{"id":1136,"date":"2018-02-13T19:34:53","date_gmt":"2018-02-14T01:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/workationwoman.wordpress.com\/?p=1136"},"modified":"2018-06-18T22:47:35","modified_gmt":"2018-06-19T03:47:35","slug":"workationing-with-teens-in-maui-an-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/workationwoman.com\/workationing-with-teens-in-maui-an-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Workationing with Teens in Maui: An Interview!"},"content":{"rendered":"
Workation Woman readers love hearing real-life stories! You may remember my interview with a fellow workationer, Nichole<\/a>. By a strange coincidence, I\u2019ve had the pleasure of meeting another Nichole who also has worked and vacationed with her family!<\/p>\n Nichole took her first workation last year to Maui and can\u2019t wait to do it again. Her story intrigued me because her kids were in 6th<\/sup> grade, 10th<\/sup> grade and 12th<\/sup> grade at the time, plus involved in sports and extra curriculars. How did she pull them out of school? Did she have to convince the kids to go? What did their daily routine look like?<\/p>\n Read on to learn her family\u2019s story\u2026<\/p>\n How did you first get the idea for a workation? What do you and your husband do for work? Why did you choose Maui for a workation? The other reason we picked Maui is because we\u2019d been there before and fell in love with it \u2013 and we still had a long list of things we wanted to do and see there!\u00a0 We decided to go for eight weeks, from February through March.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s talk about the big factor that weighs on people\u2019s minds: Pulling kids out of school. Did you hesitate to pull your three kids out of school for two months? There was only 100% excitement from our kids. We love to travel and be outdoors in warmer weather. My oldest was a senior in high school and he even knew that this would be an epic experience!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n How did you start the conversation with the school? What was their reaction? My oldest son was already doing school part-time online and part-time in the classroom. So we made the decision to have both boys (who were in 10th<\/sup> and 12th<\/sup> grades) to go online completely. The school suggested that my husband homeschool our daughter (in 6th<\/sup> grade at the time) for more flexibility.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I will never forget when principal said to me, \u201cEven if you don\u2019t teach them anything, they will still learn more on this trip than they could at school in two months.\u201d<\/p>\n How did the kids prepare to leave school for two months? My daughter\u2019s teachers discussed a few of her textbooks with us and told us how far they expected to get in those classes while we were away. Music was not mandatory, but we were responsible for science (marine biology is everywhere in Maui!) and gym (again, really fun in Maui!). Homeschooling was very time-effective and efficient.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I live in Minnesota and dislike the winters here. I\u2019ve joked over the last few years that someday I was going to skip winter\u2026then it hit me that I needed to really do this before my kids got too old!<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I have two businesses<\/a>: I own a travel agency and I work with a network marketing company out of my home. My husband owns a concrete company, so they do not work much in the winter and he was able to work remotely.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I wanted to stay in the U.S., mainly for medical insurance reasons and because it would be easier to run my businesses. I also selected it for the weather; I knew the ocean water would be warm (which would not be the case in Florida or California).<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I did not hesitate for a moment. My boys snowboard for fun and my daughter plays Junior Olympics volleyball, so she only competed for half of a season. The school was very supportive and I knew what they would gain so much more in family time and new experiences! That would out-weigh the missed sports and classroom time.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I started the conversation very far in advance \u2013 more than a year before we traveled. Once I knew this trip was a real possibility, I asked for a meeting with the kids\u2019 school counselors first. We discussed the best timelines for the trip, so that their school work wouldn\u2019t be extremely disrupted. The counselors recommended that I pull them out for an entire quarter, rather than having them miss a part of two different quarters.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>With the boys, we worked for a year in advance with their counselors to plan out their online classes. We selected photography and gym intentionally, due to the destination!<\/p>\n