Are you the kind of parent who lets their kids miss tons of school in favor of "family vacations"?

Answer 1

No. You should schedule vacations around the schools schedule. You are hurting noone but your child because they will be behind.And it inconviences the teacher

Answer 2

I teach high school biology and I find that the student always suffers when a family goes on vacation, and the longer the vacation, the worse it is. Sure, I can give the student homework assignments, but that does not replace the learning that occurs in school. After all, if all it took was a book and a few assignments, what would you need teachers and schools for? When a student is gone, they miss the opportunity to ask questions, do labs, make direct observations and guide their own learning. So I strongly advise avoiding the vacation during school.

Answer 3

No. Not tons. But I wouldn't be opposed to pulling them out of school for a week maybe once or twice during their entire school career.

Seriously, trying to plan a vacation during prescribed school vacations is ridiculously expensive and why should a family who is saving up for years for a special trip have to pay three times as much just so they can go on a trip when every other kid is going and not get to enjoy much of it because most of the trip is spent standing in line?

Anyway. No child should miss tons of school in favor of family vacations. However, I'm not opposed to it happening once or twice over the course of 10 years or so.

Answer 4

No. Parents need to be careful about what we're teaching our children. Education is a top priority and should not be taken lightly. It's a child's "job" to attend school and to do their homework. Just as it is the responsibility of adults to work and to be able to support their families.

As everyone knows, there are traditional designated times that school is out-- holiday breaks around Thanksgiving, Christmas/ New Year, and near Easter, and also the whole summer.

Unless there is an illness or a family emergency, there really is no reason for children to be pulled out of school for "vacation". They should take vacations when school is not in session.

Answer 5

I come from a family that would NEVER let me miss school in favor of a family vacation. I still believe that to this day with my own kids. Everything should be scheduled around school with the infrequent exception of a day here and there for things that can't be scheduled around (i.e. flights on Fri to go to a Sat wedding or something like that).

Answer 6

Did you know that learning does not require being in a special building? It's true!

Think about when you were little. You learned a TON without going to school. It was just time with your family and playing alone.

It's the same when you're older, too. Sometimes experience can be a greater teacher than a textbook that doesn't go very far into ANY topic. Textbook topics are a mile wide and an inch deep - they bring up a lot of things, but they don't give real knowledge.

We homeschool, so yes, I guess I would be the kind of parent who lets my kid miss tons of "school" in favor of family vacations. Take a trip to the mountains - learn about erosion and weathering. Go to the beach and learn about waves. Go to an amusement park and learn about money management, and aerodynamics & physics behind roller coasters.

Knowledge is not limited to a school building.

Answer 7

No,I am not. My children are now grown but I am raising 2 of my grandchildren and all vacations are scheduled during the time that school is out. They are not old enough to attend school but the oldest will start in a pre-k program next fall and so we decided to not have vacations at all during the time that school is in session. When our children were young we did do a lot of weekend trips where we would leave for a weekend get away as soon as they got home from school.

Answer 8

My family doesn't have vacations. There are kids in my kids classes that miss school but pick up all school to work to be done and then make the kids do it on vacation which pretty much says to me it's a parent vacation because the kids still do work.

Answer 9

I went on a cruise with my daughter during the school year. She missed 5 days but we were able to get the class and homework ahead of time and every evening we would work on her homework before bed. The only reason I did that was because we had just been through hell and needed time together having fun. Other than that, unless it is for a family emergency such as illness with family member or even a family wedding, I schedule vacations during the summer. If travel is needed during the school year we try to keep the days missed to a minimal.

But...

While I agree that school is important so is family and there time together. As long as time missed isnt excessive and the parents work with their kids while on vacation to keep up with school than I dont see anything wrong with it. My daughter gets prefect attendance almost every month. The months she doesnt is because her and I took a mental health day. We dont get much time to ourselves so once in a while I take off work and pick her up on the her way to the bus stop and we go out to lunch go to the movies etc. Those are the things she will remember when Im gone not that she got perfect attendance from kindergarden to 12th grade. (PS She gets straight A's). My mom never did anything like that with us when we were younger and when she died 5 years ago we didnt have vacation or hookie days to remember her by. I want my daughter to have those kinda memories of me. As long as she is making good grades our days off together will continue as long as she wants them to.

Answer 10

Yes. They can make it up. My husband has the type of job where he can never take a vacation during the summer. Our family vacations have to be taken durning off seasons. So, I am totally for taking our kids out to have a family vacation. They complete the work they would miss before we leave or during vacation. In a perfect world, we would prefer to take vacations while the kids are out of school, but it's not a perfect world.

Answer 11

No. I save all the major traveling and vacations for the summertime when my son is out of school. I do have friends who have taken their 3 kids out of school for a family vacation to Hawaii, just because it is cheaper to travel to Hawaii that time of the year. I think this is ridiculous. My son has only missed 4 days of school so far this year. He is in the fifth grade. 2 days because of sickness and 2 days for dental and doc appointments.