Also, time of year matters. If you talking about the last week of school in June where minimal learning is happening, that's probably not much to worry about. But other times will be problematic.

I would also caveat, that having your ES kid miss or a day or two of school because of vacation travel is probably minimally harmful. But having your kid miss a whole week of school is not something you should be comfortable with. That's a lot of content to miss and catch up on.

ES I think it's fine. MS and HS, not so much.

That said, don't be the person that pulls their kids out and expects the teacher to spend extra time to give work ahead of time or catch the kids up afterwards.

You should not play these games in MS and HS. It's much harder to catch up and recover in MS and HS than ES.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP how old are your kids? The answer is different for a Ker or an 11th grader.

2nd and 4th.

I personally wasn't a fan of pulling my kids out of school for vacations because didn't want them to fall behind.

But we had multiple people with older kids, some that you would think are pretty focused on academics, strongly encourage that elementary school is the time where your kids can miss school.

Once kids get into middle school and high school, then there is the concern about missing classes and falling behind.

So like I said, I'm personally not a fan but we've done it. And I'm kind of surprised about the number of people that say it's okay to do in elementary school.

So at 2nd and 4th grades, this would probably be the time to do it.

In ES we always did a week during the school year. But not in MS and HS.

We are pulling out for 5 consecutive days this year for the first time. Both elementary aged kids. It's for a special event. We could have maybe trimmed it a day, but instead we choose to lean into the vacation. In 5 years, I don't think missing the school will be an issue, but I do think they'll remember the trip.

I wouldn't do it yearly, without a reason, but that's just me.

Anonymous wrote:Is it bad to pull them out for a week 2x a year? They are excellent students and will easily catch up.

You answered your own question. If they will easily catch up, it's not a problem.

Anonymous wrote:Is it bad to pull them out for a week 2x a year? They are excellent students and will easily catch up.

YES this is bad. With kids in elementary school, I'd consider this at most for one week per year and only for truly special reasons. Such as - to extend one of the regular school breaks to travel to Asia/Africa/Europe. Or to travel to spend time with family for a holiday or event that's really important in your culture.

Just regular old run of the mill vacations? No way. I'd take at most 1-2 extra days once a year for those.

I pull out for a week in feb to ski. Kid is 2nd. Maybe the last year this hear. Shes ahead in all subjects and we read and do math anyway. We also skip most 1/2 days for museum or national park adventures.
I dont know if i would donit twice. We usually miss another weel due to sicknesses anyway.

Anonymous wrote:OP how old are your kids? The answer is different for a Ker or an 11th grader.

2nd and 4th.

Is it bad to pull them out for a week 2x a year? They are excellent students and will easily catch up.

OP how old are your kids? The answer is different for a Ker or an 11th grader.

One day once a year.

How often and for how many days at a time? Thanks