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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Re: Perhaps flameful: Pulling kids out of school for vacay
While Kindergarten is not mandatory in TX, if you enroll your child you must follow compulsory attendance laws.
I'm a teacher and don't see a problem with it, especially in lower grades (2nd and under). Not that big of deal so long as the child doesn't have any academic difficulties. High school is a different story but I do think once-in-a-lifetime trips are always worth it. My parents let me miss a whole week of 9th grade to go to Hawaii and perform in the Pro Bowl.
I actually did some research on this and hopefully someone will let me know if I'm wrong, but more than 3 days unexcused absense in a 6 weeks period is considered truancy. And in FBISD the parents get fine and have to go to court. I thought it was pretty extreme, so I'm hoping it's not true.
But if it is the case, 15 hours wouldn't be an issue. I don't have an issue with it at all if they're doing well in school and have no issues catching up if needed.
when i was in middle and high school i went to an educational camp for spring break every year. my junior year of high school, i wanted to attend with three friends from previous years. unfortunately, my spring break was the week after theirs, and shockingly my mother agreed to let me go anyway. i cleared it with my teachers because it was educational and brought my homework with me.
it is a good thing she let me go, 11 years later i ended up marrying the boy i was going to camp with!
The takes on HS is interesting to me. I missed a whole month of my junior year to be a page for the Maryland General Assembly. I kept up with all my classes just fine and missing school really wasn't a big deal at all. Though it did have to be cleared with the stupid "miss more than 5 days and you fail" rule. Such BS. Not all learning has to be done in a classroom. I think most kids would learn a lot more on a week trip abroad than they would in school.
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That's a whole different ball game than Disney World or a beach vacation
I'm a teacher, and I really don't care if a kid is out. More breathing room for the rest of us. It takes me a fat 2 mins to put a packet together for a kid who has been sick or gone for whatever reason.
With all the wasted time there is in a school day (TAKS testing is a huge time waster), missing a week does not make a difference.
That being said, I see the value in taking a memorable vacation during the school year.
I don't have an issue with it, provided that the child is doing well in school, and the trip will have an educational element to it. (at least, if I had kids those would be my requirements for the absence) The attendance issues disappear with private school, which is another reason I prefer it to public. Expensive, but it removes so much BS that comes with public schools.
I can't believe they assess fines in Fort Bend.
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Don't worry, Kel's kiddo is in private kinder. You'll still be getting your full tax allowance from her!
My opinion? In kindergarten is it totally not a big deal. Especially for a kid like Kel's, who is well-prepared.
We Claire to miss a day of third grade after our wedding, because her out of state grandparents were in town.
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We plan on keeping Tru out of school for 2 weeks this winter when we go to Australia. Frankly, that trip is barely worth making with kids if you don't stay that long, so spring break would never be enough. Of course, he's in preK, so no big deal.
I think that as long as grades are good and **it doesn't interfere with something like exams**, travel builds better, more well rounded people and is almost always educational. I mean, Disney after 3rd grade probably doesn't qualify IMO, but international travel is always something I'll have no guilt about pulling my kids out of school for.
I have to agree.
In my hillbilly hometown kids were always pulled out for Houston Rodeo week and opening of deer season; maybe that skews my perspective because if those could have been given school district blessing I'm feeling very comfortable with international travel, and even domestic destinations, as an educator.
I get ya but you can't compare your once in a lifetime opportunity to a trip to Disney. Sorry.
1-2 days tops IF they are doing well. We may have to pull DD a day here & there for competition this year. The only other times we have, 1 we were traveling back to town on a Monday and the other was last day of 5th grade after they had graduation 2 days before. DH took DD & her now former BFF out boating.
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I always said I wouldn't, but then we went to Disneyland in an "off" period, and it was awesome. I imagine we'll want to go again when Natalie is around Marisa's age (4), and would likely pull Marisa out of school for a couple of days.
It's not something we'd do every year, but for a special vacation? Yes. After our Disneyland experience, it totally qualifies for me. Sharing something from my own childhood with my kid was so moving, and we were able to really experience everything in 3 days. That would be about impossible during peak time. It wasn't educational, but it was valuable in a different way.
I never thought I'd be one of those Disney people, but I'm totally converted.
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This is kinda how we feel. So we will be doing it. And yes, we're going to Disney for 7 days. She'll miss 5 days of kindergarten (15 hours of instruction). And since it's private school, I'm not worried about the district losing $ for her not being there. I think we're more than covered there.
I would never pull her out during (or expect special treatment to be given for) tests, projects, etc.....and we figure we might as well do it while she's young and not missing those important things (such as the above or sports, etc).
I spoke at length with her teacher about it and she had no issues whatsoever. Said she'd be glad to give us her work early so she wouldn't fall behind/miss anything.
My school was always closed a week for deer season...needless to say, my mom let me skip school quite a lot for other things since the school thought dumb deer season was important enough to close down the school.
I don't really have an opinion either way, but I am sure DH would never consider taking a vacation during the school year. I just know how he is.
I'm surprised Disney gets picked on so much in this thread. A trip to Disneyworld IS a once-in-a-lifetime vacation for a significant percentage of our society. I have never been before. Ever. My family could never afford it. We did vacation to Disneyland twice but were podunks and would have been made fun of because we made an assembly line of lunchmeat sandwiches in our laps because we couldn't afford the concessions.
That said, I don't think it is a big deal if the kid is performing well in school.
- Paula Deen to 104.1 KRBE's Producer Eric 9/17/2011
I'm with Michelle. I didn't go to WDW till I was 24 and I was AMAZED. I think it warrants missing school. If I get the opportunity to take my future youngins' during the school year I will try to make it happen.
I've never been to Disney World either. We were poor too, but it wasn't even on the radar and certainly not something we would have been pulled out of school for. We did international trips home 9read scraped pennies together at every turn) and even then only when school was over or on break.
I think if you are taking your kid out of school for Disney several times over the course of their lifetime it is not sending a good message about priorities. But one time at a young age? nbd imo.
I absolutely support international and educational reasons for traveling. i had that in my original reply but the nest ate it. also included in that reply was how we kids spent 2 summers earning the money that took us on our podunk disneyland trips. we walked the highways picking up cans and turned them in for change. note - country highways in NM, not i-10. working for your vacation builds a lot of work ethic so if the reward is received by missing a couple of days of school once in your career of education, it is definitely less intrusive than all the 5AAKS testing.
with all the custody issues in present society, a parent may not have a choice but to vacation with their kid during the school year. my dad had us from the saturday after the last day of school to the sunday before the first day - no flexibility. we took one vacation with my mom my whole childhood and it was over spring break - the only one she got off while we were kids.
- Paula Deen to 104.1 KRBE's Producer Eric 9/17/2011
I think it's interesting that Disney is being picked on too. Taking my little girl to Disney on her 5th birthday was MUCH more important to me than he being there for 2 days in Kindergarten. I mean seriously? It's Kindergarten. I would not have had her miss a Calculus final for it, but a few days of Kindergarten to go see Mickey Mouse is not going to harm her academic career for life.
My Dad traveled a lot so we were in the year round school program so we could take advantage of the 2 week breaks to take our trips. When they did away with the program then we would get our work ahead of time to go to Disney, Colorado, California, etc. when Dad was there and his company was paying.
Never missed anything super important of course, but it never hurt either.
Collin Thayne 10.11.2010
We packed a cooler for Astroworld every single time! 4 hungry kids, outside all day long? Talk about $$$$$.
This thread crushes the stereotype that I had about today's parent. That makes me kinda sad