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jsugrin
member
Pre-school field trips- WW your expectations be?
jsugrin
member
I need some other opinions here so any feedback be it your own experiences with kiddos pre-school or daycare of just opinions I'm open.
Andrew goes to small (6 kids) in home pre-school that is about as close to perfect as you can get, the only real issue I've had is the owner/teacher is a horrible email communicator ( it's like either she's clueless or uses it as an out to be snotty).
They are going on a field trip next week to the pumpkin patch and because we have our own plans to take the boys I was feeling a little ehh about him going and I'm sure in the future there may be things that we would choose not to participate in.
My issue is this.....If we didn't allow him to go on the field trip then he had to stay home and we just eat that day. So no refund or option to bank a day for another time or something. Of course we have standard rules that if you miss a day that you eat it but it rubs me the wrong way that because of something she's choosing to do outside of the norm that we would eat the day. So is this just the norm or would it bother you too? And I guess even if it's the norm does it bother you or not?
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Re: Pre-school field trips- WW your expectations be?
I'm sure it would bug me but not enough to consider doing anything about it. If DS's school were doing a field trip to a place we wanted to go together, I think I'd actually let him go. And then let him "show" the rest of family later. I so fondly remember the trips and things my preschool did when I was little (the Fair, the christmas tree farm, the fire department) and I wish C had that at his school. My nieces and nephews all go to the school I went to and they love their field trips.
No field trips were not at all discussed and I have to say that I so disagree on choosing to not send him is the same as a sick or even vacation day. To pull my kid out because he is either sick or we're on vacation is 100% my choice and the rest of the school goes along without him, to choose to send him on a field trip I have to pay additional money and trust for another parent to drive him somewhere and I had zero input regarding the whole thing.
The teacher is the one who's made the choice to deviate from the standard pre-school day without input from the parents and that is why I feel that if she can't provide coverage for kids to remain behind that she should be offering a discount for that day or the option to have another day of instruction. Also, while this does not effect our situation I'm know that there are parents who work while their kiddo is in school so they would be faced with having to find additional childcare if they were not comfortable with a field trip.
Having grown up in a daycare (my mom ran an in-home daycare for school age kids when I was growing up) and now being an after school teacher, this does not seem unusual to me.
In my current job, if you decide that your child is not going to be coming that day, that is up to you, but you do not get a refund for that day. Now, let's say it is a full day (your kids don't have school, but we are open). We will have full day programming--usually with a field trip. This is included in what you pay for. However, if you choose to keep your child home, we will not be giving you a refund for that day.
Basically, it is a matter of planning for your daycare provider. She probably will have to call ahead, pre-pay for admission/other activities, plan for transportation or additional help, if necessary. I know when my mom was a daycare provider, she spent a lot of time--sometimes months when it came to summer--planning and coordinating field trips for her kids. In my current situation, I spend a ton of time planning curriculum/activities for my students. While I understand if you do not want your child participating in a certain event such as a field trip, it's not really my problem.
I'm not trying to be...mean. I'm just giving it to you from what may be the daycare provider's perspective. (Although I would try to tactfully talk to her about her communication issues).
One thing I wanted to add, since I didn't read this comment before posting, was that the potential for field trips should have been discussed at the beginning of the school year. Again, this pertains to your daycare provider's communication issues--which I would try to tactfully address with her.
Sorry for your frustration with this though! I am sure that I am going to be going through this sooner rather than later myself!
I'm a freak like that, but I don't think I would allow a field trip without me being there before Kindergarten. Alex has his first one I'm NOT going on next week, it's only 3 hours but honestly I'm a little worried about it. I know he'll be fine and I trust my school & teachers implicitly but I still feel kind of crazy about it. Working on it.
Our preschool doesn't do field trips because it's a center and there are too many kids and carseat issues, but I think even in an in-home daycae they really should offer an option for kids who's parents don't want them on a field trip without them. I don't think that's an unreasonable expectation. Kind of like pools/swimming... I just don't want my kid to do it if I'm not there, I don't feel comfortable with that before a certain age.
That's not helpful but those are my thoughts!
wouldn't bother me at all. field trips are a part of 'school', to me they're a given whether its to a local playground or a pumpkin patch or a petting zoo. you have 2 options, either stay w/ him that day and eat the cost of the day and get over it OR let him go and have fun w/ his friends and go again w/ the family and do all the 'family' stuff when you go then.
if i were a kid .. the chance to go to TWO pumpkin patches would be awesome !!
Wow that's rude, I seriously hope you don't project that type of attitude towards the parents you deal with. Honestly, I'm sending my kid to pre-school I didn't sign him up for playtime and I expect to get my money's worth. I'm sure she's spent time planning ect as she does for the entire program but that's part of what I pay for and if it takes her a ton of extra time to plan field trips than that's her choice, and yours for that matter. I also pay for my kid to be somewhere for 12 hours a week and I expect that time to be met, and met under the conditions I signed him up for. I think that any teacher who changes the basic program should absolutely be responsible (be there problem in your words) for providing for parents who are not interested in doing something outside of the expected program.
IDK, maybe you'll get it when your child is old enough for you to be in a position where your faced with sending them off with people you don't know nor trust to be in charge of his safety, and at a young age. I have no idea how old your students are but my impression is that they're not toddlers and taking teens somewhere is a whole different ballgame.
And for anyone who says why don't I just go, well that's not an option either. 1. I can't take my 2nd child with us if I were to go and 2. walking around the pumpking patch for 3 hours and then being able to do it again with my family is not possible for me either.
It is helpful, especially because I feel like you actually get what my concerns are regarding the field trip itself and that it's not all about the money. I don't think it helps my feels at all that every single other pre-school/daycare I considered that did field trips had someone stay at the place with kids that were not authorized to participate.
J, after I read the whole string I totally get your issue. She didn't tell you about it before you signed up, you wouldn't have chosen the school if she had, and now it's costing you time/money to keep him home on a day you already paid for. I'd be super annoyed about it. And if it were a situation where they were relying on other parents to drive, it would be a no go for me. I don't trust many people to drive my kid, mostly due to lack of proper car seat safety in that situation, but also how am I to know what kind of driver they are? Or how closely they monitor kids on outings? No thanks.
C is at a center like Frick's kids and any outing would have to be on a bus or on foot. As far as I know, they don't do them.
My nieces and nephews go to a co-op and field trips are part of their deal and the parents know it when they sign up. The parents have to sign up to drive the kids too.
You did a much better job of summing up my feelings that I did
although had I know that field trips were going to be part of the gig and handled in this way I probably still would have chosen the school, unfortunately Chico has pretty crappy preschools I seriously looked and interviewed for 9 months before I started him at this one.
I'm borderline irrational about child abduction (worked at Po.lly Kl.aa.s Foundation for awhile) so being off at some farm with tons of others kids around ( they do school trips all week so I'm guessing tons of other preschools and lower elementary kids) and keeping track of all the kids along with the driving thing makes me seriously fearful.
I guess it really boils down to the fact I feel like it all should have been handled differently. With a small school (I'm not sure the total since not all kids go every day but she can only have 6 per day and it's 3&4's so maybe15 kids max) it just seems to me like there could have been some parental involvement prior to solid plans. More of a hey I'm thinking about this activity and here's how it would play out, how does everyone feel about that. It's not something that I'm going to make a big deal out of with her but I am asking what other types of field trips she's planning on and when so I've got more time to plan then oh hey it's Wednesday and here's a permission slip for next Thursday.
I'm glad that it made more sense since it was so unexpected on my part. I'm definitely interested in everyone take on the situation but that comparison surprised me a bit.
How did VBS go? I've been struggling a lot lately on how we're going to introduce religion. Between the fact that we don't regularly attend and that Andrew doesn't do very well with abstracts I feel very overwhelmed by attacking religion at this age.