Welcome to another edition of Flying With Your Kids. Today we will be tackling the topics of: nine hours without screens; drugs -- good or bad?; letting strangers manage your child; and the classic -- who cares what people think?

As a mom who flies abroad with three kids I am so happy that each seat has it's own TV screen complete with movies and TV shows. Remember flying in the old days? When there was only one TV screen for the cabin and if you were shorter than the chair in front of you, you couldn't see the screen. I am so glad those planes have ended up in storage. So, imagine my surprise when we walked on the plane for our flight to Barcelona last summer: a nine-hour flight to Barcelona? One of the old planes, no personal entertainment, and worse, no plugs to charge dead entertainment units.

I have two kids in French Immersion but I have always had an uneasy feeling about the program. I think the classroom time is often boring, the lessons are full of rote learning and the curriculum does not allow for any creative, tangential learning.

This is not always true, of course. But overall the time it takes to teach kids a second language eats up the time that can be used for more fun methods of teaching. For instance, in kindergarten and grade one, the teachers are busy teaching the kids the alphabet and how to count, they are teaching the word chat for cat, instead of teaching them that cats are nocturnal, and have bumpy tongues to sip milk, and are disdainful of their owners.

Heather Greenwood Davis is a travel writer who made a radical decision to take her kids out of school and travel the world for a year. They left last week and are making their way across Canada and onwards to the rest of the world. She is making sure that her kids learn a lot while they are away, but none of it will be from textbooks. Here is what she had to say about her decision to pull her eight and six year old out of school and take them on the voyage of a lifetime.

Guest Post: Around the World in 365 Days

It was the easiest decision I ever had to make.

I’m taking my kids out of school for a full year. Next September, while their friends are learning long division, fractions, cursive writing and Canadian history, my kids (Ethan, 8 and Cameron, 6) will be wandering the planet with my husband Ish and I.

Just us: Two parents, two kids, 6 continents and more than 20 countries over the course of one full year.

I just got back from a week away with my sister and mother (I know you didn't miss me at all). It was interesting to be on a trip as a daughter instead of a mother. No meals to fuss over, no bedtime to worry about (besides my own); no forced play or breaking up fights (well, not many). Instead, someone asked me if I was having a good time and asked me if I was hungry.

I didn't miss my kids at all. That's right, I didn't miss them. Six nights and seven days of narcissistic bliss. I have been away before and missed them. I found the first night to be the worst and then it would get better, but I would sit expectantly on the plane as I returned, imagining their little faces and their kisses.

It's the time of year when it is easy to get very jealous. Every time I talk to someone they are off buying sunscreen and bathing suits or scouring the stores for flip-flops. It's March Break and people are heading south.

But why? Travelling during March Break means line-ups, crowds and inflated prices, while going away in February or April means better selection and lower costs. And yet the majority of people choose to go away for this one week a year because it is a school break. Why are parents so afraid of pulling their kids out of school for one week?

It seems to me that the real business of parenting is creating memories for our kids to build on. It's also about creating good human beings but good memories are a good starting place. It's not an easy job because it seems that we are wired to remember only the bad stuff -- one exception may be family vacations.

From restaurants to airplanes: Seems that most people (or at least the over 400 of you who commented) think it is just fine to ban babies and kids from restaurants.

How about airplanes? Would you like to see child-free flights or at least a family section of the airplane?

It seems crazy --  taking three kids to a big city for a vacation. I always worry before an urban vacation: will there be enough to do? Will it be overwhelming? How will we get around? And will it be relaxing?

Other than the relaxing part, I shouldn’t worry. Every time we take kids to a big city we have a great time. Because kids and cities have some things in common. They are busy, loud and filled with excitement.

Last summer we went to Paris and last week  we went to New York and I have learned some things in our travels:

Are you all packed up and ready to go on a March Break vacation? It’s not really a vacation if the kids are along – it’s a trip. A probably worthwhile, hopefully restful, possibly educational trip. A trip with the kids involves lots of pre-planning and pre-packing. Even I, procrastinator extraordinaire, will obsess and work on the tiniest details before boarding a plane.

My husband, being the anal-but-lovable guy that he is, has very strict requirements for when the five of us travel: only two suitcases and the kids have to be able to handle their own carry-ons. His logic (and he’s not wrong) is that since he has to carry everything, it has to be manageable for one person. I have gotten the packing down to a bare minimum but it takes many days of weeding and culling until I can cram it all into the two suitcases. A point of pride: when we went away skiing, my family of five had less luggage then my mother and step-dad.

We just got back form the happiest place on earth, if you are under the age of 15 and live north of the border, that is. Yes, Great Wolf Lodge. For the unintiated Great Wolf Lodge is an indoor waterpark/hotel in Niagara Falls (and 11 other locations in the U.S.).  It is nirvana for the kids.

Waterslides? check

Talking trees and animatronic animals? check

Bunk beds with its own TV? check

Overly nice service by people who use the word wolf in every greeting? check

Kids in pajamas at mealtimes? check

Arcade with tickets and redeemable prizes? check

Junk food? double check

No rules? triple check

A fake log cabin on steroids with terrible food and waterslides would never have been my idea of fun in the pre-kid universe,but it is a great weekend because the kids are so deliriously happy. By the way, Great Wolf did not sponsor my trip and in no way gave me any SWAG.