Anonymous wrote:This is op. I am thinking to chaperone, but I am not sure if I can handle a 3-5 kids, including my child. I am petite, and I am not sure how heavy is to carry all kid lunch, water bottles, mat, and etc, and I have to make sure that they stay together.

did u have another post about clothing? You are way overthinking this. When you arrive they will put the lunches wherever your group is assigned to eat. There are no mats to carry. Take a backpack for water bottles. If they need to take a coat or sweater off they can tie around their own waist.

Anonymous wrote:Last year, I chaperoned 2 kids and 1 is my own. I lost the other kid because he ran away without letting me know. Both kids were excited and hyperactive, and I couldn't have them stay together. I had to dump my own kid and went out crazy runnin to look for him in an open busy field. Luckily, I found him somewhere 20 min after. I was scared and I thought I was screwed.

Wow! This sounds like you were expecting the kids to be self-chaperoned? No, you are there to keep an eye on the kids and that means that you are not distracted or focusing only on your kid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just a note. In my experience - teachers never assigned kids who needed more care (shy kid, SN kid, overactive kid, fretful kid) to parents. Usually, they welcomed the parents of these children to chaperone their child or they had extra aides for these children. You will have a better appreciation of the teachers and how they manage their classroom after going to these trips.

Do teachers typically assigned the volunteer’s own kid to her group?

Yes. Your own kid is with you.

Do the buddy system. Every kid holds hands with another kid. Make sure that you are taking pictures of the kids because that makes them want to stay together. For a farm or orchard trip, take some quarters so that you can buy each kid some "feed" to feed the animals in the petting zoo. You are basically enticing them to remain together and be in the larger group.

Be very clear with the teachers that you want more placid kids and not ones that need a lot of supervision.

Anonymous wrote:Last year, I chaperoned 2 kids and 1 is my own. I lost the other kid because he ran away without letting me know. Both kids were excited and hyperactive, and I couldn't have them stay together. I had to dump my own kid and went out crazy runnin to look for him in an open busy field. Luckily, I found him somewhere 20 min after. I was scared and I thought I was screwed.

That’s crazy. Did you notify the teacher or have another adult help you look?

Last year, I chaperoned 2 kids and 1 is my own. I lost the other kid because he ran away without letting me know. Both kids were excited and hyperactive, and I couldn't have them stay together. I had to dump my own kid and went out crazy runnin to look for him in an open busy field. Luckily, I found him somewhere 20 min after. I was scared and I thought I was screwed.

Anonymous wrote:Just a note. In my experience - teachers never assigned kids who needed more care (shy kid, SN kid, overactive kid, fretful kid) to parents. Usually, they welcomed the parents of these children to chaperone their child or they had extra aides for these children. You will have a better appreciation of the teachers and how they manage their classroom after going to these trips.

Do teachers typically assigned the volunteer’s own kid to her group?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is op. I am thinking to chaperone, but I am not sure if I can handle a 3-5 kids, including my child. I am petite, and I am not sure how heavy is to carry all kid lunch, water bottles, mat, and etc, and I have to make sure that they stay together.

I’m really not trying to be rude here but being “petite” has nothing to do with not being able to carry a few water bottles and lunches. You may want to try some strength training to get your endurance up. Im short, overweight and don’t work out and have no problems wrangling five kids or carrying all of their waters lunches.

DP here. Not trying to be rude, but maybe the extra calories that contribute to you being overweight also gives you a lot of energy and strength?

Fair question and it’s possible. My 75 yo skinny (100 lbs) petite mom would have no problems carrying water and lunches for five people.

OP’s issue has nothing to do with her pettiness but perhaps other health issues.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is op. I am thinking to chaperone, but I am not sure if I can handle a 3-5 kids, including my child. I am petite, and I am not sure how heavy is to carry all kid lunch, water bottles, mat, and etc, and I have to make sure that they stay together.

I’m really not trying to be rude here but being “petite” has nothing to do with not being able to carry a few water bottles and lunches. You may want to try some strength training to get your endurance up. Im short, overweight and don’t work out and have no problems wrangling five kids or carrying all of their waters lunches.

DP here. Not trying to be rude, but maybe the extra calories that contribute to you being overweight also gives you a lot of energy and strength?

Just a note. In my experience - teachers never assigned kids who needed more care (shy kid, SN kid, overactive kid, fretful kid) to parents. Usually, they welcomed the parents of these children to chaperone their child or they had extra aides for these children. You will have a better appreciation of the teachers and how they manage their classroom after going to these trips.

Anonymous wrote:This is op. I am thinking to chaperone, but I am not sure if I can handle a 3-5 kids, including my child. I am petite, and I am not sure how heavy is to carry all kid lunch, water bottles, mat, and etc, and I have to make sure that they stay together.

I’m really not trying to be rude here but being “petite” has nothing to do with not being able to carry a few water bottles and lunches. You may want to try some strength training to get your endurance up. Im short, overweight and don’t work out and have no problems wrangling five kids or carrying all of their waters lunches.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is op. I am thinking to chaperone, but I am not sure if I can handle a 3-5 kids, including my child. I am petite, and I am not sure how heavy is to carry all kid lunch, water bottles, mat, and etc, and I have to make sure that they stay together.

I can’t speak to the physical requirements for the job, but can talk about the benefits. Going to see the world through your kids’ eyes. Meeting and getting to know their classmates. Meeting teachers and parents in a different setting. I’ve chaperoned almost every field trip possible for our two kids over the years, even the multi-day ones. I’m now in my last year of this and I’ll miss it. If you think this might be for you, take the opportunity now.

+1
I have done the same.

I have chaperoned a lot of field trips as a SAHM. I was available for ALL field trips and I loved the trips. It is one of the most enjoyable things to do as a parent in ES. Of course, all of this was some years ago and pre-COVID but I do not think things would have changed all that much.

No, you are not carrying the lunch boxes of the children. Usually, it is left in the tour bus. However, if you think that you might be asked to carry their lunch, then carry an empty tote bag, just in case.

Tips- dress in layers for the weather. Wear comfortable shoes. Take sunglasses, wear sunscreen. Take your water bottle. Take your lunch and snacks. Invariably, there will be a kid or two who will forget their lunch or have a large appetite. I used to pack extras, individually wrapped no-fuss cheese sandwiches, some tangerines, some goldfish packs, some small water bottles.

I carried with me a backpack which included my wallet, fully charged smart phone, tissues, wet wipes, hand sanitizer and name labels with my cell phone number. I would fix the name label with my phone number on the shirt of each of my charges, so that if they somehow manage to get lost, someone would call my cellphone. Also, you should have an idea of if any of the kids have a food allergy etc.

The one way for the children to listen to you and move like a pack is to have a buddy system for very small kids. I also took a lot of pictures of the children and kept posting it to their parents. (In those days, chaperones got the parent cell phone numbers), Field trips require very little effort. Their teachers are with them. You are just keeping track of very small number of kids under your charge. The teachers provide the lead and all you do is keep an eye on the kids. When they are back in the bus, make sure that your charges are sitting together. You can give them the wetwipes to wipe their hands, hand sanitizer etc. And generally instruct them to have their snacks etc. Take a few pictures. Ask them to make funny faces etc, so that you can send some cute pictures to their parents.

We had a wonderful teacher in DS's 1st grade who insisted that the kids had one snack on the way to the field trip destination. It prevented a lot of cranky behavior because some kids are coming to the school hungry and then they get very exhausted.

Sometimes the parents also send $$ for the kids to buy something from the gift shop. I never liked that because sometimes you had kids who would lose the money, or have more or less money to buy stuff. I hope your fieldtrip does not have that problem.

If you are going to a farm kind of place or to the pumpkin patch - carry some plastic bags with you. Have a marker with you so that you can write the kids name on their pumpkin and on the plastic bag. Tell the kids that their pumpkin should fit into the bag and they have to carry it. Some of the kids end up selecting pumpkin which is half their size. You must set expectations.

But really, the trips are so easy-peasy, and you get a chance to take so many pictures of your kid and their friends. Well worth it.

It's basically hanging oit with your DC and the group they're in and being an adult. Make sure no one runs off or topples a mummy. You can do it.

Anonymous wrote:This is op. I am thinking to chaperone, but I am not sure if I can handle a 3-5 kids, including my child. I am petite, and I am not sure how heavy is to carry all kid lunch, water bottles, mat, and etc, and I have to make sure that they stay together.

I can’t speak to the physical requirements for the job, but can talk about the benefits. Going to see the world through your kids’ eyes. Meeting and getting to know their classmates. Meeting teachers and parents in a different setting. I’ve chaperoned almost every field trip possible for our two kids over the years, even the multi-day ones. I’m now in my last year of this and I’ll miss it. If you think this might be for you, take the opportunity now.

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you don’t think you can handle 3-5 kids plus your own, then please don’t volunteer.
—K teacher

Nah, you'll be fine OP. Go for it!
--a different K teacher