Pulling kids out of school for vacation

We will be pulling DS out of school for a week in April because his districts spring break week is different then mine. And we will probably pull him again in June for our annual family trip. Given that he's in kindergarten, I'm not too concerned. I will get his homework packet from his teacher and do it on our trip. At what age/grade does it get bad to pull them for a week?

Re: Pulling kids out of school for vacation

I would post, or x-post this on the Teacher board, to see what teacher's think about it.

Re: Pulling kids out of school for vacation

This is another one of those "it depends" questions. Depends on who you ask. I have never done it, I don't have comfort with doing it but my DH wants to do it to take them to Disney. The price differences make it really really hard to make a case for going during school breaks. If it was a few hundred dollars overall it would be one thing but the prices differences are exorbitant, even to go somewhere more local like Great Wolf Lodge. That being said, I know tons of people who do it. There's a kid in my school who races derby cars all over the country (who knew they did this at 10 yrs?) and he's out of school all the time apparently. The school policy here is they will not give homework in advance. It's considered an unexcused absence vs if your child was sick or your had a family emergency. As far as how old is too old to do it...I don't know....again it depends on the child. My DS is in 4th grade and he has many commitments at school this year so he would be overwhelmed when he came back and he's a very bright student. He also gets tests that count towards his grade and I do not believe they will give make ups there either based on being out without illness. My DD is in 2nd grade, I think her make up would be much less stressful for her although they do get graded tests as well.

Re: Pulling kids out of school for vacation

Re: Pulling kids out of school for vacation

FYI, at our school teachers aren't allowed to give the homework in advance for a trip.

At our last PTA meeting the principal was talking about the new NYS rules for excuse and unexcused absences and they would count as unexcused in their permanent record. I think she said that if you did it every year there is a chance your child could not graduate high school on time, but honestly I'd kind of tuned out at that point. She had already talked for about 30 mins about the new NYS rules for evaluating teachers and I stopped paying attention after a while.

ETA: I just remembered that if your child is pulled out of class for resource room, band, gifted & talented, etc. that all counts against their unexcused time, so that's why the vacation thing now can impact graduation. She said she told the teachers to try to work in the work they missed for stuff like reading or math help during other downtime in the classroom so that it won't count in the student's unexcused absence time.

Message edited 11/7/2011 11:41:57 AM.

Re: Pulling kids out of school for vacation

Re: Pulling kids out of school for vacation

I have no problem with it unless they have already missed a lot of days. We will be doing it early January probably, and so far this year both boys haven't missed 1 day or were late. Their school started in August. The timed vacation the boys have and my DH's schedule doesn't work and the financial part of it during "school" breaks, we just can't afford. We do what we have to. They definitely don't stay home from school for no reason, that I don't like, but for family vacations, I think it's fine. I wouldn't do several a year, but here and there are fine to us.

And as far as unexcused absences, at least here in NC you're allowed X amount and we would of course stay below that amount unless something came up. But as far as being on their permanent record, I honestly don't see why that would really matter? Some people are just more strict with school than others. It's a personal decision. It's not like they're missing school every other week.

For us, we're ok with it. We will "try" for them not to miss school, but that doesn't always happen. We even had one "vacation" to NY excused since we were going to visit family and see NYC sight seeing and museums it was considered educational.

Have fun!

Message edited 11/7/2011 11:42:07 AM.

Re: Pulling kids out of school for vacation

To be completely honest, I don't think pulling a kid out for that length of time is a good idea...even in kindergarten. It's not only a homework issue--they learn so much in a week's time. I am speaking as a parent AND a high school teacher (and yeah, as a teacher I'd give the assignments ahead if I was asked but I didn't like it and I didn't approve.)

That said, against my judgment, next year I am planning on taking my DDs out of school in late fall for about 3 days to go to Disney. They'll be in 2nd and K next year. Three days (and probably ONLY for Disney) is my personal limit regardless of grade...

Re: Pulling kids out of school for vacation

Because they built a ton of snow days in this year, it is very possible DS may have an extra day or two off, so even though he may miss up to 5 days, it can be as few as 3. Another personal reason I'm not too concerned is that his break is the week after. So I'm guessing they would have to go over the lesson when they all return anyway.

Re: Pulling kids out of school for vacation

I think it depends on the class, the teacher and believe it or not, the kid. I don't think I could pull Megan out for a week for a vacation due to all of these reasons combined. She was absent on Friday, which was a half day. I called and asked for her HOMEWORK to be sent home with a classmate. Well not only did I get the homework, I got the classwork too. Which turned into about 8 pages of workbooks. I was shocked and she was overwhelmed. Thank God we had all weekend to do it. I can't say I was annoyed though. I am happy her teacher is on top of everything. I am happy she works her butt off even on a half day to get so much done and I am happy she sent it home so Megan didnt fall behind. So knowing how HER teacher is..knowing how fast they move in class day to day and knowing that Megan's personality is the type to get overwhelmed and feel lost even after she only misses ONE day, I could never do it.

Re: Pulling kids out of school for vacation

I am a teacher. Because of that I am unable to go away for more than a day because I need a doctors note for any absence more than 2 days. If that weren't.the case I probably would take my kids out of school every few years for a vacation because traveling on school breaks gets very expensive.

As a teacher it is extremely disruptive to lose a kid for any period of time that isn't necessary. My district also has a policy of not giving work in advance and then when the child returns I need to reteach every lesson they missed. There are not enough hours in a day to begin with so it is very stressful to try to find time to reteach what I've already taught.

And as others said it is also stressful for the child to return to a mountain of work.

Re: Pulling kids out of school for vacation

I've never pulled my kids out for a full week. I usually try pulling them out for a couple of days around a long weekend so it's almost like a week.

This year we pulled them out for 2 days at the end of September around the Jewish holidays to go to Disney. My son is in middle school and it was very hard for him to catch up, but he did. My daughter is in HS and in all honors classes -- I'll probably never pull her out again. It was torture for her.

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I'm not a fan at all of pulling my kids out of school. I never have, not even in preschool. It's definitely not the end of the world but I know in our schools here in CO it is very frowned upon.

Re: Pulling kids out of school for vacation

I personally think it says a very poor message to your child, that school is not as important as fun, but that's me.

As a teacher, I teach 7th and 8th grade and I will tell you they NEVER catch up on what they missed, because you can't always read a book or notes to catch up, sometimes you have to experience what was learned, like dance, you have do and experience it to learn it. I have a child that is about to fail because she never made up the work from her vacation -a quiz and test and the quarter ended Friday- so it's now a zero.

It's too overwhelming.

Re: Pulling kids out of school for vacation

My elder son is in K this year. We are pulling him out for a week in December. This will be the last week we are doing it. I already let his teacher know so she can be prepared that he will be out. I am not expecting her to have to do any additional work to accommodate him and DH and I are prepared to have DS do additional work on his own that week. We are going away with my parents and I think that the life experience he will get rivals that of a classroom experience

Re: Pulling kids out of school for vacation

My parents used to do it all through our school years and all 3 of us somehow managed to graduate on time with honors. We always got the work - before or after - and were motivated enough to catch up. I don't plan on going on vacation during school breaks - it's twice as expensive and the crowds are ridiculous and also, everyone tries to take off those weeks at work so I wouldn't get that time anyway.

I agree that vacations and family time are important and missing 3 - 5 days of school during one school year, to me, isn't fatal. When my kids get into junior high/high school, if they feel that they don't want to miss school or won't catch up, then we won't do it, but in elementary school I'm not worried.

I have to chuckle that a few days of unexcused absences in Kindergarten goes on your "permanent" record. What does that mean? Do colleges ask for your kindergarten attendance? Will my child go through the rest of his life not recognizing the letter "M" because he missed that week?

Re: Pulling kids out of school for vacation

not a fan at any age, but it's not to say i would never do it. i wouldn't do a week though, i think 2-3 days max...

Re: Pulling kids out of school for vacation

I am not a fan, and especially not in June....

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I think it depends, I think I may do it for a day or two if it ever came to that, and I think 5 full days is a bit much and planning on doing it twice is definitely not something I think should happen.

Also, couple that in with all of the viral sicknesses around you don't know how many actual sick days your child will have. Bella was out for 2x for a total of 7 days with strep throat last year. If we had done a week away, that would have been 12 days out. Too much, IMHO...even for kindergarten.

Re: Pulling kids out of school for vacation

We took dc to Disney this year during the first 1.5 weeks of school in sept. Everything was so much cheaper there were minimal lines and the weather was great! He is on nursery school now but we decided we will take him and his brother during that week for the next several years. Dh and I have always gone away in sept bc of his work schedule and price for the vacay. We will def continue unless it becomes a very major issue.
I would hate to pay double the price and deal with ten times the amount of kids! Not really worth going on the school breaks.

I would think teachers don't like the idea but what can you do

Re: Pulling kids out of school for vacation

I would not do it. You are teaching your child that their education is not important and can be blown off IMO.

Re: Pulling kids out of school for vacation

So you are pulling him for 3-5 days in April and another 5 days in June? That's an awfully short period of time to miss almost 2 full weeks of school.

Re: Pulling kids out of school for vacation

Re: Pulling kids out of school for vacation

My cousin said she did it with her kids until 3rd grade. After that, it was frowned upon. They had to take their vacations in October every year..

Re: Pulling kids out of school for vacation

As, I am writing this , we are in Fl. Jacob will be out today and tomorrow. We had 2 days off from school this week. Yesterday and Friday. We left yesterday.... I do not see any problem with it in the younger grades...

It is definately not going to harm him. They have set homework for the week. I spoke with the teachers and I will be doing his reading homework with him. They are not having sight words and spelling this week because we are off. I know plent of people who are on vacation this week because of this...

In February, I am taking him out to go to a Bar mitvah in
las Vegas but only 2 days...

I think it depends on your kid. There is no right or wrong answer.