Pulling Kids Out of School for Disney

[crispy]

I have such a dilemma. My oldest daughter is starting kindergarten in the fall (how did that happen? ). We have a modified year around calendar in my county so they do a two-week fall break in October. This seems perfect for our annual Disney trip, but here's my issue.

My best friend (who is a teacher in the county next to mine) is taking her daughter to Disney for the first time in October, and she wants us to go with her family to experience it. I was so excited about this and we were making plans until we looked at the school calendar and realized that our Fall Nreaks don't line up at all. I am so bummed, and I am considering just pulling my daughter out of school that week, but then I think that's a really bad idea.

What do you think? Have you ever done it? Would you consider doing it?

[mqvc8]

I was thinking the same thing. We wanted to go in 2 years, but our oldest would be in kindergarten also and didn't know what to do. We figured it would be ok if she missed a few days of pre school. I'm looking forward to hearing everyones input.

[McDuck]

It would depend on when school started, what was going on in class, etc. I don't think kindergarten is as serious to miss as some other grades, if going with your friends is that important to you. How far apart are the breaks?

[crispy]

Our break is the first two weeks of October, and her break is the third week. If I pulled her out, she would end up being out of school for three full weeks. The more I think about it, the less I think I will do it. I know it's kindergarten, but I don't want her to get behind.

[adi12982]

Personally, unless I hone school I probably wouldn't. Plus, it may turn out for the best, maybe sharing a trip with them wouldn't be the eBay for your family or theirs!

[sydney]

My oldest has missed a week from K and 1st, a week from 4th, and 3 days from 9th; my youngest a week from K and three days from 5th. With my oldest's first two trips, the teachers had little activities for him to do every day which were tied into their lessons, but didn't take a lot of time from our vacation. And we made sure we were reinforcing some of those things during park time too- I remember there was a lot at Epcot and AK particulalry- while still having fun. The last three trips have been in a different school district, but the teachers still had no problems. They gave most of the work ahead of time, and had a few make up things for them to do.
I think the most important thing at the younger ages is the routine. If you feel it would be too hard to have her be out for three weeks- trust your gut. But if you don't mind maybe doing some lesson things while you're on vacation and explaining that to her, it may work.

[my2sweetums]

That's a hard one. I tend to agree with Adi that it may not be the best thing for your friendships to spend a vacation together anyways. But if you think it would be fine, I don't think that 1 week out of school would be a big deal. Kids take time off all the time, I am sure the teachers are used to it. Doyou know how strict the school is about getting time off? I know some school give you a hard time about getting it excused and some are great about it.

[crispy]

I'm not worried about the friendship aspect. We have been on many vacations together including Disney, and we haven't killed each other yet!

I have no idea how the school feels about because this will be her first year, and she's the oldest. I think if it was an isolated week, it wouldn't be too bad, but being at the end of a two week break is the main issue I think. I probably won't end up doing it because of that. Sometimes it helps to just write out the pros and cons.

[ilovdisney]

I have pulled my kids out of school for a trip. after talking to the Principle I found out that Disney is an educationaly excused absence in my county. All I had to do was fill in the paper work and tell them the reasons for it to be educational. Heck EPCOT alone filled out a page. Once they hit H.S. tho there were no more trips durring school. I don't think K would miss to much as long as you got her work and did it while gone. I so go for it.

[susanm]

I took nieces...and left it up to my sister.. she said ok BUT...they talked to teachers first...the girls did some extra work before they left (since she asked way in advance) and had some extra when they got home...

the younger ones were ok with it since they had been in the summer several times and spent more time in the pool (and they have a pool at home) than in the parks... so they opted for april...(nice time to go by the way)

the older ones didnt want to miss school (they were in jr. high) and they chose Christmas week...so they wouldnt have to miss so much school.. Christmas was on a Sunday that year and we left on tuesday.. we came back the following wed so they only missed 2 days of school... the crowds were really nuts but they seemed to feel they would rather wait in lines and do less (since they had been there about 4 times already) than have all the make up work...

i took the youngest 2 days after school was supposed to end...actually she missed the last day of school since they ended up with 3 snow days...but we picked June because she went the year the AK opened and we wanted to be sure it would be open for her to see.

i think if it were up to me now, i would talk to the teacher. if the work they will miss is something they can catch up on, or maybe get some extra work before you leave....they wont miss much....

oh yea... one niece got extra credit when she got back because we spent a lot of time in epcot...they did the passport thing...and she explained customs from other countries...and wrote her name on the board in Japaneese... YA NEVER KNOW ;D

[carolb]

We took our kids out and it wasn't really an issue. We usually tried to tie our trips to a school break, so they wouldn't miss a full week of school time. Never an issue in elementary school. They didn't miss (or didn't miss more than a day) if they were in HS.
That said, I think your bigger issue is having your daughter fall out of the routine of school. I agree with you - I wouldn't do it, not because she is missing school or that she will forget what she learned, more about that change in routine for so long.

[lisa]

you will get many opinions on this. And people be very strong in their opinion. But, I pulled mine out of school up until the oldest was in high school..then I realized I couldn't do it anymore - because she was in honors classes and got too far behind. It depends on the grade level and the kid. But even with Kindergarten, I wouldn't pull my kid out for 3 weeks.. 5 days of missing school at the most.

[disnifiedmarge]

If I'm following this right, your daughter is going to miss 2 weeks of school anyway, along with the rest of her classmates.

So she really won't be missing anything then.

On the 3rd week, you will go to WDW, which will be a week of fun and learning that will plant the seeds for a lifetime of joy and connection to family and friends.

On the 4th week she will return to Kindergarten, where she will do what bright, resilient, typical kids do-- she will fall right into the routine and the expectations and start having fun again with her friends.

As a teacher I don't see the downside of taking her out, not even a little bit. Learning happens everywhere, and especially at Disney Parks. Teaching your daughter to value time with family and friends is at least as important as one week of Kindergarten, in my humble opinion. I say go for it.