Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments mom field trip to skip school

Someone here reccomended the guerrilla learning book. I've been enjoying it. Thank you.

One idea, that was so WOW to me is taking a child on stimulating field trips and missing school. I would love to do this. I'm thinking once a month for DD6 and DS9. We are too busy with sports to do many nature classes/museum trips on the weekend. Has anybody done this? Were you open to the school about it? It's a bit scary to think of mentioning it to school but might be a fun way to stimulate him more.

Whenever my son misses school he usually does his makeup work for the whole day in 2 hours in one night. It feels like a lot but not a big deal.

Maybe there is a homeschool group activity or class he could get in on. Is it likely to find gifted peers in homeschool groups?

I did this with my eldest daughter for the first 2 years of school, taking each Wednesday off. If you tell the school, be prepared to respond to comments like "taking a day off during the week interrupts his/her learning"; "it causes school reluctance", "he/she forgets the rules and finds it harder to resettle"... One of the valid points they may make is that if your child always misses one day of school then they may miss out on art/french/music or whatever lesson is only made available on that day.

I found it caused some confusion among parents/teachers about why I would want to pay for full time school fees and then not want to take advantage of school on a full time basis, etc.

But if you're only thinking about doing this once a month, I would just call it a mental health day. And if you can be flexible about days, then choosing a mental health day spontaneously and as the need arises means that you'll all get the most benefit out of it.

The only thing to consider is that it gets harder and harder to spend quality 1 on 1 time with each child. Why not treat each child to a whole day pursuing one of their own passions - a zoo exploration with one child and a science field trip with another???

Makes for some wonderful memories. I say go for it!

jojo

Ooh I like this idea! Thanks!