Taking kids out of school ?

[tikcho]

I have totally taken my son from school and would do it again in a heartbeat. It is cheaper to go during school time, it is not as crowded and you are not limited to one specific week and availability. I am even contemplating taking my son off for a 14-day cruise. It depends what the ages of your kids are, my son is still young so it's easier. If you have kids in high school maybe will be harder though I'd still do it. I have heard from a couple of friends that the school was not happy and they insisted the kids do all the homework while away but think if you approach them in advance and say it's important for your family to be away at that time they would understand.

[venusjems]

I didnt read all the responses, but wanted to tell you my experience.

 

Took my three kids out for a week of school, The oldest was in 9th grade, his was excused no problems, the next was in 6th grade he was fine too, the youngest 4th grade said it was 5 unexcused absences and we were turned into the truancy court and had to go sit thru a seminar for the entire day before she could go back to school.

 

We had asked permission from the school and principal prior to, thinking that was the smart thing to do, which they denied. So instead of making 2 days parent excused absence (which is 'legal') and making 3 unexcused, they made them all unexcused... 5 unexcused and your a poor parent that needs to attend a seminar with the district attorney...

[mikesteg]

(1) Is it safe to assume the DA wasn't entirely amused with the school?

 

(2) How many days did the child miss due to the truancy BS?

 

(3) When the board is up for reelection, run them out. Tell your story in a public forum. Obviously you'll get mixed comments like on this thread, but with the turnout for that type of election you may only need to get a few dozen people to vote against them to replace them with someone sane.

 

I assume you did escalate this to the school board? :confused:

[red88]

We're taking our 7 year old (in 2nd grade) on a two week cruise over Thanksgiving, she'll miss 7 days of school. Her teacher is ok with it and we will do her schoolwork while we are on the cruise.

 

Not sure we'd do it past the 7th or 8th grade but at this point in her schooling I think it will work just fine.

[Rob_Jen]

We have taken our kids out of school and plan on doing it again this November. We let the teachers know in advance that we are taking them out and ask them for some homework or reading they should do. The teachers state they are NOT allowed to do that anymore and the kids will have to make it up when they get back. My guess this is the schools way of trying to persuade us to keep the kids in school.

[mikesteg]

We have taken our kids out of school and plan on doing it again this November. We let the teachers know in advance that we are taking them out and ask them for some homework or reading they should do. The teachers state they are NOT allowed to do that anymore and the kids will have to make it up when they get back. My guess this is the schools way of trying to persuade us to keep the kids in school.

 

Teachers helping kids and their parents?!?!?

We certainly can't have that kind of tomfoolery in our educational system, can we?

[kelbre]

Wth my husband's logging business, our vacation time was pretty much around the beginning of April when spring breakup occurred. We always planned our vacations well in advance and got the appropriate school work for the kids.

This past spring, however we travelled on our March break, the kids only missed one day of school and my hubby was able to get away as he now has very reliable help with his business.

In March 2013, we are going on a 10 night cruise that leaves the Thursday before march break but with traveling time, we always fly into port a day or two early especially with northwestern ontario weather!!!! The kids will miss four days the week before March break. I am a little nervous as my daughter is in first year of high school but I am going to talk to the teachers beforehand. For my son, he is in grade 6 fine arts which has a condensed academic program and focuses extra on music arts and drama, I will be getting lots of extra work from his teachers as well. Some people might call us crazy, but as some people have pointed out, family time is very important and life is very short, we want to make the memories now!!! Back when the kids were a little younger a lot of their teachers told us that the kids learn more seeing different parts/ cultures of the world than they do in the classroom

[ohok]

Missing school for a holiday has no more a negative impact than missing school when they're ill. And children can get over that.

 

It's obviuosly not ideal to miss school, but it's also not ideal never to go on holiday with parents. It's a matter of balance.

 

Totally agree, OP you are the parent you do what is right for you and your family and I'm sure everything will be just fine. I consider vacations a learning experience in and of themselves. A perfect opportunity to home school them about things you might not normally be able to teach them in your actual home environment. My son is not yet school age but I plan to go on vacations when it is right for our family and we'll deal with the negative attitudes of any teachers as well as any catch up assignments once we return. We only live once... :)