We just returned from a two week trip. Our kids ended up missing 14 school days as we drove down from northern Ontario. My daughter's teacher gave her work to do before she left (math) and she also took a novel to read and report on and wrote a speech and a 1000 word essay. She is in grade 7. The only problem I had was that her teacher wanted to come too!! She is a good student and doing her work kept her occupied in the car for the 3 days down and the 3 days back. My son is in grade 3. His teacher rearranged his grade 3 standard provincial test so that he would be done before we left. He had no work to make up for the time that we are gone. He is also a good student.
We usually go the last two weeks of school, because my husband can not get any time off in July and August, so that is the only time that we can go on vacation as a family. This year, we had to go a little earlier to use our annual passes.
I wouldn't normally take them for this amount of time, but this may be our last family vacation as I just got my teacher's degree and when I work full time, I will not be able to pull them out of school, because I will not be able to take the time off. Our school is only out for July and Aug, and my husband can not get time off in July or Aug due to seniority, so we went this year.
The memories that we make will last far longer than a lower grade if they do not get credit for the work they make up.
JMHO