Perhaps the teachers can provide you with photocopies of the relevent pages from the textbooks, workbooks, etc.
Or you could arrange to stop by after school on Friday and pick them up yourself.
I think the copies would be best. Less to haul around on vacation, and less intimidating for DD if you ask her to do a page or two at a given time than to have to face the textbooks, so maybe more likely to actually get done. Somehow when it's on a separate page it looks like less work than when it is bound in the book.
(Special Ed trick
to keep kids from feeling overwhelmed and reduce anxiety)
Also I would tell the teachers that while you will make every effort to get as much work done as possible while you're gone, you would like 1 week after your return to get it all turned in. Even with the best of intentions, it will be very hard to work homework into the schedule. The last time we tried, *I* completely forgot to have my kids work on it. Even during those times when they had nothing they wanted to do and were bored. I'm sure they could have gotten it finished, if *I* had been a responsible mother
(My kids were in 3rd and 5th grade and have LD's).
Also, some assignments could be altered. Like perhaps an essay that was due for Social Studies on a different topic could be changed to a topic related to your trip. Or a creative writing assignment about the trip for English/Language arts. Suggest these to the teacher. They probably won't suggest them to you, just because they don't have the time to think about it.
Another thing I have done is to correct my kiddos' work myself; this lets me know that it was really done, but the teachers also appreciate that they don't have to do it. Admittedly this is easier
in the lower grades but there may be some you could do. Or the teacher may be willing to give you an answer key if you ask. Most teachers relish any opportunity to have fewer papers to correct!
I simply mark the missed answers and let the teacher determine the actual scoring. If I notice it's a silly mistake, or illegible I have them fix the error, and then make a note on the paper.
Good luck. Sorry to ramble on. We have had a fair bit of experience with this since the schools my kids have attended are year-round and schedules are not always convenient for vacation planning.
April
They said I can work with the teachers individually on the schoolwork so now that will be my next step! How about you monaslw? Have you contacted the school yet? I was relieved to get the "excused absence" granted by the principals, at least now I can concentrate on working with the teachers behind my children's backs!!!!
