Pulling my kids out of school to travel: Would you?

True confession time - when my son was first born, I made several vows:

• I will not allow my kids to use pacifiers.
• I will not allow my kids to leave the house with runny noses.
• I will not pull my kids out of school to travel.
  

and on, and on. Well, as it turns out, my husband does not feel the same way, and slowly, I am beginning to see the benefits of missing school to travel with our family. The Wall Street Journal Online posted an interesting piece about pulling your kids out of school to travel. I was especially intrigued with the comments about additional work for the teachers and some state's decisions to limit the amount of absences from school. And while I certainly would not advocate pulling them out all the time, I think we have done ok with our trips so far. Also, I think the decision is up to us, based on what we know about our children, how they are doing in school, and what the pros/cons will be for missing school. For example, we decided to leave a day early for our winter holiday trip in December. My son pointed out that he missed an all important, in-class viewing of "Polar Express". In January, we plan to pull both kids out of school for a trip to visit my great aunt, who will be turning 93. And in March, we will leave for spring break 2 days early, which will allow us to see the Louvre, the London Bridge and take the Eurostar through the Chunnel. So far, I am not worried about my kids in class educational experiences, as I think the experiences we will have together as a family, traveling to new places, will be education in itself.

What do you think? Would you take your kids out of school to travel? Why or why not?

Cross-posted at Kango

Wordless Wednesday: Hello, can you hear me now?

Quote of the Day

seen on a delivery truck this morning while biking to work:

“A good cook is like a sorceress who dispenses happiness.” Elsa Schiaparelli, 1896-1973

Whines and link love

I just got home from work, picked up the kids and was going to come home and start whining about my day. Work was hard; the wind is blowing something fierce and commuting by bike was hard; I didn't like the lunch I brought from home; summer is over; did I already say that work was hard? In any case, I was prepared to whine my way through the evening, until I got home and read my blog.

There were actual comments on my blog! Real people visited and commented on my picture for Wordless Wednesday. I am so excited that I will throw a little link love their way:

Glennia at The Silent i
Sandee from Comedy +
Nicki from They're All Our Children
and Not Afraid to Use It

Thank you, it is possible you made my day :-)

Wordless Wednesday: Water fountains

Water fountain in Southern California, August 2007

Where do babies come from?

Miss A's current favorite book is the Merck Manual of Medical Information. She was thumbing through it this afternoon while we were doing her homework (read: parent work). She found a picture of a baby being born and asked "is that what it looks like when the baby comes out of your mouth?". What? She said the picture looked like a mouth. So I asked her where she thought babies came out of and she said "your butt". She was shocked to learn that is the not the exit either!

Chocolate, Parisian-style

We are going to Paris next year, I can hardly wait! I told my French friend Thierry about my trip today, and he asked what our plans were. I told him I had nothing much in mind, except, that every day I would eat a chocolate croissant. He thought this was a fine plan and sent me a couple suggestions:

Clotilde Dusoulier from Chocolate & Zucchini wrote about L'Etoile d'Or. Her account made me breathless with anticipation. Can you imagine a shop keeper in France inviting you to come back any time and stay as long as you want? I only hope that is true when I show up with my 5 and 7 year olds!

Thierry also sent two recommendations for shops with lovely confections and cakes and pastries. Laduree has beautiful Millefeuille and Saint Honore cakes. These are the kind that I would definitely want to squirrel away from my kids and eat alone! Lenotre seems to be in several different culinary arenas - bakeries and confectioneries, gourmet stores, prepared foods, champagne and wine, etc. The website is all in French, but they include pictures which helps a lot. Yumm, salivating already!