How awful do you think it would be.....

[handsfree]

To go to Florida for the last two weeks of the summer holidays and then arrive back home literally the day before ds has to go back to school (starting year 1) he goes back on a Wednesday so only 3 days until it's the weekend.
To go on those dates makes it over £1000 cheaper than going a few days earlier. Dh thinks it will be fine but I'm not so sure.....

It'll be fine. Your son will sleep on the flight, won't he?

Last time we went he slept for about 2 hours on the plane!

This might be an unpopular opinion but even if he is too tired to go to the first day of year 1 I don't think it really matters.

Yup. You won't get a wink as you'll have a 5 year old asleep stretched across your lap

I always feel half dead after a proper longhaul. I wouldn't do it.

For a £1k save i would. Chances are you will all sleep in next morning, not really that big a deal though.

In my experience the kids are fine. It's the adults who struggle. I would do it to save the money.

Fine. He's small and will be tired either way. It's only a couple of days. Just make sure you lay out his uniform before you head off!

As long as he sleeps breakfast, I don't care if I do or not! I'll have a 2 year old draped over me as well 😊

We've done long haul with ds's .
Ds's were in year 1 & 3. ( neary 7 & 9). We flew from Hawaii to Perth Australia. ( 16 hours total flight time, nearly a day time difference, 2 flights). The boys slept from Sydney to Perth ( about a 5 hour fight). We drove home which took 50 ish minutes. We landed at nighttime and got home by 11pm. They went to school fine the Monday morning.
Last year. Aged 12.5 and 10.5 we flew from London ( via Hong Kong). We got in late on the Sunday . Boys went back to school on the Wednesday ( we had tied school holidays in ). They were both fine on the Monday.
I'm sure he will be fine. Go for it.

We did exactly the same as you, except ds went into year 2, Dd year 4. They were fine. Me on the other hand.....😴

I don't think it matters it they sleep or not because they will be jet lagged either way! We arrived home at 11pm - ate 'tea' as we were still on US time and went to bed - I dragged them up for school - and they adjusted quickly - gonfor it! Have a great time!! One day won't matter

I find it easier to cope with jetlag if I get straight back into normal routine so going to school could actually help! Like you said only 3 days and you can all have a lazy weekend.
Make sure everything he will need for school is ready before you go away and that you have something in for breakfast etc.

Jetlag hit us a couple of days after we got back from Alaska last summer, not straightaway, so you might be OK till the weekend, if you're getting back Wednesday

It is true that the time I suffered least from jet lag is when we flew back and had a wedding to go to the same day!! Exhausting but woke up the next morning feeling fine and back on track.

He will be fine. I would say it is important that he is there on day one because that is when they do the explicit teaching of routines, where everything is, what happens at lunchtime etc etc that can be hard to pick up if he isn't there on the first day but if he needs to take perhaps the Friday off then I think that is ok.

We did it a few years ago although I think we had two days before kids went back to school. The parks in Orlando, if that's what you are doing, are apparently quieter at the end of August, certainly we found the queues ok. My kids don't seem to suffer from jet lag in the same way as adults do. One good long nights sleep and they bounce back. If the worst comes to the worst keep him off school on the Thursday. I'm sure he'all get through the Wed with all the excitement of a new school year, new teacher etc