Thanks, everyone, for the responses!!
We never had trouble with a week in elementary school. Not even in middle school. But I personally would not do 2 weeks.
I'm definitely struggling with 2 weeks. I so have two minds about it.
We are taking our son out for 2 weeks right before holiday break. He is in grade 2..I've never had a problem taking him out of school. Trying to do it now before the workload gets too heavy when he's older...
I definitely wouldn't do it for that long when he's older. Seems like the next trip would be our last chance for a longer trip for a long time.
My parents took us 3 kids out of school every year from preschool through high school.
We missed 8 days because we always went during November around Thanksgiving.
My parents never regretted it and we all did fine in school.
I missed a lot as a kid from being sick, like one year I missed 10 days each quarter. I had some immune system issues, but they never held me back from excellent grades.
I think we've done as many as 8 days. I'd prefer to hook it up to time off if we could but like you said the cost is a major factor around holiday times. We are doing shorter trips now so this next one is only 5 school days, but we might take my oldest out for another short trip towards the end of the year.
I wish shorter trips made sense, but between coordinating my husband and my schedule and the time it takes to travel from California, it just doesn't.
I was taken out two weeks as a second grader and it was a lot to make up (25 years ago).
We're planning a trip to DLR next year that we'll roll in with a school break and my oldest will miss two days. In two years, we'll take a large family trip and there's no way to avoid it with the assorted work schedules and busy seasons - he has to miss school. But instead of saving money by driving and stopping overnight at a friend's halfway (which basically adds 4 days), I'm budgeting to fly so we can get the same amount of park time and only miss a week.
That's interesting that it made such an impression on you. Was it just that it took a long time or did it affect your grades? I definitely wouldn't want it to be a negative experience.
We just took our kids out for a week at Halloween and that was our absolute limit and we agreed we can't do it again. (My 3rd grader had to make up 12 math sheets and read an entire novel with journal entries and vocabulary/language packet while we were there). Ugh. Still making up the tests. His teacher was perfectly nice about it but it was a lot of work. We had a fabulous vacation so it was worth it...once. We will be taking them out for 2 or 3 days around a long weekend next time (we get random ones not on holidays frequently), not a consecutive 5 weekdays.
In first grade for missing 8 days, he had almost 60 pages of worksheets, 3 paragraphs to write and a report to finish. It really was a lot, but he got it all finished and well. I'm not looking forward to that, but it really would be our last time ever planning that.
I am taking our second grade daughter out for a week in May. Although I teach second grade and can work with her at any time! If your are planning 10 days, I would check in with the teachers and see what kind of work that they can do on the plane, in the car, etc.
If we decide to, I will be talking to his teacher about it at the beginning of the school year for an April trip and offering to volunteer on some projects and some other things to make this go as smoothly as possible.
1. I would check with the school. Policies vary. My youngest is in public school and it's very strict. Even a week would be a problem. My oldest is in private for the first time, and they are more lenient about time off for travel.
2. I would not place much faith anymore on crowd calendars for predictions of "low crowds." Lines this year in August were much than October. Very hard to figure out what is going on, but part of it is that August has longer hours and more staff than the "low" season.
We did it last year so I know their policy is you have to sign an agreement to make up all missed work etc, so they get funding. I totally support that. And I'm definitely not counting on "low crowds," just lower than the 2nd week after Easter. We waited 45 minutes for bag check one morning for a pre-park opening breakfast and an hour for food at Hollywood Studios. We still got everything done we wanted, but DH is not a fan of being packed in like sardines and I just can't talk him into spending more money on a high crowd time.
Depends on your children!!! If school is easy for them at this point and you feel like they won't have a hard time making up their work, sure, take them out. If they have a little harder time with their work, I wouldn't do it. We have taken ours out several times, for a week, I always talked to their principal when I would do it, he always said, you have great kids, good grades, no discipline problems, don't worry about it, I'll make it ok. And he did, we never had an issue. I worried about it the first couple of times, but after that I didn't. You know your children, you will probably have to decide if you think they can handle it or not. Also, some of our teachers gave the girls some of their work the week before we left so they already had some of it turned in before we left for our trip.
He's doing amazing this year, hasn't brought home a test lower than 92% and doesn't have discipline problems. I definitely think he can handle it, but I for sure don't mind hearing any points I hadn't considered.
In large part, I feel like it depends on the teachers. If they are flexible and if you give them enough notice and if you (and the kids) are willing to possibly take a minor hit on grades (if it comes to that), then it is worth it. We do this every other year for a 12 day trip that has the kids missing 6 days of school and we usually have a good experience. We ask for work in advance, respectfully with the caveat that we understand the pressures on teachers and that we know it is extra work, etc, and then we schedule pockets of time during the trip for completion of that work. The transition back to school can be a bit rocky sometimes because they are tired and coming off of an amazing vacation, but I have never regretted it. I will say that we had one teacher who took exception to it and she referred back to the trip in a very negative way for months afterward, but my son pressed forward, completed his work and we moved on from her. For us, we like to think about those school days missed as part of the bigger picture - will these 6 days out of school be an amazing happy set of memories? Yes!
I completely agree with this. I love love love his teacher this year. She's so clear about her expectations and my son's confidence has grown tremendously. His teacher last year was very kind and positive, but it was her first time teaching first grade and she's since moved to third. I just don't think it was a great match for her. And I don't think her style was a perfect match for my son, at least not like this year's teacher is. I wish she could follow him from year to year. LOVE her.
We always took our kids out (20,19,7). It was never a big deal. They did their homework on the plane. Last year we even did it twice once in September for 2 weeks and again in November for 10 days. My friend did something similar it was completely fine. Our elementary school seems very lenient about this. They realize family time is important. Just do it! They won't stay young forever. Enjoy these family times now.
I really feel this way too. I'm split on this which is so clear to me vs all the "what if's" that could happen with him out that long. I've never believed in letting "what if's" make any decision, but having kids so muddies those waters. LOL.
