taking child out of school

thanks for all you input we have decided to go in late July and back early September so only two days will be missed. your comments were very helpful.

There has been some pretty strong opinions here so I'd like to contribute our experience.
Child one in 3rd class, child two in 1st class, child three in pre-school.

We took then out a week before the Easter Holidays and brought them back two days after school re-opened after the Easter Holidays.
This was in consultation with the school and they had no problem, our attendance it otherwise excellent. The cost saving was considerable.
Education is not just classroom, it's also real-world, the kids saw animals they only previously saw in books, went to lots of parks with fishes, birds and whales of great variety, safari tours with elephants, rhinos, zebra, lions etc not in cages, airboat rides where we saw aligators in the wild and deer and eagles, spend a lot of time in Epcot which is an education haven, saw how our depleting oil based resources were formed and why we need to change our energy sources. Stood beside and experienced the scale of rocket ships and space shuttles and how the work.
Also had unashamed family time in Magic Kingdom etc.
When we got back we spend the following two weekends catching up on the 7 days missed and completed all homework.
Life and education is outside the classroom too, books only go so far......

Sorry, but that's just rationalising.

Taking a child out of school purely to save a few bob on flights etc is a disgrace in my view.

It shouldn't be done...either pay the full price or don't go. Foreign holidays are a luxury, not a necessity. Education is a necessity, not an option.

slave1 said:

spend a lot of time in Epcot which is an education haven

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LOL
Equating EPCOT Centre with an educational experience. Brought a smile to my face this Friday morning.

And was the Pirates of the Caribbean ride a lesson in history ?

TarfHead said:

LOL
Equating EPCOT Centre with an educational experience. Brought a smile to my face this Friday morning.

And was the Pirates of the Caribbean ride a lesson in history ?

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Pirates is in Magic Kingdom which I would classify as entertainment, anyhow I know your comment was TIC so we're fine.

@ Gekko

TarfHead said:

Taking a child out of school purely to save a few bob on flights etc is a disgrace in my view.

It shouldn't be done...either pay the full price or don't go. Foreign holidays are a luxury, not a necessity. Education is a necessity, not an option.

Click to expand...

I appreciate your opinion, but it's not a case of just saving money, it's the difference between having that particular experience or not given my financial background, it's also a reflection of temperature and humidity at different times of the year for others.

Education is great, as someone with two professional qualifications and a masters as well as four years lecturing I have put in my time behind the desk.
However when I'm interviewing people for a job we quickly get past the eductaion piece and onto what that person is like, I will be spending more time with a new member of staff on a weekly basis than with my own family, personal interests and world views then become more important.
Believe me, the real world counts more, I would rather hire and spend time with a lower qualified colleague with world views and 'street' learning than an academic who may have all the qualifications but has been stuck in college and behind books more of their life and who struggle in a work situation and are a nightmare to work with.

This is not a black or white question and answer scenario, words and phrases like 'disgrace', 'shouldn't be done' form your opionion but are a bit extreme in my opinion.
I came to add some balance to the OP so hope some benefit was gained.

Fair enough.

The whole thing smacks of people's misplaced sense of entitlement though.

Nobody has a "right" to foreign holidays. If you can't afford them, then don't go on them (rather than manufacturing a situation where you can afford them by whipping your child out of school).

Just make sure that you prepare all the schoolbooks, uniform ( maybe shoes ) in June. There's a fair bit of organising for going back to school. I find it easier to have that done well in advance.

A child in my senior infant class was on holidays for 6 weeks in Nov/Dec.I couldn't believe how this impacted on his learning. I spoke with his sister's teacher and she felt the same. It was tough on them coming back just before Christmas and being on stage for the Christmas play without a word of the dialogue or songs. I understand the pricing situation but think 6 weeks is a lot of time to miss. Perhaps you could tie the holiday in with the Easter holidays so that only 4 weeks of schooling would be missed. As a teacher, I appreciate it when parents ask for work covered while their child was sick. They can then cover the work when they are feeling better.