Were you able to join in on this past Monday's Travel talk with TravelingMom blogger's and many other great twitter friends?  The topic was "Educational Travel" and one question really got me thinking about why I travel with my children, and as they get older, how will I handle taking off school time?

My daughter just went through her first year of Elementary school. Luckily for our travels she was on a three day class schedule.  Having Friday's off was helpful for our weekend camping trips.  But even still we ended up taking her to Washington D.C. in January and Maui in March.  Her teacher was ok with the time out from class, but as I looked at her mid-year report card I noticed the "excused absent days" listed front and center. Will these missed days of school affect her in the future? Will other teachers look down upon our family vacation time? 

I thought of the fact that we learn so much while we are traveling.  From visiting museums to learning to ride public transportation and many other important social life skills.  On the other hand I want my daughter to know that being excused from school is a privilege and not something we do just because we can. 

I prefer to travel when others don't! Spring Break, Winter break...you won't see me leaving far from the house.  The added traffic in my City alone drives me nuts, let alone attempting a flight across the border.  So using those off times the kids are "allowed" to have doesn't work for our family. 

Have you traveled with your family often during school days? Do you find it has effected your child's education or maybe even the way the teachers treat your child? Unfortunately I worry that some teachers will not agree with our traveling and use it against giving my children the same treatment as another student who has never missed a day of school.  My parents raised me as one of those kids who received the "perfect attendance" award each year, sending me to school every day, unless I appeared to be on my death bed.  They are very against the idea of us taking the kids out of school for vacation. 

So now as if I don't have enough of my families input on the subject...what are your thoughts?  Love to hear them, good, bad, they all are appreciated!