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Old 07-03-2019, 06:16 AM
 
Location: NJ
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We are planning on traveling a lot in the next few years with my son. He is now 4 and will travel overseas for the first time next year. (we are going on a cruise to mexico in nov this year but that's not really overseas travel). Scotland first, then hopefully Iceland, Germany, England, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Peru over the next few years. We want to continue this travel through his school years, going further and more daring locations as he gets older.


I think that a week/ week and half abroad is well worth its educational value and therefore I don't feel guilty taking him out of school in the spring or around the holidays to travel.


Do you think that educational traveling is worth more than sitting in a class room?
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Old 07-03-2019, 06:41 AM
 
Location: North America
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LO28SWM View Post
We are planning on traveling a lot in the next few years with my son. He is now 4 and will travel overseas for the first time next year. (we are going on a cruise to mexico in nov this year but that's not really overseas travel). Scotland first, then hopefully Iceland, Germany, England, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Peru over the next few years. We want to continue this travel through his school years, going further and more daring locations as he gets older.

I think that a week/ week and half abroad is well worth its educational value and therefore I don't feel guilty taking him out of school in the spring or around the holidays to travel.

Do you think that educational traveling is worth more than sitting in a class room?
Given all the scheduled time off during a school year - summer, spring break, Christmas break - there shouldn't be any reason for missing weeks of school. Just do your globe-trotting when school is out.
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Old 07-03-2019, 06:45 AM
 
Location: NJ
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 2x3x29x41 View Post
Given all the scheduled time off during a school year - summer, spring break, Christmas break - there shouldn't be any reason for missing weeks of school. Just do your globe-trotting when school is out.
Travel during those times is often much more expensive and crowded, as well as sometimes inconvenient (such as a large family and traveling at Christmas isn't necessarily feasible)


I don't want to be validated in my decision, I just wanted to open a discussion about educational value of travel vs being in school for the same time. Obviously its easier in elementary than high school and I wouldn't schedule travel during testing or test prep or important school things.
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Old 07-03-2019, 06:53 AM
 
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It doesn't matter what we think, what matters is how flexible the school administration is. We traveled during the school term often when our kids were elementary age, and never had any problem doing so. It gradually became harder to get those absences excused as they reached middle school, in high school we rarely traveled during the school year. Not only was the administration strict about enforcing the rules, but the kids also didn't want to miss a lot of classwork that would have to be made up.

You would likely find more support in a private school setting than public. But, for the record, I do see the value of traveling as part of a well-rounded education.
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Old 07-03-2019, 07:07 AM
 
Location: NJ
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Originally Posted by Mattie View Post
It doesn't matter what we think, what matters is how flexible the school administration is. We traveled during the school term often when our kids were elementary age, and never had any problem doing so. It gradually became harder to get those absences excused as they reached middle school, in high school we rarely traveled during the school year. Not only was the administration strict about enforcing the rules, but the kids also didn't want to miss a lot of classwork that would have to be made up.

You would likely find more support in a private school setting than public. But, for the record, I do see the value of traveling as part of a well-rounded education.
I remember when I was in school (surely things have changed since then!) some kids took time off to go on trips abroad and they wrote reports applying what they saw to a few different subjects, such as history of a place or notable authors and their writing or scientific advances which would act in lieu of some of the school work. And we would ask for any work we could take with us, airplanes are a lot of downtime. was any of that an option when your kids were in higher grades?
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Old 07-03-2019, 07:14 AM
 
Location: Brew City
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We do the same thing. I don't feel one twinge of guilt. They experience so much when we visit new places. They learn a lot more than they could reading about foreign places in a textbook. It's one thing to remember names and dates, it's another to taste the food, feel the climate, hear the language, see the sights, walk the streets, see the creatures, feel the ocean, etc.

We try to limit it to less than 10 days over the course of the school year and do our best to combine it with built-in days off. That includes reserve sick days. Last year we left on Thanksgiving Day and were gone the entire following week. They were off school for two days the first week and one the next so they only missed four days.

Our kids are only 8 and 9 and we haven't run into any issues yet. It's fairly common in our school district and the neighboring district to have kids traveling abroad throughout the year.
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Old 07-03-2019, 07:26 AM
 
Location: Brentwood, Tennessee
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LO28SWM View Post

Do you think that educational traveling is worth more than sitting in a class room?
No, I don't think it's worth more than classroom study.

It's one part of being a well-rounded person.
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Old 07-03-2019, 08:02 AM
 
Location: Boston, MA
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Only you know your child's ability to work independently and make up any missed work. This is a question that no two people are going to agree on because every child's needs are different.

There are plenty of breaks but if it's too expensive and you can't afford it, then don't go. The entire world isn't on the same schedule, so to say "spring break is expensive" is an invalid argument. Costs change among seasons, but generally speaking a student gets a break in each season, so I'm not understanding your logic.

Perhaps if you posted what you actually intend to do then people can give their opinion on whether the child will actually learn something of value. If your intention is to expose the child to other cultures then what's wrong with a "study abroad" program when the child is at a mature enough age to absorb what they're seeing/doing/learning?
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Old 07-03-2019, 08:23 AM
 
Location: NJ
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BoSox 15 View Post
Only you know your child's ability to work independently and make up any missed work. This is a question that no two people are going to agree on because every child's needs are different.

There are plenty of breaks but if it's too expensive and you can't afford it, then don't go. The entire world isn't on the same schedule, so to say "spring break is expensive" is an invalid argument. Costs change among seasons, but generally speaking a student gets a break in each season, so I'm not understanding your logic.

Perhaps if you posted what you actually intend to do then people can give their opinion on whether the child will actually learn something of value. If your intention is to expose the child to other cultures then what's wrong with a "study abroad" program when the child is at a mature enough age to absorb what they're seeing/doing/learning?
I wasn't trying to get feedback on my child or what im doing specifically, just wanted to get some different opinions from different parents on how they feel about missing school for travel experiences. I know whether or not what Im doing is of value to my child, that's not an issue. But you are correct in the part about knowing if my child can study independently which is obviously something I will learn as my child grows and adjust accordingly. Also the week before and after easter is generally considered the spring holiday so tickets cost more and accomodations can be limited especially in places where Christianity is a large part of the population. Christmas is not a travelable holiday for us. Summer is hot and crowded in almost all of Europe, and where it isn't hot its definitely crowded.
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Old 07-03-2019, 08:47 AM
 
Location: Northern Virginia
407 posts, read 366,959 times
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I don't know that I'd say that "educational" travel is worth more than sitting in a classroom, mainly because the majority of travel isn't inherently educational. Splitting hairs, I suppose, but I think of it more a cultural experience vs. education.

In regards to missing school, I'm not opposed to it. But I don't think that saying "it's more educational" than school is a reason I'd use to justify it. When kids are younger, the information they're missing in school is a bit easier to make-up. On the flip side to that, the younger kids aren't going to appreciate most educational-type things you'd do on these trips. They might enjoy touring the Louvre for a little bit, but would likely get bored pretty quickly. As kids get older, the information they miss in school becomes more in-depth and requires more time & dedication to make-up. But they're getting to an age where they'd appreciate more of the educational items while traveling.
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