that exists partly because of the election? Are you planning to vote absentee or not at all? What about the half days - are you planning to attend parent-teacher conferences?

What moron planned *that* concept?

Why would middle school grades impact a hs transcript?

Because foreign language, Algebra, and Geometry are all High School classes. Duh.

[Anonymous]

My kids missed a week in 1st/4th grade for Disney and then when they were in 4th/7th for Hawaii. I wouldn't do it every year, but it was not a big deal whatsoever the two times we did it. The hysterics are amusing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Numerous threads on this.

Personally, we don't miss school for vacation. Ever. And it gets tough. Even if my kid misses a day for being sick, it's hard to make up the work.

Where do your kids go to school that it is hard for them to make up work? It is the 21st century there are email, remote log in, and virtual attendance options.

[Anonymous]

My feeling is that as long as the kids keep their grades up, I'm fine with them missing a couple of days each quarter for trips.

In high school the kids sometimes had to stay for a test and then fly out a day or two later. Not a big deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCPS calls child services after 10 day of unexcused absence. You will have to appear in Court to defend your vacations.

And they also no the difference between kids going on vacation who have semi decent grades and failing kids who just don't show up.

[Anonymous]

Oh dear. I hope they know the difference too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Numerous threads on this.

Personally, we don't miss school for vacation. Ever. And it gets tough. Even if my kid misses a day for being sick, it's hard to make up the work.

Where do your kids go to school that it is hard for them to make up work? It is the 21st century there are email, remote log in, and virtual attendance options.

Ah, the classic DCUM "if it's true for me, it must be true for everyone" post. In our school district, once you get to MS, the teachers and admin don't look the other way.

[Anonymous]

You're virtual attendance doesn't make up for lost labs. I felt sorry for the last kid who missed a series of labs for disney,and then sat in class clueless when everyone else could discuss the cell reactions they saw under microscopes. If it was illness or family emergency, I would have set it up again for her to try and catch up. But really, don't expect me to stay after school and reteach labs for your disney trips.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS calls child services after 10 day of unexcused absence. You will have to appear in Court to defend your vacations.

And they also no the difference between kids going on vacation who have semi decent grades and failing kids who just don't show up.

FCPS. Middle school, to be precise. And yes, missing one day can put you behind. Plus, if my kid is sick, he's sick. Not doing "virtual attendance".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're virtual attendance doesn't make up for lost labs. I felt sorry for the last kid who missed a series of labs for disney,and then sat in class clueless when everyone else could discuss the cell reactions they saw under microscopes. If it was illness or family emergency, I would have set it up again for her to try and catch up. But really, don't expect me to stay after school and reteach labs for your disney trips.

Too bad your school system doesn't have *actual materials* to send home so the parents can teach it (unless you're in mcps in which case it's totally understood that you are teaching nonsense on the fly thanks to 2.0).

[Anonymous]

This is a big picture issue for me - we've done it twice with our ES-aged kids. We'll remember the family time and extended family time and the places we traveled too. Who cares if they missed some worksheets, etc., in the big picture. This is a sort of education as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS calls child services after 10 day of unexcused absence. You will have to appear in Court to defend your vacations.

And they also no the difference between kids going on vacation who have semi decent grades and failing kids who just don't show up.

FCPS. Middle school, to be precise. And yes, missing one day can put you behind. Plus, if my kid is sick, he's sick. Not doing "virtual attendance".

APS middle school -- my DS will definitely be behind and see the impact on his grade if he misses more than a day or two in Intensified Algebra (which is a HS transcript class). Homework is assigned/due daily and gets a zero if not turned in when due. Only exception is if you are sick and turn it in the day you are back. No passes if you are out on vacation.

We save our travel for scheduled breaks, although did let him miss one day this year, the Monday after Spring break so we could spend that day with my family in CA and fly home on Monday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS calls child services after 10 day of unexcused absence. You will have to appear in Court to defend your vacations.

And they also no the difference between kids going on vacation who have semi decent grades and failing kids who just don't show up.

FCPS. Middle school, to be precise. And yes, missing one day can put you behind. Plus, if my kid is sick, he's sick. Not doing "virtual attendance".

APS middle school -- my DS will definitely be behind and see the impact on his grade if he misses more than a day or two in Intensified Algebra (which is a HS transcript class). Homework is assigned/due daily and gets a zero if not turned in when due. Only exception is if you are sick and turn it in the day you are back. No passes if you are out on vacation.

We save our travel for scheduled breaks, although did let him miss one day this year, the Monday after Spring break so we could spend that day with my family in CA and fly home on Monday.

That's just absurd. A zero unless you turn it in immediately when you return after being sick? Ridiculous. No need for that pressure cooker environment.