Anyone pulled their kids out of High School?

[luvtheships]

What a shame. So an experienced parent in your school who knows that a kid with a slight fever. Cough. Stomach bug etc. which does not need a doctors attention still has to go to the doctor anyway ? I bet there are plenty of sick kids coming to school everyday that should be home resting and getting better rather than spreading germs. And all because of a doctors note

 

The school is making parents pay for an unneeded doctors visit every time a kid needs to stay home? They should all be fired. That is ridiculous. Kids get sick all the time and doctors visit are not needed for runny noses. What is needed is to keep them rested and away from spreading germs to their classmates.

 

 

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I meant to quote the poster who said a docs note was needed for all absences in my above post. Darn iphone! Lol

 

 

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[luvtheships]

Bull. If they KNOW the material, it would not matter if they were tested on it ten years from now.

 

I know I have different thoughts on education because I hate what I call ten minute knowledge. I wanted my kids to learn the material, not just do short term memory learning.

 

Parents need to wake up and stop drinking the koolaid on these mandatory test crap.

 

BTW, I home schooled mine after I figured out how poor the schools were educating them. We did a lot of traveling and not the cruise ship variety.

 

Exactly!

 

 

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[luvtheships]

read this will a smile on my face. My son would have NEVER let me take him out either. He has gone to school feeling like crap. Also, there were many times in high school where the workload for homework was RIDICULOUS. He was up until 1 or 2am every night for weeks at a time working on homework, studying for tests and working on projects. And for bragging purposes he was ranked 21st in his graduating class of almost 1000 kids (and a 4.0 gpa). (now I am looking for donations for college. anyone want to donate :D )

 

Too true! I have had kids graduate as 1st and 2 nd in their high school classes and have studied until 3 am. They flourished in this environment and never missed more than a day of school in over 10 years. I don't know how they do it but they seem to have the stamina for classes sports and study.

 

Just last week I took my 12 up old of school on the second to last day in order to go to a watermark before it got too crowded with summer hordes. She was very concerned about missing school! Lol. Go figure.

 

I never did it because my kids wouldn't do it but I wished I had taken them out in the younger years.

 

 

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[Keel Haul]

I'm with Pink Floyd, see if you can find your parenting type.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23056843

[Warm Breezes]

I have 2 kids, DD(16) a Junior in HS and DS(19) a Sophomore in College. Through DS's 7th grade we pulled them out for a week at least once a year. There was never any issues with the school (teachers or admin) or making up the work and their grades (both A average students) never suffered. DS found after the trip we took when he was in 7th grade that it was much tougher to make up the work and he was penalized by the basketball coaches for missing a week of preseason practice. He requested we not miss a week again. Since then, they have missed a day or two around the holidays...again without issues.

 

IMHO, taking your kids out of school is a personal decision that depends on the following factors:

• Your school's attendance policies and the teachers willingness to give makeup work.
  
• Your child's academic schedule during that time and the ability to reschedule any tests.
  
• Your child's willingness to make up the work.
  
• Your child's sports/academic team commitments.
  
• Your child's ability to make up the work.
  
• Your families situation regarding budget, time off of work, etc.
  

Only you can make the final decision whether it will be ok with you and your family.

[cruiser87654321]

I teach, and I have taken my kids out of school for up to a week, but only at specific times;in the last two weeks of term, or a couple of days max either side of a holiday period. Never at the beginning of a school year or around any exam time.

[junglejane]

IMHO, taking your kids out of school is a personal decision that depends on the following factors:

• Your school's attendance policies and the teachers willingness to give makeup work.
  
• Your child's academic schedule during that time and the ability to reschedule any tests.
  
• Your child's willingness to make up the work.
  
• Your child's sports/academic team commitments.
  
• Your child's ability to make up the work.
  
• Your families situation regarding budget, time off of work, etc.
  

Only you can make the final decision whether it will be ok with you and your family.

 

Warm Breezes, that seems like a good summary to me. Our older DD is starting her junior year in high school. She wants to apply to highly competitive colleges and universities. For the last 8 years, we've taken lots of family cruises. But we've decided that for the next 18 months or so, we just can't plan any cruises or other extended trips. There's just too much at stake for her in terms of academic demands, high stakes testing, extracurricular activities (speech & debate tournaments), college visits, etc. We're hoping to plan a Baltic cruise for summer 2015, after she has graduated, but until them we're putting a hold on our cruising.

[CI66774]

They're your children - do what you want. You don't answer to the Man (i.e. the school district) - the Man answers to you.

[kelleigh229]

When I was in high school with certain attendance we could be exempt from final exams with good grades. That would be the only concern I would have if schools even do that anymore. but it was a great perk for hard work and great attendance.

[Keel Haul]

There were certain kids and teachers in my school that could have done with a btb world cruise.

[michiganredrose]

I have regularly taken my kids out of school for vacations. I work on a fruit farm and can't go anywhere over the summer. When they were little I took them out for up to 2 weeks at a time now I try to limit it to less than a week. We plan for the time over mid winter break to minimize the amount of school they will miss and still be able to handle the cost.

 

For our cruise coming up in February, they don't have school on Friday, the day we will fly out and they don't have school Monday so they will miss 4 days of school. My daughter will have all of her work done before we set foot on the plane and my son will procrastinate until the very last second and finish it on the airplane on the way home. This year my son will be a junior and my daughter will be a freshman. They both know if grades become an issue we will have to make alternate plans for them so they don't end up missing school. It's a very good incentive for them to keep their grades up.

[Blk_Amish]

They're your children - do what you want. You don't answer to the Man (i.e. the school district) - the Man answers to you.

 

Parents have a greater say in their kids education than they might realize. Depending on the school district, you might do better with your kids in a day than a week in a classroom with disruptive kids. No Child Left Behind means yours may never move ahead.

Due to budget cuts we finished school at the end of May. Public education is all about the money. It's important to be in school everyday but in the case of budget cut you can have extra time off :o

[Trolleydolly80]

We are taking our kids aged 9 & 14 out if school this year as I have every other year. They start back after summer holidays on 1st of Sep then we go on our cruise on the 6th. if I didn't take them out of school they would never experience all of the wonderful places they have been to over the years as we would never be able to afford it. They are very bright children & their education has never suffered because of this. I say, go for it! what an amazing opportunity for your children!

 

 

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[luvsviola]

Another teacher here.....yes, we have taken our children out of school though it has only been a couple days at a time. Travelling and spending time with family is definitely worth it. Plus, there shouldn't be any reason why all homework cannot be complete and turned in before you leave. The teachers should work with you, I would hope.

 

I'm a teacher pulling my kiddos out in October for a week. The district I teach in has balanced calendar. The district my children attend does not match up with my break schedule at all. I give the teachers 2 months warning that I am pulling them out. At the end of the day, my kids will have family memories and have seen parts of the world that we could never afford to do as a family of 5 in July. But in October, we can go on the off season.

 

My kids will got to public universities. They are excellent students. Missing a week for a family vacation will not hurt their grades enough to keep them from being accepted into Indiana University or Purdue University, who take kids in the top 50% of their graduating class.

 

Unless your kid is struggling, I see no harm in missing a week.

[Athankfulheart]

Your post made me chuckle, because that is the only award my DDs didn't receive at their awards ceremony a few weeks ago. It's the one award my kids will probably never receive.:rolleyes::p Because we take them out of school every other year to cruise.:D

 

They just completed 5th and 1st grade though, so nowhere near high school yet. They each had the highest score in every subject (as usual). As long as they keep up this kind of academic performance, and the time doesn't interfere with anything terribly important, DH and I will have no qualms about continuing to take them out of school for cruises, even in high school. Their teachers have always been more than cooperative about it, too.:)

 

Sorry about bragging on my kids... they're pretty darned fantastic kids and sometimes I just can't help myself.:o Oops, there I go again.:o

 

 

OP, this is something only you and your spouse can decide, with important input from your DD and her teachers. The situation can be different for every family, student, teacher, and school. I wish you the best of luck in working it out to everyone's satisfaction. And happy cruising!

 

 

I love your post. The fact of the matter is that life doesn't give perfect attendance awards. Corporations don't compensate you extra for showing up everyday. They compensate you for the quality of your contribution. In my area , if you have perfect attendance ( there are a couple of misses allowed I think) then you don't have to take FINALS. I think this is pretty crappy. Just show up and get credit doesn't amount to much in the real world.

 

We homeschool, so none of this affects us. We are taking some friends on our next cruise and one of the families has twin daughters. One daughter is coming but the other is staying home because she doesn't want to have to take finals. Another family will be getting work ahead of time so it can be completed before the trip. This is obviously a hotly debated subject, but it really should be a private matter for parents to decide themselves.

[ShakyBeef]

I love your post. The fact of the matter is that life doesn't give perfect attendance awards. Corporations don't compensate you extra for showing up everyday. They compensate you for the quality of your contribution. In my area , if you have perfect attendance ( there are a couple of misses allowed I think) then you don't have to take FINALS. I think this is pretty crappy. Just show up and get credit doesn't amount to much in the real world.

 

We homeschool, so none of this affects us. We are taking some friends on our next cruise and one of the families has twin daughters. One daughter is coming but the other is staying home because she doesn't want to have to take finals. Another family will be getting work ahead of time so it can be completed before the trip. This is obviously a hotly debated subject, but it really should be a private matter for parents to decide themselves.

 

Thank you.:)

 

I agree, it is a private matter for each family to decide for themselves, based on their particular circumstances. Like you, our school district's rules don't affect us in this issue. Our kids go to private school. So it is a lot easier for us to take them out for a week than if they went to public school.

 

Yes, the subject is hotly debated. But hopefully, some of this public discussion can help some parents in making their private decisions. Maybe some issue raised here, or some angle of the topic brought up by a fellow poster might not have occurred to the OP or another parent in the same situation. Or maybe it occurred to them, but to hear of other parents' experiences might help them be more prepared for what they might experience.

 

In this spirit, I offer up what we did when picking our during-the-school-year cruise this year: DH and I picked 3 cruises, all 7 days, Sunday-to-Sunday. We gave DDs' teachers the dates of these 3 weeks and asked each of them to tell us which would be the best week for DD in her class to be gone, and which would be the worst for her to miss. As it turned out, one teacher's best week was the other teacher's 2nd-best week, so that is the one we went with (They each had different 'worst' weeks).

 

We gave the teachers a few months' notice of the upcoming cruise, allowed them to help pick the date, and reminded them as it approached, so they had plenty of time to provide the make-up work. Both teachers were more than cooperative - they were supportive and enthusiastic about the trip. The 5th grade teacher even wanted to stow-away in our luggage.:p They both were correct when they said for our DDs, their grades and their education would not suffer in the slightest from missing a week of school.

 

I understand not all kids are straight-A students at the top of all their classes. Heck, I wasn't.:rolleyes: If my kids ever start struggling in any subject, we would not be as willing to take them out of school for a vacation.

 

All this babbling just comes back to "It's a personal choice to be made by each family based on their unique circumstances".:o

[The Mister]

BTW, I home schooled mine after I figured out how poor the schools were educating them. We did a lot of traveling and not the cruise ship variety.

I have no particular opinion on the OP's issue. I just wanted to mention (with a minor sense of smugness ;) ) how glad I am that our family homeschools, and we don't have to deal with the district attendance / absence / permission slip BS. :D

 

Off-season prices, less-crowded kids' clubs, tropical weather year-round. I suppose Alaskan cruises would have to be crammed in to the warm months, but I think we can manage.

[pafam4]

Thank you.:)

 

I agree, it is a private matter for each family to decide for themselves, based on their particular circumstances. Like you, our school district's rules don't affect us in this issue. Our kids go to private school. So it is a lot easier for us to take them out for a week than if they went to public school.

 

Yes, the subject is hotly debated. But hopefully, some of this public discussion can help some parents in making their private decisions. Maybe some issue raised here, or some angle of the topic brought up by a fellow poster might not have occurred to the OP or another parent in the same situation. Or maybe it occurred to them, but to hear of other parents' experiences might help them be more prepared for what they might experience.

 

In this spirit, I offer up what we did when picking our during-the-school-year cruise this year: DH and I picked 3 cruises, all 7 days, Sunday-to-Sunday. We gave DDs' teachers the dates of these 3 weeks and asked each of them to tell us which would be the best week for DD in her class to be gone, and which would be the worst for her to miss. As it turned out, one teacher's best week was the other teacher's 2nd-best week, so that is the one we went with (They each had different 'worst' weeks).

 

We gave the teachers a few months' notice of the upcoming cruise, allowed them to help pick the date, and reminded them as it approached, so they had plenty of time to provide the make-up work. Both teachers were more than cooperative - they were supportive and enthusiastic about the trip. The 5th grade teacher even wanted to stow-away in our luggage.:p They both were correct when they said for our DDs, their grades and their education would not suffer in the slightest from missing a week of school.

 

I understand not all kids are straight-A students at the top of all their classes. Heck, I wasn't.:rolleyes: If my kids ever start struggling in any subject, we would not be as willing to take them out of school for a vacation.

 

All this babbling just comes back to "It's a personal choice to be made by each family based on their unique circumstances".:o

 

 

Just mentioning that your thought processes on this might change as they move on through the school years. Straight A students in high school usually end up in AP or Honors classes, and as the curriculum gets more challenging, even those that get the highest grades find it difficult to make up all the classroom time (group projects, science labs, etc.) that would be missed by not being present. And most of those high-performing students usually understand what an impact missing class can have and would probably balk at taking a vacation during school time. Of course, it also depends on how challenging the particular high school is as well.

[ShakyBeef]

Just mentioning that your thought processes on this might change as they move on through the school years. Straight A students in high school usually end up in AP or Honors classes, and as the curriculum gets more challenging, even those that get the highest grades find it difficult to make up all the classroom time (group projects, science labs, etc.) that would be missed by not being present. And most of those high-performing students usually understand what an impact missing class can have and would probably balk at taking a vacation during school time. Of course, it also depends on how challenging the particular high school is as well.

 

That's a very good point.:) DH and I have always said if (when) the girls say they don't want to miss school, we will stop cruising during the school year. I have heard of this happening and understand it might be a very real possibilty with our girls. Elementary school is definitely a different situation than high school. And they are bound to be in Honours level classes, at least. Even their underachieving mother was in those.:rolleyes::p So, I think you're right -- cruising during the school year might end for us, a few years from now.:(:o

[Blk_Amish]

Something that just caught my eye about grades and what college your child may attend. Decent grades and good SAT score will get you into most state universities. I told my daughter not to take AP Euro in her Sophomore year and now I am considering a girls trip to UK and Switzerland next spring, missing a week in school. Our family spent a month in Europe 2 summer ago.

 

The result for the AP classes my son took in his senior year is out today. If he scores a 3 or better he will get college credit, if not the work and the money I paid are gone. He took the AP Calculus test not because he had any chance of passing it but to get out of doing the finals. Add that to the cost of college but the 1K Princeton Review he did but did not need. His first try at the SAT was way about what was needed for the State University we chose.

 

He graduated top honors, scored well on the SAT, won Ronald McDonald Future Acheivers Scholarship, passed a few AP tests, selected one of 30 incoming Freshman in the Honors Business Program. I am just doing this to remind myself he did his part, what we asked of him, now it's our turn to eat Mac and Cheese in order to pay for it:D Factor in grades but also the requirements of the university they may attend. For my daughter I will stress more community service which she enjoys over AP classes.

[junglejane]

Just mentioning that your thought processes on this might change as they move on through the school years. Straight A students in high school usually end up in AP or Honors classes, and as the curriculum gets more challenging, even those that get the highest grades find it difficult to make up all the classroom time (group projects, science labs, etc.) that would be missed by not being present. And most of those high-performing students usually understand what an impact missing class can have and would probably balk at taking a vacation during school time. Of course, it also depends on how challenging the particular high school is as well.

 

That's exactly where we are. We've traveled extensively with our family for the last 8 years, taking our kids on 14 cruises and numerous land trips. I wouldn't trade any of those experiences for anything. We took cruises this past Christmas, Spring Break and on June 1 right after school got out. But everything is grinding to a halt for our DD's junior year. She will be in AP Calculus BC, AP Chemistry, AP US History, AP Psychology, Honors English III and Honors Latin III. She has to take the PSAT in October and the SAT in Spring. Add to that her numerous extracurricular activities and our desire to start making college visits. There's no way I would take her out of school for a week at this stage in her life. It would just add to her stress, not provide her with relaxation.

 

One of the best pieces of advice I got years ago came from some empty-nester friends of ours. They told us to travel as much as possible with our kids before high school, because it would become much harder once they hit high school. It's not just the academic demands. A lot of teens would really rather hang out with their friends than vacation with mom and dad, and resent you for taking them away from their friends and activities. Eventually they come back around and appreciate family vacations again, but our friends were right when they predicted that we would reach a stage when our teens would resist going on family trips.

[WendyYC]

In my district I can pull my kids and place them on Independent Study. It must be a minimum of 5 days. You sign a contract agreeing to do all the work. These days aren't counted as absences so the school gets ADA. My kids got perfect attendance when we did this but only outstanding attendance when they missed 3 days for basically the same reason. The Independent Study option makes it hassle free.

 

Enjoy!

 

My kids' school does the Independent Study for 5 or more days as well. The last time we pulled my DD from school she did all her work before we left. Then, during the cruise the teacher had her make a logbook of the trip. We added photos, little momentos like tickets, foreign currency, etc and made a scrapbook out of it. The teacher was thrilled and gave her bonus points. It's one of my favorite "souveniers" of our trips.

[Blk_Amish]

Attendance is about money, so Independence Study keeps the money for your child going to the school while s/he is away for 5 or more day. While it's nice to inform the teacher, this is done through the attendance office and work that would be covered in class or replacement assignment must be provided by the as long as it is requested within 48 hours. In my district, the work has to turned in to the attendance office, so it can be documented, copied, and kept in case of an audit. The contract states the child will do all the work as if s/he was in school. If not for the money my district gets for attendance, about half or at least a good 10 percent would be kicked out by year end.

 

For PE, I had to sign off that my kids did 20 minutes of physical exercise every day plus they had to write an essay. I can't recall what we did for the lab but more likely some report than the actual experiment. In my district, Independent Study takes care of attendance issues and whether or not a teacher will work with you but it has to be 5 days or more. Yes, turn 4 days absence into 5 when possible, avoid the hassle, plus the school gets ADA.

[villauk]

I teach, and I have taken my kids out of school for up to a week, but only at specific times;in the last two weeks of term, or a couple of days max either side of a holiday period. Never at the beginning of a school year or around any exam time.

 

Your school permits you to take holiday leave in term time as a teacher? Is it a private school?

[luvtheships]

Your school permits you to take holiday leave in term time as a teacher? Is it a private school?

 

Teachers get personal days off

 

 

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