Taking a "sabbatical" from school....input please

[Bena]

Not sure where to post this, as we are a schooling family but plan on having a year of homeschooling/potentially unschooling (we'll see how it goes)...let me explain.

Both DH and I have the opportunity to work a 4/5 split cycle; meaning that you work at 75% pay for four years and get the fifth year off with pay.  We are planning on doing this and spend part or all the year traveling with DD. During this time, either unschooling or homeschooling, not decided yet. Of course, right now, this is just in the planning phase,and five years down the road seems so far away, but if we want to start the first year of this cycle this coming September, than I have to inform my work by the end of March. 

Which leads me to my questions...

Since we would take DD out of school for a year, is there a better time for this?  She is still just a toddler, so if we were to start this cycle right now, the earliest year she would miss is grade one.  It seems to me that grade one is an "easy" grade to miss, as DH and I are confident that we can teach her litteracy and numeracy skills, but from a social perspective, I'm worried that it is a important year to "settle" in a school and with a peer group...or is it?

On the other hand, we are also thinking about how she would benefit from several months of traveling.  I feel that if she is too young, she may not fully appreciate the experience, and so I'm leaning towards waiting a few more years and doing this when she is a little older, but by then I feel that maybe leaving formal school for a year would be too hard??? Or not?

  In an ideal work, we would wait and see, but, like I said before, since we have to give notice of our intentions by March, we sorta have to make a decision soon.

has anyone out there lived a similar situation?  What was your experience like?  What would you recommend? Am I overthinking this?  Is there anything I'm not thinking about? Any input would be greatly appreciated!

[pinky]

Hmm, my older daughter is 9.5 and I think that would be an ideal age.  If she were in school, she'd be in 4th grade.  Old enough to get a lot out of the travel experience, still young enough to be primarily connected with family rather than peers, no big deal academically to "miss" a year of school.

[AAK]

I would do it twice!  Let her have first grade traveling and then again in grade 6.  Seriously.  Now, I currently have a fifth grader and a second grader.  I think both would benefit.  Also, I think that I would still bring their math workbooks, and a couple other "core" items while I travelled. I would also always be reading to/with them.  We would cover other subjects through literature and experience.  

Are you planning on homeschooling the other years.  Or, would you be pulling your child out of public school for this experience.  If the latter, I would def. do it in grade one vs a later grade.  The public school goals are faily basic for first grade and you would just need to make sure she can read and add/subtract.  

Go for it!  I wish we had that opportunity, I would jump at the chance.

Amy

[ameliabedelia]

I think it would be fine.  I would definitely try to keep up with teaching addition/subtractions and reading for 1st grade.  That's really all she needs to know.  That should have her ready to jump back into the 2nd grade.

[Lisa1970]

No grade is really worth being in. I like kinder the best, because the kids are still treated like individuals usually. But by 3rd grade, they are stuck in NCLB Hell.

[mom2ponygirl]

I like pp's idea of doing it twice - that would be awesome!  If you can only do it once, I'd wait until she is older elementary so that she really remembers the experience and gets the most out of it.  Somewhere near the tween and teen years she may not want a year away from her friends.  However, such opportunities may not always stay available, I'd grab it while I could.  Then - do it again if you still can. :-)

Academically I don't think missing any grade would matter.  Around here sometimes kids get tracked into the pre-AP/AP high school track starting in 8th, so I might consider sticking around for that one.  

Of course, once you skip a year of school and see how much your kiddo grows academically without it, you may just end up homeschooling/unschooling the rest of the way. ;-)

[Brisen]

I would say one of the middle school years.  Those are years that tend to be very difficult socially & emotionally, and the school work is still relatively easy to keep up with out of school.

When I was in grade 6 or 7, one of my classmates did a similar thing.  His family went sailing for a year and homeschooled their children.  I think my classmate was the oldest of two who were fairly close in age.  I would put off big traveling like that until she is better able to enjoy and remember it.  My 6 year old went to a water park this past summer, and she's perfectly happy and excited with that.  I don't know that she would have grasped the difference between a fun day at a water park and a fun day in Paris, yk?  I guess I look at my kids and I think they and we would get a higher return on investment by waiting until closer to 11 or 12.  Maybe 9 or 10.