Yes, and one time a year vacation is not going to send them into an educational tailspin. If it would then there are deeper issues going on.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aimless
I'm kinda tickled at the OMG you can ruin your kids education responses here.
We all have to make trade-offs, and family time is certainly important. But do you really think that most children can miss 5 consecutive days of class and then easily catch up? Take an elementary-level textbook in any subject and rip out a random chapter. See if the subject still makes as much sense. Then do the same for 6 textbooks. It gets worse if the child has a poor grasp of some subject and could have used the week to better understand past material.
Yet the school seems to be okay with it.
I don't think your kids are dumb, I was just talking about a hypothetical scenario where attendance is supposed to count towards a final grade.
What do you expect the school to do? Sue you?Quote:
Originally Posted by Veldan Rath
So why are we having this discussion?
Did you go to an American public school?Quote:
Originally Posted by Loki
Without wanting to advocate truancy; your ideas of the damage are vastly overblown. I played truant for the better part of a year when I was 12, managed to trick my parents into believing that I spent my days on school and my school that there was an actual valid reason for my absence. I was a very troubled kid at the times I guess. Yet, once the truth came out an I was put under surveillance (I actually had to report at the end of every school day and show signed proof of having attended all classes) I managed to make it all the way through highschool and university with good grades. FYI I went to a very exclusive school at the time.Quote:
Originally Posted by Loki
Does that make me think it' s a good idea to take a child out of school for a couple of days at Disney? No I don't think it's a good idea to do that. Actually; I think taking a child to a Disney Park DURING OFFICIAL vacation time is a horrible idea. But lasting damage throughout that child's education because of a trip to a stupid hypercommercial overpriced park? Methinks that the damage there is done in a very different way than you try to make it out.
For 9.5 years. :noob:Quote:
Originally Posted by Lewkowski
We might have a different definition of "couple", because in my book, couple != 5. I've also cut class ~30-40 times in a year in two separate years, but I was getting As regardless. I know B students who got sick for a week and had a lot of trouble catching up, particularly in math.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hazir
So Veldan's the kind of person that fucks up my October vacations when the kids are supposed to be in school, but are instead clogging the line at Splash Mountain. Thanks a lot! :p (I was supposed to be there at the end of the month, too, but our plans fell through).
So we both agree that it depends on the abilities of the child to cope rather than on actual attendance?Quote:
Originally Posted by Loki
Parents who take their children to those parks, ask yourself these questions: did your parents take you to a theme park when you were young? Do you have any memories of having been there? There are days at the beach that I have more vivid memories of than of visits to a theme park.
Umm, my mom was dirt poor. So no, we didn't go. We never went anywhere.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hazir
The Boy, so far, has vivid memories and can't wait to show his (new) Little Brother around his stomping grounds.
As Catgirl said we are doing this off season so we are not jammed packed with the parks filled to capacity. Also, we are not spending all day at the parks, more like jst a couple of hours each day and the rest at the lazy river pool at our hotel. (Maybe a visit to Legoland squeezed in).
Jeeze Hazir, what's your beef with theme parks? Not EU sanctioned?
Has this turned into a "should those who don't work be able to afford a vacation"? Or is it taking their kids out of school for a vacation? I'm getting confused about the things the unemployed...or those using some gov't assistance....should be able to buy.
The thrust of the argument is that those on benefits should not be able to buy luxuries. Luxuries includes booze, fags, and yes holidays.Quote:
Originally Posted by GGT
I'd also include new tvs, gaming hardware/software, house upgrades, car upgrades, private school for kids, and 2nd homes.
Ghastly noisy wasteful monstrosities :mad:Quote:
Originally Posted by Veldan Rath
I thought holidays were a basic human right these days :mad:Quote:
Originally Posted by Timbuk2
Oh cool, we're getting defensive again. I can't not like theme parks or think they are stupid because you are taking your children out of school early to drag them to one.Quote:
Originally Posted by Veldan Rath
I don't need the EU to tell me that theme parks don't do anything for the developement of a child in any other way than teaching them there is no end to the junk that people will buy for too much money. But anyway buddy, drag them to Disney, because the school doesn't object it MUST be the best thing right there after white sliced bread.
Oddly enough I think vacations don't just serve to recover from work, they can also be a great way for people to get to know new places, cultures and add something to their lives. Then again that clashes with the idea - very wide spread - that it isn't a vacation if you don't spend it in a 5-star hotel. Which is something I would not want to pay for - through taxes - for people on the dole.Quote:
Originally Posted by GGT
Yep, you are.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hazir
Buddy, you asked a question, and I tried to answer it, with a little quip at the end on your touchiness on the EU, and you went an proved my point.
I'm guessing that you would be less in arms if we decided just to go to a beach all week and not drag (really?) them to a couple of theme parks as part of or vacation.
You hate theme parks, fine. Plenty people agree with you. I don't.
And a side note, The Boy's behavioral specialist (at the school) does say it's a good idea. It's NOT the reason we are taking the vacation of course, but we did discuss.
Whatever.Quote:
Originally Posted by Veldan Rath
Okay then.
Eh? What the hell is wrong with theme parks? Dragging little kids to sight see is going to bore them to tears. Why would they want to waste time not doing anything but looking around when they could be actually having fun.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hazir
only if you're a horrible parent (or dumbass) with zero experience and skills when it comes to dealing with children.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lewkowski
Grand Canyon. Interesting for a moment then... BORING. Niagra falls... ditto. Monuments in Washington also dull. To each his own but if you ask children themselves I'm confident that most will choose Mickey Mouse and rides.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ominous Gamer
Picking one over the other doesn't make one of the options something that will bore them to tears. One of the biggest parts of being a parent is knowing how to relate family experiences to their children. Including sight seeing. My kids eat up the facts we learn during road trips, they love scenic stuff like the top of stone mountain, and I still remember my trip to Mount Rushmore as a kid.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lewkowski
You can turn anything fun. Kids can play kick the can and have a ball. You could also teach kids facts at Disney, you can have family interaction anywhere. The difference is the activity. Sight seeing or rides. Sight seeing or Mickey. That's the comparison. Don't muddy the waters. Its like an argument about what's better Soccer or Basketball and one side says "well in Basketball you get to run!" You run in both games so there is no purpose in mentioning.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ominous Gamer
I think I'd have really enjoyed the Grand Canyon as a kid. I didn't care much for museums or "historical sites" though. DC would make for a much more interesting trip now than it would have then.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ominous Gamer
Thread takes another tangent. :)
I think I'd have enjoyed Grand Canyon too as a kid. Think I will enjoy it some day when I see it for the first time ... :sour:
As a kid, sightseeing was sometimes ok, sometimes a bit meh. You can only be dragged to so many grand cathedrals, decrepit castles or historic sites. Kind of agree with Lewk, interest can soon wane, despite a parent's best intentions. My folks were interested people, so we covered a lot of ground. As Fuzz says, a lot of the sites we saw would interest me far more now than they did then.
Theme parks used to annoy me when I was young, didn't particularly like them either. Hated queueing, then it's a brief ride, whoop-de-doo. Too contrived. Too formulaic. You're in someone else's world, not your own. No imagination involved for a kid. Disney would have driven me nuts then and moreso now.
I just always wanted to do things. Go on long walks in the mountains, go snorkling round the bays, go fly kites, go skiing, ride BMXs, take a boat up the river, build random things, go exploring with your friends, anything that the imagination could deliver, I wanted to do. I loved being a kid. :up:
and yet I'm confident you don't, in the slightest, see the problem here.Quote:
Originally Posted by LewkowskiDragging little kids to sight see is going to bore them to tears.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lewkowskiif you ask children themselves I'm confident that most will choose Mickey Mouse and rides.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lewkowski
I had fun in DC as a kid. Free museums, most of which were setup in a kid friendly way, the USPS and its bags of old stamps, the US mint and the printing machines, reaching the top of the washington monument, even the vietnam wall felt important. No doubt I'd understand it all more now than I did back then, but that goes for most things in life, including theme parks.Quote:
Originally Posted by LittleFuzzy