take a vacation when its slow?

[huggytree]

when im slow my kids are in school....when in busy they are off for summer break

i have decided to sacrifice my kids education instead of losing $10k+ in income

not sure about this one or how long i will continue to take vacations in the middle of the school year...

another major benefit of taking kids out of school for vacations is that the vacation area's are dead....you can walk onto any ride at Disney-crowds are 1/2 or 1/3rd of peak season...

went to a water park hotel for a few days...today we were the only one's there in certain rooms.....it was awesome

the negs....my kid loses 7-10 days of school and the teachers complain

right now its 1 kid and he's in 1st grade, but in a few years ill have 3 school aged kids

opinions on if im a bad parent or a good businessman? im having a tough time taking a vacation in the middle of summer and losing $/killing myself to catch backup....i wont be much fun if im stressing about being too busy either.

maybe ill have an employee this summer and that will solve the problem

[Patrysha]

Well my kids likely have the crappiest attendance record ever...so I may not be one to talk...but I wouldn't be too concerned about what the teacher's say...they aren't going to miss out on so much over 7-10 days. I was out for over a month when I went to India when I was a kid (I had catch up work to do...can't remember now whether it was before or after though)

[billbenson]

I'm not a parent huggy, so take this as an idea from the outside looking in:

School education in general sucks from everything I read. Additionally I suspect there are a lot of online or other training programs that are good. As an example, Loretta Stone has a bunch of good language programs. You have a pc and a microfone and headset. You are asked a question and if you respond incorrectly or don't pronounce the words correctly you don't move on. This is something you could easily spend an hour or two at before the disney park and your child might learn more than he would in school.

Don't like language, I bet there are very good programs from everything but math to geography. Probably some kids adventure tours where they learn as well.

Like I said, I'm just throwing out ideas as I have no kids or experience in this areal. Still, seems like you could have a fun educational vacation?

[Spider]

There are a whole bunch of people who home-school their children. I have some friends who do that, on a permanent basis. If they can do it for entire school years, you can do it for a month. Get the curriculum from the school, mark up the text books according to the teachers' class plan and teach them yourself - before Space Mountain, and anything else.

I bet it would make a great vacation - a month skiing, plus apre-ski around the log fire, learning and teaching. Talk about "quality time!"

[vangogh]

I don't think you're doing anything wrong either. One week out of school isn't going to put your kids so far behind. You could always try it once and see how they do. You could also try and time it when there's a 3 day school weekend. President's Day is coming up next month. If you pick that week the kids are only out of school for 4 days.

Also depending on where you take them the experience could be more valuable than what they might have learned in school. A week near the water park probably won't, but if you were taking the kids to Europe or even a part of the U.S. they wouldn't ordinarily see the experience of being in a completely different environment and around completely different people would be pretty valuable. This may not be your thing, but if you were to visit New York and took the kids to a few museums during the week they'd get a decent education with everything they see.

[Steve B]

It won't be so easy after first grade. Missing 1 week of school at a higher grade may not be fair to the kids as the burden is on them to catch up and they suffer the stress. Missing a week of math can be very difficult to catch up on. The home school concept is completely different, when you say you're taking them out for a vacation, I'm assuming you're not going to be replacing that week with "home schooling".

I think at this age you can get away with it very easily (although it is likely against your truency laws and may force you to lie to the school about the reason for the absences). But, once they hit 3rd or 4th grade, I think you'll be adding to your kid's stress just so you can make more money. At least where I live, my kids often have 2 hours of homework per night once they hit 3rd grade. All of the homework must be completed - even when the kids aren't in school.

[greenoak]

steves view is correct for our schools....it would be a big burden on the kids ,especially in another year or 2, and maybe a truancy call for the parents.....
. here they are totally hyper on attendance , even when a kid is sick....it has to do with their federal money...we have a pre asthma grandchild and its a a hassle from the school as well as the health part...

[vangogh]

A big part of this depends on your kids and how well they do in school. Some kids won't skip a beat missing a week or so of school and it's no big deal to take them out for that time. Other kids will fall behind and it will be hard for them to catch up. Only you know which group your kids fall into. In the end you don't want your kids to suffer just to be able to take a week or so off when you want.

[KristineS]

I think you can also plan for being out of school. You can work with teachers to make a plan so that the kids don't get behind. Maybe they do a little work in advance, or stay after a few days when they get back. It's likely that you'll plan your trips, so you can work with the teachers to make sure everything gets covered.

[huggytree]

when i went to school i dont think i ever had homework....maybe 1-2x a month.....i had study hall and i remember listing to my walkman or reading books because i had nothing else to do....i know things have changed dramatically....

my kids go to a Catholic school, so things are much more strict and expectations are much higher....

maybe ill keep doing what im doing until its too big of a problem....right now its not in my opinion...

glad to hear im not a horrible parent.....