Should you take your kids out of elementary school for travel?

This year my son started kindergarten and one of the discussions that always came up between various groups of moms was:

“Should you take your kids out of elementary school for travel?”

So I am specifically referring to elementary school as I don’t have the experience to talk about this situation with older kids.  Recently I had to take a trip out East for some work/personal travel and it was my son’s spring break. Perfect time to take him with me.  Well my trip required me to be out of town for two weeks so my husband and I discussed it a lot as any first time kindergarten parent would:

“Should I fly back and forth and drop him back off so he won’t miss ANY school?”

“He is just in kindergarten, it shouldn’t make a difference”

“Will we be looked down upon if we do this?”

So we went back and forth for a while.  We were a bit bias as both my husband and I were brought up heavily focusing on academics and so we kept worrying he would miss out on stuff at school.

We finally decided we would just pull him out an extra week after spring break and it was one of the best choices we made!

Why?  Well we had a meeting with his teacher before we left and she gave him a few assignments that would keep him up to speed on what he missed.  This was great because even Ayven didn’t get that “I am missing out feeling.”

His school is great that they made us sign a contract with a list of work to be done as they understand the balance of school and life.  They wanted to keep the momentum of school going without making him feel bad for leaving school.

Now the part that my husband and I are learning….memories with family and friends will stay with them forever.  The amount of love, smiles, laughs and bonds they formed on those two weeks is irreplaceable.

On top of that, the extra attention both my sons got for 2 weeks felt so good.  Yes we give them attention but in our busy days between work, school, activities and just daily activities, we often times lose sight of the “having fun” part.  The part where sometimes they get to wake up a bit later and eat breakfast and watch a show.  The part where they spend the day at the park on a weekday and just enjoy the fresh air.

So to the parents who have questions about it, I say go for it, in moderation of course.  Check out your school and see what their policies are and if they don’t have anything in place, just work with their teacher so you can keep them somewhat academically engaged.