{"id":4735,"date":"2018-02-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-03T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wotif.com\/vc\/blog\/?p=4735"},"modified":"2020-04-02T05:34:54","modified_gmt":"2020-04-01T19:34:54","slug":"kids-out-of-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wotif.com\/vc\/blog\/family\/real-travel-stories\/kids-out-of-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Should you take your kids out of school for a holiday?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Most families contemplate it, but as a responsible parent, is it wise to pull your children out of school to go on holidays? My answer is yes! As a mother of two primary-school-aged children, here are the reasons why I do it, and my tips for how to do it responsibly.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/images.trvl-media.com\/media\/content\/expaus\/wotif\/ads\/2018\/wotif-insider\/kids-out\/anz_16540_600px_1.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Why you should do it:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It\u2019s so much better for the family budget &#8211; and all you parents out there know it. In fact, nearly two thirds (63%) of parents would rather take their kids out of school than travel during the expensive school holidays*<\/li>\n<li>Travel is rich learning experience \u2013 sometimes even richer than school. Your kids get to explore a new culture and see, hear, taste, and touch things they would never find in a classroom. They will come back with some amazing stories to tell their teachers and friends<\/li>\n<li>Avoiding the crowds. If you are going to popular destinations that Australians and New Zealanders love to visit, the queues will be shorter, the restaurants will be more accommodating, and you may find better discounts on activities<\/li>\n<li>Hotels and airlines tend to be more flexible during quieter periods. Upgrades, here we come!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>How to do it right:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Talk to your kids\u2019 teacher\/s about what they would otherwise have been learning while you\u2019re away, then assign some time for homework during the trip<\/li>\n<li>Have your kids keep a journal and write down their adventures every day. Let them take photos for it too. When they get back to school, they can share their stories in class \u2013 perhaps as a presentation!<\/li>\n<li>Bring out the word and math games that you can play as a family. My favourite is Bananagrams<\/li>\n<li>Check your proposed holiday dates with your kids\u2019 school before you book anything. Make sure it\u2019s not an important time \u2013 like an exam period \u2013 so they don\u2019t miss out on any critical learning activities<\/li>\n<li>If your child has learning difficulties, talk to their teacher or specialist about activities they can do while on holidays<\/li>\n<li>Depending on the age of your child (or children), I recommend going away for no more than two weeks<\/li>\n<li>And, of course, make sure to write to your child\u2019s school in advance to let them know of their future\u00a0absence<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/images.trvl-media.com\/media\/content\/expaus\/wotif\/ads\/2018\/wotif-insider\/kids-out\/anz_16540_600px_2.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Quality family time to disconnect from our busy lives and reconnect with each other is so important to a child\u2019s development. Don\u2019t ever take that learning experience for granted!<br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><a class='vw-button vw-button--green  vw-button--full-width' href='https:\/\/www.wotif.com?brandcid=WOTIF-au.display.WOTIFINSIDER.FEB-2018-OUT-OF-SCHOOL-TO-TRAVEL-BLOG.generic&#038;utm_source=WOTIFINSIDER&#038;utm_medium=display&#038;utm_content=all&#038;utm_campaign=FEB-2018-OUT-OF-SCHOOL-TO-TRAVEL-BLOG' target='_self'><i class=\"vw-icon icon-entypo-flight\"><\/i> Book your next holiday <\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>*<u>Wotif\u2019s Wot\u2019s Your Journey Report:<\/u><\/strong> The Leading Edge were engaged by Wotif to conduct research into understanding Australian travellers. The study was conducted across August to September 2017 and consisted of two components: 1. Online Community of 40 Australian travellers 2. Online Survey completed by a nationally representative sample of<br \/>\n1,036 Australians travellers (who had all travelled and stayed in paid accommodation in the last 2 years on leisure holidays). The survey was conducted online amongst members of a permission- based panel, between 23rd and 29th August 2017. After interviewing, data was weighted to the latest population estimates sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Data was weighted to National Representative proportions to reflect the age, gender and residential location of Australian travellers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most families contemplate it, but as a responsible parent, is it wise to pull your children out of school to go on holidays? My answer is yes! As a mother of two primary-school-aged children, here are the reasons why I do it, and my tips for how to do it responsibly. Why you should do &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":4737,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,760],"tags":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wotif.com\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4735"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wotif.com\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wotif.com\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wotif.com\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wotif.com\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4735"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.wotif.com\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4819,"href":"https:\/\/www.wotif.com\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4735\/revisions\/4819"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wotif.com\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wotif.com\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wotif.com\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wotif.com\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}