What do you do about holidays and school if you love traveling

[raininthenightgarden]

DS will start school in a few years so I'm trying to work out what we will do about holidays. I love traveling - it's the most important thing to me outside of family/ work etc so it's what I spend my money on. But obviously school holidays mean that our only opportunity for long haul will be August. SE Asia won't be good because of heat / rainy season, Europe and US probably too hot.

Anyone have any advice on good places to go?

Not popular I know but take them anyway if need be. The fact is travel offers more of an education than a lot of regular school life, so, of course if possible go in school hols, if not so be it.

You can still do long haul over Easter and Christmas - both two week holidays.

Home school

I go in school holidays of course. It also makes it much more expensive unfortunately.

I have to confess to taking DS travelling in school time more than once. Usually go around half term, so we can do two weeks and he only misses a week of school. He has certainly learned a lot from it and still does well at school

DDS are now 18&19 and we took them out for a few months. It was so good we ended up taking them out for the next 5 years.
They went back into full time school at about 14. Best thing imaginable. We too love traveling

I subscribe to easyjet emails and the minute flights are released, I book. Same with Premier Inn for UK city breaks. Managed to get flights to a southern spanish destination feb half term for £30 pp return, for example. Also, keep an eye on Skyscanner. I input the trip I want and check it daily. When prices start to fall I book straight away.

You also have to play around with dates and days, eg I got an amazing dal for next easter to a long haul destination incl internal flights for £560 pp, but we arrive back on good friday. If I included easter weekend it added £200 per person to the price. If you x4 that, it adds up!!

We rarely travel in Aug, local camping is the most i will consider. Do big trips easter and Oct. We also never do all inc, usually airbnb or a cottage and shop from local supermarkets/self cater, hire a car and drive around and explore. It depends what kind of holiday you like I guess.

I take them out in term time. It's fine as long as it's not excessive.

And never holiday in August. Crowds of people and endless queues to even buy so much as a pasty? No thanks.

Inthink it's important to see the world but it's also important to consider your child and education. Early on a few days away regularly isn't an issue really but as they get older your priorities may need to wait.

I'd be a bit careful with places like Asia particularly if you're going off the beaten track as they'll have a limited immune system Compared to you, a friend had returned from Sri Lanka a year or two ago with their young child who contracted a serious infection out there - it was a very scary time, was in hospital for quite some time, but all ok now

We did Canada last year and Sri Lanka this year. I would highly recommend both.

Once they are past the baby stage southern Europe is fine as long as you take a siesta. Also mountains are cooler so add in some higher altitude holidays. Our holidays usually extend beyond most European ones so middle to end of August is cheaper.

Southern African countries in August.
Iceland.
Scandinavia.

Mauritius / Indian Ocean countries in August. ( their winter)

I wouldn’t do Mauritius later than end June. Very little time difference so totally doable for half term. The best time for South Africa is April. Also almost no time difference and overnigt flights (if you go direct) so you lose very lityle of your holiday days to travelling. Worst of the heat is over, still green (inland) and beautiful days. August/sept/oct is cold and windy.

I'm not keen on taking out of school - but didn't realise easter break was 2 weeks, that's helpful to know. Sri Lanka, Canada and Scandinavia all excellent ideas!

We’ve been to Mauritius in August about 6 times, always been great

We've travelled/holidayed often since DD was about 3 1/2.
We often got an inset day or two tacked onto half terms which meant we could do a week to 9 nights and still be back in time to recover for school.
We often went Europe/USA/Canada last two weeks/10days of summer holidays which occasionally were mostly beginning of September.
Caribbean/ long haul Easter or February half term.
Cruises/City breaks- anytime.

We have visited the following in August
West coast of Canada
Bali and Java - hot, but not wet
Hoi An and Hue in Vietnam - also hot but not wet.
Western Australia - north of WA is dry then
Melbourne - cool weather but still had a great time
NZ - north island
Sweden and Finland
Netherlands

I used to take the kids out of primary school for two weeks of term every year. I checked with the head first, and she laughed and said it would give the other kids a chance to catch up! Holidays were very educational - trying new languages and food, seeing Greek and Roman ruins, going to church services in different countries, etc.
I think nowadays there might be fines for doing this, but if you can afford long haul you can presumably afford to pay a fine as well?

I love travelling...can I take my kids out of school whenever I want so I can go? Oh no, funnily enough I can't because I TEACH! And most of the time before and after holidays having to spend my time teaching diminished classes because parents are selfish gits who take their kids on early holiday and then whinge incessantly because their kid isn't at the same level as the rest of the kids in the class.
I'll give you a hint, instill a sense of discipline in your kids about why it is important to attend school and they will do a lot better.
Also, all this rubbish about educational trips, how on earth can you as a parent expect to be able to replace the specialist knowledge I have from 15 years of teaching, a degree and a masters in my subjects? Can you contextualise the impact of Greek and Roman society on early Christian beliefs, how the Jewish population at the time was affected and why Luke's Gospel is written in Koine Greek rather than the Hebrew that Matthew's Gospel is written in? Then could you explain why the Cold War was fought over in Korea and Vietnam, domino theory and the effect of Marxist communism around the world versus capitalism? I can, and then have an in depth discussion comparing the religious architecture of a temple versus a mosque, church or mandir and how these things reflect the everyday life of the believer and then whether non-belief is on the rise in post modernist societies as opposed to so called 'second world' countries. (My eldest is 11 and would be able to at least give you a basic answer to these questions...)
Though to be honest most of the time I go sod it all and sit by a pool for two weeks reading books as my brain needs to switch off.

Basically, you'll have two choices:

1. Go away in holidays, and deal with the restrictions this will create re. rainy season / busy / more expensive etc. Deal with the fact that your child may miss out on some learning/ activities in school while you've been away.

1. Take child(ren) out of school and pay the fine for doing so. Deal with the fact that the school might get a bit pissed off with you for doing so as it is likely to create extra work for your child's teachers in terms of catching up with topics missed, and extra work for admin staff in terms of filling in the various forms about your child's unauthorised absence for the council to then issue the fine.

That's it.

Dead head that is funny!

I think most people just think it’s good to experience another culture.

I would love to take my kids on the type of holidays I like but I’m not brave enough (they are 3 and 1) hopefully at some point it will seem worth it?!

I currently find France and Spain hard work :)

I used to take the kids out of primary school for two weeks of term every year. I checked with the head first, and she laughed and said it would give the other kids a chance to catch up!

christ

There is so much to see in Europe.

We live in a country where its always been illegal to take kids out of school (it's phrased as denying children their right to schooling - home schooling is illegal too). Here school age children on a passport from this country are stopped at immigration / passport control if they try to leave via air or sea during term time and have to provide a letter from school outlining the exceptional circumstances necessitating travel. Fines for taking children out of school unnecessarily are multiple times higher than in England.

We still travel lots - this year we've been out of the country we live in on two family holidays, and one city break, and dc1 has been on an additional foreign holiday with a grandparent.

Your child will have somewhere between 11 and 13 weeks of holiday every year, plus a few bank holiday weekends.

There are so many very varied destinations you can get to from a UK airport short haul. Europe isn't universally "too hot" in summer any more than the UK - try northern Europe in summer and southern Europe in the May and October half terms or over Christmas.

It'd be a real challenge to see everything Europe has to offer over the next 12 years...