Traveling in the off-season: lighter crowds, less-expensive rates, more comfortable weather. What’s not to love? That is, until we consider taking the children out of school to take advantage of all the off-season offers. Today the Parenting Panel tackles the issue:
Would you take your child out of school for a Disney vacation?
MousePlanet columnist Chris Barry and wife Diane, “the marathon-running graphic designer who loves to garden and is a big Tinker Bell fan,” are raising 10-year-old Samantha, who “shares her father’s love of Disney and her mother’s love of art,” and twin 7-year-old boys, Casey and Alex, who “consider Mickey Mouse’s house their favorite place.” Chris starts off this week:
The first thing is, yes I have taken my kids out of school to go to Walt Disney World. The second is that, I am, in fact, a teacher. The third is a caveat to the second. I don’t teach a mainstream required course. I teach an upper-level high school elective, TV Production. If a student were to miss my class for a few days to go on vacation, they would be fine. So, while I do understand the teacher perspective, due to my unique job situation, I certainly do not in any way, shape, or form speak for all teachers out there. That said, the question at hand is not really that cut and dry. There are many variables such as how long you are going to be away, what kind of student your child is, and how understanding their teachers are.
I know teachers that are mortified that a responsible parent would pull their kids out of school for a trip to Disney, or any trip for that matter. I can hear them now: “There’s plenty of time in the school year allotted for vacations…” and “You have no idea how far back this will put them.” They have valid points. We do get at least three full weeks off during the year and there’s always the long glorious summer. So it’s hard to argue for time off in September, early December or in mid-May when the rest of the kids are working at their desks, but Disney is at its cheapest and least crowded.
As a school employee, I really can’t take the time off aside from my given vacations. Before you say it, no I am not complaining. Yes, I get plenty of time off. But one of the downsides of my job is my vacations are all peak travel time. The same can be said for anyone with children, really. That adds up to major expenses for travel during Christmas week or February vacation or during Spring break or sweltering weather in the summer. In the off-season, due to my job, we have never gone to Disney for more than a long weekend. But we have gone in September, early December and mid-May, and, each time, the kids have missed a few days of school. The lower cost, seasonal festivities, better weather, and smaller crowds have all made our short jaunts in the off-season worthwhile. But were we right to yank them out of school for a couple of days?
In our particular situation, that answer is a resounding yes. Our kids are elementary school age. They are not missing a tremendous amount of work as opposed to, say, a high school sophomore or junior. My kids also do well in school and can catch up rather quickly. Once again, we haven’t pulled them out for a full week. The most we’ve done is a day or two, three at the most. My daughter has also had teachers that were familiar with Walt Disney World and have given her small assignments to complete while away. Last September, she had to write down a fact that she learned from each country in Epcot’s World Showcase. She was more than happy to do so. So there, our trip to Disney was a worthwhile learning experience completely justifying the two days she missed of school. As long as they can catch up and are the right kind of student, I see no problem with pulling them out to save money, stay a bit cooler and avoid the maddening crowds.
Mary Kraemer is a travel consultant with CruisingCo/MouseEarVacations. She loves to travel with her husband and four children and is an avid Disney fan who visits Disneyland several times a year—and Walt Disney World and the Disney Cruise Line as often as possible. Mary writes:
My family loves to travel, and I have pulled my kids out of school to do so. But I’ve always done so within reason—a week is the longest time time they’ve ever missed school, and for trips of that length, I’ve always contacted the kids’ teachers about the days they’re going to be away. We consider the trip carefully and the impact it will have at school; we don’t just plan and go without giving school serious consideration.
Usually, the teachers have been really accommodating, providing work to do beforehand, some to do while we’re away, and allowing the kids to take tests they might have missed after their return (or sometimes, even before they leave so the material is still fresh). Depending on the trip, teachers have skipped giving regular class/homework and asked for a journal to be written instead.
Although we love our Disney vacations, we also travel to other destinations, and we usually have an educational focus on our trips. So, for example, it was not hard to justify pulling the kids out of school for a week so we could extend our spring break to two weeks to visit London and Paris; seeing the Louvre, the British Museum, the Tower of London, and Notre Dame, as well as many other historic locations made it easy (and, hey, the extra time gave us the opportunity to go to Disneyland Paris!)
On the flip side, we’ve taken vacations specifically for the educational experience. This way our kids would have first-hand knowledge when they studied colonial American history because they’d already been to Williamsburg and Jamestown, as well as Mount Vernon. So…I rationalize that it all evens out for us.
I’m firmly of the opinion that travel is an enriching experience for kids, and our kids have been traveling since they were babies. There is so much to show them, and I want to share those experiences with them. There’s nothing quite like seeing a spectacular natural wonder like Niagara Falls, a famous place like the Capitol in Washington D.C., the amazing nature of experience of seeing whales in the ocean, or the view from a landmark like the Space Needle in Seattle with your kids.
I’m lucky that my kids are all good students and take their schoolwork seriously. If that weren’t the case, I’d definitely feel differently about taking them out of school. Some kids thrive on the consistency of a routine, and breaking that routine is not a good idea for them. Others struggle with their studies, and breaking that consistency with the distraction of a vacation—no matter how well intentioned—could be the difference between success and additional difficulties in school. In the end, it’s up to you as parents to be able to gauge what’s best for your family.
Parenting in the Parks columnist Adrienne Krock’s three boys are now 11, 8, and 5. They’ve been visiting Disneyland since they were each just weeks old. Adrienne has been a day camp counselor and teacher. Now she’s a mom and a Cub Scout leader and has been a Disneyland Annual Passholder for 14 years. Adrienne writes:
When I originally booked our Walt Disney World vacation for October 2009, I planned it with my children’s year-round school calendar in mind, based on our 2008 school calendar. In January 2009, the school board changed the calendar and gave us November off instead of October. By this time, of course, not only had we made our arrangements, but others who were traveling with us had, as well. Not willing to change our plans, I approached the principal and attendance clerk at my children’s school. To say they were supportive is an understatement. They lavished me with compliments on my children’s academic and attendance record to date and commented on the wisdom of a school board that has now changed our school calendar four times in four years. I suppose that makes my answer to this question easy to predict, but consequences accompanied my choice.
This will most likely be the last time we travel in the off-season with our children. Our eldest will start middle school next year and I believe that the consequences of missing and having to catch up on that much schooling are too high at the middle and high school levels. As all three of my children are still in elementary school, I was willing to apply for an independent study contract for the length of our vacation. Our district requires an independent study contract for unexcused absences three days or longer. The attendance clerk offered the paperwork for me to fill out to request the contract. My sons’ teachers requested two weeks’ notice for the contracts, I gave them four because I could. Their teachers prepared packets of homework for the boys to complete while we were gone.
One teacher sent a journal of blank pages with him. I create special travel journals for my boys with prompts to fill out. I asked the teacher if we could turn in a photo copy of that instead of creating two journals and she happily agreed. That said, I have to confess that we were not able to complete all of the work sent with us. While we tried to utilize the obvious airplane time to work on homework and the boys caught up here and there in the evenings, we found it rather difficult to fit homework time into our long touring filled days. When I taught, parents could turn their paperwork in a few days after returning from their trips. This district requires parents to return the paperwork immediately. If I had realized this before our trip, I would have asked the teachers for the packets a few days ahead of our departure. The teachers never commented on the incomplete work and the boys’ report cards were stellar but I felt remiss that some work remained incomplete.
Given the right circumstances, I would take my children out of school again in a heartbeat. I cannot say that I will never take them out in middle or high school because given the right opportunity, I might! We had two weeks at Walt Disney World during the Food and Wine Festival. We had a blast and you can read my trip report on MousePad (link), but I found that making time to finish the school work was a bigger challenge than I had anticipated.
Laura King is mom to five boys who are now ages 9, 7, 7, 4, and 1. She recently traded in her job as a dance teacher to enter the world of PTO, Cub Scout den leader, team mom and school volunteer. She and her family have had Disneyland passes for the past 15 years and try to make it to Walt Disney World every three to four years. Laura writes:
I have pulled my boys out of school for vacations a few times. As the mom of boys with speech and language delays we have actually been encouraged to do so. We have already figured out that two of my three older boys both learn differently than what is normally taught in schools. Many subjects I have to reteach at home anyway so I’d much rather do it on a vacation. We have completed school Earth Day projects at Epcot and Animal Kingdom. We have done social studies reports at World Showcase. We have done sea creature projects at The Living Seas and agriculture reports at The Land. I can guarantee that the boys got a lot more out of those projects than anything they did in school.
We have also been sure to get all of their homework assignments early and can usually find a way to incorporate whatever they are learning into the vacation. This past May, when we went to Disney World, we were there for the soft opening of the piggy bank game at Innoventions. We were able to work math concepts into that game. My twins had been learning about recycling in their first-grade class and we played “Don’t Waste It” to help them really understand what happens to all that trash. I really do believe that real life learning is just as important (if not more important) than book learning.
I will continue to pull my children out of school for these types of events. As wonderful as it would be to do this during the summer, it is just not possible for many families. Because of the boys’ speech and language delays, they usually qualify for summer school and will be dropped from the program if they miss more than two to three days. Parent work schedules often play into this and, since summer is a very popular time for vacations, it can be difficult to book time off. Most importantly, absolutely nothing can be better than the family bonding time that occurs during a family vacation. That’s what I hope we all treasure more than anything else.
MousePlanet reader Bill (who posts as Disneyland Dad on our MousePad discussion boards) and his wife live in Reno with their son, 12, and two daughters, 6 and 1. Bill writes:
When I received the e-mail asking if I would contribute to this topic, I looked at our travel history for the last three years. During that time, we have been gone from our home an average of 43 days each year. Some of those days may have been dual-purpose travel, for example, if I was going on a business trip and took the family along. To me that seems like a lot of travel considering we have three kids. We have a 12-year-old boy and two girls ages 6 years and 19 months. My son is actually my stepson, so when we have traveled during the school year, we often tried to plan our travel so it coincided with when he was at his dad’s house. If we had our way, we would always travel during the off-season, of course that is not always feasible.
Now that our older daughter is in first grade, we had to consider whether to curtail our traveling during the school year. We discussed this issue with her teachers (they have two teachers in first grade now, who knew) and they both said the same thing. Unless a child is having difficulties in school, parents should allow the child to travel as much as possible. It is a learning experience that can’t be duplicated in the school environment. this goes for kids through about third grade is what they said.
We always arrange to get her school work in advance and she does it while we are gone.
When we travel, we often drive and our kids have seen so many interesting places some historical and some not. Some of these places they had read about in books, and when they get to see them in person, they take on a whole new meaning. If we did not let the kids miss a few days of school to go on these trips, who knows when or even if they might have gotten a chance to see and experience the things they have.
If people ask us if they should take their child out of school for a few days or a week, we usually say yes. There are exceptions of course, but the pros far out weigh the cons, at least to us they do.
The Parenting Panel welcomes a new contributor to our column: Jenny is an at-home mom and former theme park employee (not Disney). She has two kids, 4 1/2 and 3, who have visited Disneyland once a month since they were just weeks old. Jenny posts on MousePad as KoalaGurl.
Yes, I would take my kids out of school for a vacation. My children are not in school yet, but growing up, my parents did not hesitate to take my sister and I out of school for family vacations. I personally find nothing wrong with children missing school to spend time with the family, especially in a time when family seems to be losing priority. Glimpsing a future with the kids and their rapidly increasing time commitments to sports and other activities, it is important to keep family front and center. If that means missing school for family time, I support it. Already at the age of 4, my daughter is on a competitive cheer team. She loves it, but the evening/weekend practices and weekend competitions are eating into our family time. I can only imagine what is to come when our son is plays competitive sports. I don’t mean to imply that sports are more important than school, but missing a week of either isn’t going to have a long term affect on my children. That said I wouldn’t just pull the kids out of school without trying to do so in the best manner possible.
For us, traveling “off-peak” is not only more economical, but more relaxing. Of course I say this with the Disney parks in mind. I try to visit the park during the week, and have no hesitation to pull the kids out of preschool for a day. As the kids enter kindergarten and progress, we probably can’t keep our Disney trips to once a month, but I will still probably plan a day during the school week to take the family to Disneyland. We also like to cruise as a family, and I prefer to do that in the “off season” primarily for the lack of crowds and reduced fares.
As long as the parent is responsible about missing class and trying to minimize the impact on schooling, parents should be able to plan trips during the off-season. Speaking with the teachers and/or administrators, and developing a plan to make up any missed lessons, schoolwork, or tests would be my priority before going on a vacation.
It’s your turn—keep the discussion flowing!
Visit the Parenting on the Parks section of our MousePad discussion board, and share your best tips for what you bring when you’re at the Disney theme parks (link), or send your suggestions via e-mail (link). Reader-submitted tips might be used in a future article, and you might be selected to participate in an upcoming panel discussion!
Next time: How young is too young to take to a Disney theme park or on a Disney vacation?
