Making up lost time in the classroom while also keeping up with new material isn’t easy for many children. “Anytime a student is absent it means lost instructional time, and it also can mean extra work for the teacher,” says Albert. “As you get into the high school grades, things become more challenging in terms of missing instructional time and the pace is going to be quicker in terms of the things that you’re learning.”
That can mean a lot of post-vacation stress for kids, especially in the current academic environment in which “students are experiencing unprecedented levels of school performance-related anxiety and pressure to do well,” Phillips says. But, that doesn’t mean there aren’t measures parents can take to minimize downsides and accentuate the benefits of an off-season family vacation.
How to strike the right balance for your family
One step that parents can take is to have an honest conversation with their child’s teacher before leaving on a trip that could disrupt the student’s learning. “Certainly parents can reach out to the teacher and see if there are going to be assignments, and if the student could get those assignments in advance,” Albert suggests.
Stoen, of Travel Babbo, says his family has had luck with this work-ahead method. “When I pulled my son out of Kindergarten for a week to visit Panama, Easter Island, and Iguazu Falls, his teacher gave him a math workbook for the plane all about the Panama Canal and Easter Island. It was amazing,” he says. “When I took my daughter to Antarctica, she sent back reports to her first-grade class. Their teachers are real people who also love to travel.”
But once again, a child’s age and grade level will influence how realistic it is for them to keep up while missing class. “We primarily pulled our kids out of school when they were younger,” Stoen says. “By the time they were in middle school, they didn’t want to miss school at all. That’s the downside: when the kids feel like travel interferes with their school projects or social lives. So we listened to them and really tried to respect that. We still took them out, but only for a day here and there, so that we could get a head start on travels” before school breaks, he says.
Indeed, talking with your kids and trusting your parental instincts are sure ways to make the best travel decisions for your family. “Parents know their children,” says Albert. “And if they know they have a very motivated child who’s going to do the work regardless of whether they’re on vacation or not, that can be a factor as well.”
For some parents and children, the benefits of shoulder-season travel outweigh the potential downsides. “I have taken my kids out of school for many family trips over the years,” Lanin, of Travel Mamas, says. “I am sure they will long remember touring masterpieces in the Louvre in Paris, hiking and kayaking with a member of the Navajo Nation in Arizona’s Antelope Canyon, and riding camels through the Sahara Desert in Morocco. Travel is meaningful and fun, and that’s what life should be.”
