Making time for a vacation
By maximax8
@maximax8 (31046)
United Kingdom
January 21, 2013 7:34am CST
Today I went to speak to my son's head teacher. At the end of our conversation I asked how she feels about vacations in term time. She said that it is possible to approve it in the summer term but not otherwise. I realize I was very lucky to get the 10 days approved last academic year in March and April. I used the Easter holidays to get the 28 day trip last academic year. We went to Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Uruguay. It was wonderful for us to visit our dear friend that lives in Chile in 2012.
I am going to use the half term in May and June 2013 and team it with 9 days of term time. I would like to take my two young children on a trip by train from England to Ukraine and Moldova. If the head teacher doesn't approve that I will have another go at asking for 10 days of term time to be mixed with the beginning of the summer holidays. Should that not work friends and family would be annoyed if we are out of the country in August.
How do you make time for a vacation?
Which was your longest and shortest vacations?
1 person likes this
11 responses
@mariaperalta (19073)
• Mexico
21 Jan 13
I think vacations are great. especailly for children. We all need a change in routine, and vacations are a great way to get this.
@maximax8 (31046)
• United Kingdom
21 Jan 13
Thanks for your superb response. Children love to travel to pleasant places. Yes, a change in routine can be very exciting. I love to bring back some photos and souvenirs like a costume doll, some coins and some postcards. I adore the happy vacations that I go on.
@teotimoponcerosacena (1552)
• Philippines
21 Jan 13
Having vacation with the family is the best for me. But be sure you have your time to enjoy and be sure you will not incurred problems after your vacation for you to fully enjoy. Your plan is exciting if you will have the luxury of time, why not go and enjoy.
@maximax8 (31046)
• United Kingdom
21 Jan 13
Thanks for your lovely response. I try to pick the best time that means when the weather is warm but it is before or after the busy peak season. I love the idea of Eastern Europe in May and June. It would be too cold in February, March or too busy in August.
I like January to March for trips to the Southern Hemisphere. In 2009 I went to South Africa in January, in 2010 I went to Vancouver in June, in 2011 I went to Colombia in January and in 2012 I went to South America in March.
@sylvia13 (1850)
• Nelson Bay, Australia
5 Feb 13
The fact that you are visiting interesting places like Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Uruguay, sure makes it worthwhile to take your children along, as it is a great opportunity for them to experience! Our vacations are not usually very long, but still, we like to take our children along, even if they have to travel taking their homework notebooks with them!!
@youless (112481)
• Guangzhou, China
25 Jan 13
Your son's teacher is very considerate. Here I think it is nearly impossible to take a vacation because of having a travel. The teacher will think that it is unbelievable because your child's study time will not be enough. Here the most common reason to take a day off is feeling sick. But usually it just lasts about few days. So you can see here the study pressure is heavy. I can only have a travel with my son in his summer vacation which it is in July and August. But since I have about 7 days off work, so I can't take him to have a travel for a very long time.
@jirojoyman (458)
• Indonesia
21 Jan 13
wow i'v been wondering if i can have a nice vacation like you, my longest vacation it's only for a week. i remember that when i was a young boy and i go to bali island with my family and i relly enjoyed this vacation.but if you ask me about my shortest vacation i think it's only one night
@olivia2013lovelife (65)
• China
25 Jan 13
dear, you seem quite lucky for your vacation and realize your dream to travel. Actually for us , daily work makes us unable to get long time vacation except for national holidays or spring festivals, but these holidays, almost all the Chinese will go outside to have fun , the traffic jam is always what you see during the holidays, i feel quite frustred about this. so maybe asking leave for several days maybe more practical, i suppose.
@wolfie34 (26771)
• United Kingdom
21 Jan 13
They are not very flexible are they my friend about taking time off out of term time. The trouble is as you well know it going on vacation during school holidays is more expensive as it's the peak period, going out of season means taking your child/children out of school which is heavily frowned on nowadays and yet the holiday prices are much more reasonable. The longest vacation I had was 2 weeks, the shortest was a long weekend in Prague.
@dawnald (85146)
• Shingle Springs, California
21 Jan 13
Longes vacation, 9 week honeymoon to Europe, shortest (not counting weekend trips) probably a 5 day trip to Savannah, Georgia that was over a weekend, so it only took 3 work days.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
21 Jan 13
Unfortunately, our family hasn't had the opportunity to take a vacation for many years because of finances. However, when we do take vacations, this is typically something that we do during the summer. The reason that we've always taken our vacations during the summer is because of the fact that the children are off school and also because of the fact that the weather is the most likely to cooperate with us during the summer than it would be to cooperate during the winter months.
@bounce58 (17387)
• Canada
21 Jan 13
My 12-year old son goes to school with a friend of ours who's from the same hometown as us. I remember them going home in October for a couple of weeks, and their teacher gave them a hard time approving the vacation.
We went home last month so when it was time for me to ask for approval, I thought I'd be given a hard time too. But since it was last couple of school weeks in December, the teacher approved it right away because she said that except for the Christmas plays that they had to practice, there wasn't anything much for them to do in school.
So, it really depends on when you make time for vacations.
