Comments on: Overnight field trips worthwhile? Would you chaperone?

By: Eddie Martinez

Eddie Martinez — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:43:10 +0000

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By: EDDIE MARTINEZ'S TRUTH

EDDIE MARTINEZ'S TRUTH — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 06:33:13 +0000

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By: Uttepefumtear

Uttepefumtear — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:59:08 +0000

What’s up; ive been viewing this forum for a while – Wanted to reach out the community

By: Eddie Martinez

Eddie Martinez — Thu, 14 May 2009 22:54:39 +0000

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By: Meme

Meme — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:38:01 +0000

Waht a wonderful sounding field trip, Theresa. I teach middle school and have been on a few overnight trips with some of these. Believe me, we don’t get too much sleep. lol

By: Becky

Becky — Fri, 01 May 2009 12:11:42 +0000

motherjane, most of the time if this is the first offense for this kid, they get probabtion and community service..Then hopefully they learn from this and know to not do it again..If like my nephew (no DUI) they don’t learn and they serve time..At 16 he was caught with a half of a joint. They did suspend his license (cause of age)..At 18, he was caught again with about a half a bag of pot..Then again at 24ish with pot again..He’s 29 now and still smokes..So some people learn, some don’t..

By: motherjanegoose

motherjanegoose — Fri, 01 May 2009 10:47:23 +0000

been there, April and DB…thanks for all you do with field trips.
I agree that the opportunity is priceless and perhaps the only one for some kids.

My own kids have been going to sleep away camp ( on their own) since they were 7 and they gain a lot of independence.

We have been lucky, in that we travel a LOT within the US and my kids have learned how to navigate airports and subways as I have encouraged them to take the lead.

Regarding donations for field trips. I always try to throw in a couple of extra bucks …if they request $10, then I send $15 and this will help for those who simply cannot;
however, this is like everything else and those who do not have the money are those who drive cars that are much nicer than mine and are making payments they cannot afford..oh well!

DB…Mall of America is a GREAT summer weekend trip. When it is a hot tamale here, it is a cool 75 in MSP and NO ONE goes to the mall as they prefer to be outside when it is nice and not 20 degrees below. There is an amusement park inside and it is reasonable without the lines like Six Flags!

By: DB

DB — Fri, 01 May 2009 05:12:21 +0000

Theresa, our Girl Scout “Night Crawler” evening was a Dad & Daughter evening — such fun! A couple of moms, whose husbands were out of town or absent, came, too, but otherwise, it was a fun evening for the dads and their daughters.

By: DB

DB — Fri, 01 May 2009 05:09:14 +0000

I absolutely LOVED chaperoning class trips!! I tried to alternate between kids, so that one year, I’d go with one child’s class, and the next year, I’d go with the other’s child’s class. That way, I wasn’t hovering. It was a great chance to get to know the other kids in their class, and the other parent chaperones. I have to admit, I’m stunned at the number of people who are reluctant to allow their kids to go on trips — yes, things go wrong, and some kids, outside of their routine, can get a little excited, but I’ve never been on a trip where kids were downright unmanageable. New York, Washington DC, a zillion local field trips, band camps and UGA music festivals . . . they are all memories that I treasure. The class trips in high school did NOT have parent chaperones (boo hiss!), with mission trips all over the world for spring break chaperoned by faculty, and a European summer trip again only chaperoned by faculty — that was a deliberate choice by the high school, to allow the kids to interact on a personal basis with the faculty. My daughter has been to Paris, London, the Ukraine and Romania on school trips – her passport is much more interesting than mine! Their senior trip next week is out West, where they will be skiing, rappelling, fishing, hiking, etc. for five days.

But really, you haven’t chaperoned until you’ve been a Girl Scout leader! :-D We’ve been to camping all over Georgia, a “shopping trip” to the Mall of Americas in Minnesota, swimming with dolphins and Sea World in Orlando, Savannah and Tybee Island, including the Marine Science center and a dolphin cruise, whitewater rafting in North Carolina and Tennessee, SCUBA diving in Alabama, the BMW plant in South Carolina, rappelling and caveing, as well as putting on numerous overnights for younger Scouts. My criteria was that each trip had to have an educational component. (Even the trip to the Mall of the Americas had a workshop on fashion marketing and merchandizing and a behind-the-scenes tour.) It’s just you, your co-leader, maybe another Mom — and a troop full of girls. Our final trip as Girl Scouts is a Caribbean cruise on an amazing ship, for which they have earned the money over the last four years.

Then there were the Boy Scout trips, but my husband did chaperone duty on most of those.

And then there were the soccer team tournament trips . . . ah, the memories. Standing in the snow in Greenville, SC in November. Washing 17 mud-and-snow encrusted boy’s uniforms at 1:00 am so they would have clean and dry uniforms the next day.

The trips are experience-widening for the kids, exposes them to new and interesting things, and give parents a priceless opportunity to get to know the kids in their child’s class. I would never say “no” to a field trip. Some were better than others — but all of them added something. (And yes, I always have a first aid kit in the car and a small one in my purse, along with a Tide stain pen, Kleenex and cough drops, not to mention extra scrunchies and Tampax for the girls.)

One of my favorite memories was a middle-school band trip to Washington, DC, where the band played at the Jefferson Memorial on a cold but beautiful President’s Day. When they played the “Star Spangled Banner”, all the in-uniform service personnel immediately in the audience came to a sharp attention to the nearest American flag — which happened to be across the Mall, at the White House and the Washington Monument. The kids (and adults) were enchanted. Another song, and someone requested the SSB again, so the orchestra complied. Again, the service personnel came to sharp attention — but I happened to overhear one whisper to his companion “Quick, let’s get out of here before they play it again!”

By: April

April — Fri, 01 May 2009 02:45:10 +0000

Theresa, I can’t wait to hear what was most helpful in your “mom bag.” I am going on the Night Crawler trip for the first time next week with my child.
Angel – you summed up my feeling exactly. As a teacher, I have been on many of the field trips listed here – both overnight and day trips. In addition to seeing new sights and having beneficial academic experiences, these trips give students to test their independence in a safe environment with adults nearby to watch out for them. At my children’s school, each class goes on several field trips a year. I have always made it a point to only go on one with each child to give them the opportunity to experience independence and a little freedom.
A friend’s child is in middle school and has never been on a field trip on her own – not even the down the street to a high school play variety. She is now terrified of going on her own and would rather stay home and miss a fun experience with her friends than get on the bus without a parent.