In the grand scheme of things, missing one week of school is not a big deal. I barely ever missed any extended period of schooling, and when I did, it was because I was sick as a dog. I vividly remember missing a week or two of preschool when I had the flu, and I also missed the week when we talked about the color green. I thank my lucky stars that my mom and dad had already explained green to me extensively before that week; otherwise, I would have never been able to catch up. 

It can be nice to take off from school for a planned vacation instead of merely to convalesce. Obviously, you can’t take 5 weeks off in the middle of the school year to go to Dubai and expect to be able to come back and pick up everything you missed out on easy as pie.