Question on kids taking trips away from home.

[TheRatPack]

My nieces and nephews have went on trips with the school, some full day trips and some over night or even week long. At what age do you think that it's safe for them to go without you? And what things do you make sure you send with them (spending cash, cell phones....etc). Most of the trips are prepaid, but I'm assuming they need extra money for snacks or souveniers.

Just not sure how I'll feel when my ds and dd start taking their school trips.

 

[Nancy]

We're dealing with this issue at home right now. My DD (16) wants to do a school trip to Spain next year (she'll be 17 at the time). I am up in the air over it, I think it would be an awesome opportunity for her and fairly affordable. DH is an absolute NO. She is very upset by this (since DH says no, she knows I will not try to change his mind) His thinking no is due to terrorism. He thinks Spain is unsafe, so I don't think he would even let her go if I went along.

M oldest DD is now 17 (18 in July) and she is allowed to go on overnight trips with her over 18 yr old friend. They go to Anime conventions together....she has a cell phone and he calls her all the time. I also let her take one of the credit cards just in case. So far no call for her to use it.

 

[golfgal]

In our town the 6th graders go to an environmental camp that is 5 days long. That is the first away from home trip that most kids make. Our oldest went to a week long summer camp the summer of his 6th grade year, too. Our twins will go to that same camp, different weeks, this summer, they will be 11.

Next spring DS13 will be going to CHINA with the school band! While I am hoping to go along just so I can go, I would be fine with him going alone. I went to Europe with our high school orchestra when I was 16 and it was fine. They keep pretty close watch on you, all our traveling was done on coach buses, we obviously stayed in the same hotels, etc. We did have some free time to wander around some of the towns but no one got into any trouble.

As for being "safe". For a school sponsored trip they will all be as "safe" as they can make them. They won't let the kids wonder around on their own. They will have chaperons, most states have laws as to how many chaperons they have to take according to the number of students going. I would send a cell phone and every trip our kids have taken they have always suggested a dollar amount to send along. For the camp they attend they suggest $35 for spending money and don't want you to send more then that. For the day trips the kids take (this year the 5th graders go to the State Capital and to a play) they will say they need $5 for lunch, $10 for dinner and no more then $20 in spending money.

I spent all day yesterday chaperoning DS13's Jazz band at a Jazz festival/competition. They took 4th place and considering they are an 8th grade jazz band going up against all high school students, we were thrilled!!! The kids stayed together as a group all day, we ate together, watched the other bands, etc. No one got lost or in trouble.

 

[DVCLiz]

We're dealing with this issue at home right now. My DD (16) wants to do a school trip to Spain next year (she'll be 17 at the time). I am up in the air over it, I think it would be an awesome opportunity for her and fairly affordable. DH is an absolute NO. She is very upset by this (since DH says no, she knows I will not try to change his mind) His thinking no is due to terrorism. He thinks Spain is unsafe, so I don't think he would even let her go if I went along.

M oldest DD is now 17 (18 in July) and she is allowed to go on overnight trips with her over 18 yr old friend. They go to Anime conventions together....she has a cell phone and he calls her all the time. I also let her take one of the credit cards just in case. So far no call for her to use it.

Oh, I feel so bad for you and your daughter!!! My DD17 has taken two big school trips - one to Chile and one to Africa. They were life-changing for her. I hate that your DD has to miss that opportunity, when school trips are so easy to manage compared to doing it yourself later. The security is as good on a school trip as anything she is likely to have in the future. I wish you could change his mind!!!

 

[minkydog]

I let my DD go on a week long tour when she was 11--to Omaha I was one of the chaperones, but not her chaperone. It was neat to be able to watch and see how she did without imposing on her time. She had a ball! We usually have one adult for every 4 kids and the kids are chaperoned absolutely everywhere. There is no unsupervised time. period. We eat, sleep, shop, and work with the kids. Our parents love it and rest easy knowing that nothing is going to get by 9 bossy middle-aged women.

On the other hand,I did not allow her to go on the 5th grade field trip to Savannah that same year. I didn't feel it was well-chaperoned so that was the end of it.

 

[salmoneous]

As long as the kid is mature enough not to do anything stupid, and you trust the people running the trip, I'm not sure there is a minimum age. I would think about 8-9 would be about right, but perhaps I feel that way because that's when I started going on overnight trips.

 

[buddy&wooz]

Our district has no overnight trips until 8th grade. That's a 3 day trip to Williamsburg & Baltimore (used to be to DC but they changed it in 2002 due to safety concerns (I voted to keep DC), and haven't changed back .) All the 8th graders and a bunch of teachers plus the principal and school nurse go along, so I have no problem with it.

My oldest went to London when he was a sophomore (age 14.) It was a trip strictly for sophomores, I don't know if I'd have let him go if seniors (18 year olds) were also going. But again, the principal, school nurse, and a number of teachers were on the trip and it was a fantastic experience for him- I'd say life-changing, or at least life-focusing for him.

It depends on the details- I could see letting an even younger kid go on an overnight school trip if I felt comfortable with the plans and chaperones- maybe as young as 5th or 6th grade. Definitely not my 2nd grader though!

 

[BeNJeNWaFFLe]

I went on my first trip away from home in 5th grade. My school went on a week long trip (M-F) to an environmental camp. It was a lot of fun. The only time there was no chaperone around was when you were in your room at night to sleep. You went on adventures with a guide and a teacher, you ate with a teacher, and the teachers had rooms in the same building as you. They even put masking tape on the outside of your room door at night so that if you tried to leave, they knew. I went on the same trip again in 6th grade and on a trip to a similar place again in 7th grade. Each time my class went in the winter so we got to hike around in the snow and go snow tubing and cross country skiing. Some groups go to do snow shoeing but mine never did. We also got to cross a couple cable bridges and do trust activities. We learned about the environment and got to see a real compost center. For meals, one person was the dedicated Kitchen Patrol. They had to get the food, refill your drinks, and clean up when done. Everyone at your table had to do this at least once.

In 8th grade we went took a 1 night trip to Washington DC. There you could go around the museums without chaperones but you had meeting times. We also did tours but once again you had a teacher about every 6 kids. And you were so busy each day that you had no time to goof off.

Each trip was paid beforehand. You could bring money for souveniers and for the snack cart. Sorry but these trips were in the pre-cell phone era, so I can't comment on that. My parents had no problem letting me go. My school had been doing that same trip for years with no problems. Parents were given months notice and packets of details about the trips. The chaperones were always around, you were seriously never alone. The kids were even allowed to sell candy to fundraise their trip. (I think it was like $250 anyways, so a great deal!)

Other than badly spraining my ankle Thursday afternoon on the 7th grade trip, I had a blast!. (There was a dance Thursday night and I couldn't dance! I also had to hobble around for the last day.) I really enjoyed those trips and never had a problem being away from home. I was with my friends, away from my parents, playing around in the snow for a week. What could have been better than that?

 

[TheRatPack]

Well, the trip that they would take first they don't ask for chaperones, just say you can pay an additional 300.00 if you'd like to come along. I can't afford 300.00 for me and dd, and I can't very well leave her here so I was sort of pushed in to the idea of ds going alone. He's going to be 12, so not really 'little' but still I just wished there was a way for chaperones to go without incurring such a large cost. I suppose I could send dh LOL

 

[golfgal]

We're dealing with this issue at home right now. My DD (16) wants to do a school trip to Spain next year (she'll be 17 at the time). I am up in the air over it, I think it would be an awesome opportunity for her and fairly affordable. DH is an absolute NO. She is very upset by this (since DH says no, she knows I will not try to change his mind) His thinking no is due to terrorism. He thinks Spain is unsafe, so I don't think he would even let her go if I went along.

M oldest DD is now 17 (18 in July) and she is allowed to go on overnight trips with her over 18 yr old friend. They go to Anime conventions together....she has a cell phone and he calls her all the time. I also let her take one of the credit cards just in case. So far no call for her to use it.

That is too bad for your DD. It would be an awesome experience. If it were me, I would try to change DH's mind but I don't know your DH .

 

[simba928]

The first time I went away from my family was this summer (I'm 15). I went to band camp (about an hour away) from Sunday to Friday. My parents made sure I had my cell phone and a little bit of money, just in case.

The second time, and I guess you could say the only REAL time was about 2 weeks ago, I went to Disney with the band. We left Friday night and got back Thursday afternoon. My parents made sure I brought my cell phone and my mom got me one of those Visa gift cards (use it just like a credit card, but it has a predetermined amount on it). That was fun. In Cocoa Beach, we had a 3 mile area that we could go to. Chaperones were around, but not "with" us. And in Disney we could go anywhere in the park, but we had to stay in groups, couldn't go by ourself.

 

[RadioFanatic]

As an adult now (33) I would just ask the parents to remember their kids hearts breaking over not being able to go to such school events. I still think back about how sad I was of not being able to go. My parents could easily afford it but they didn't think the kids were old enough. And my mom was SAHM so I would have rather her be there as a chaperone then me not go at all - this is all I missed growing up:

4th grade - 2 day trip to Williamsburg
5th grade - 3 day trip to DC
8th grade - 4 day trip to montreal/quebec
9th grade - 4 day trip to montreal/quebec
12th grade - week long trip to europe

and each time, I was 1 of only 4 or 5 kids in the whole class who couldn't go and we had 3-4 days of school where we were stuck doing busy work instead of having fun on these trips. and no, I wasn't a bad kid, I was a straight A student at the top of my class. each time I missed a trip, I was devestated.

 

[nkjzmom]

My 5th grade son is going on his first week long trip this spring. He is going with other 5th graders in our school district to space camp at the Space and Rocket Center. We've been preparing for it all year...financially and mentally!! He has spent the night with friends/family before but not for a week. We recently took the whole family to the museum and looked around at where he'd be staying and at the training facilities and even ate lunch at the cafeteria where he'll be eating. There were other groups there and we pointed out to him all of the leaders with each group.

He is nervous about staying that long but DH's office is 2 minutes away so that makes him feel better.

 

[SC Minnie]

Our 4th graders do a 3 day trip to the coast to study about sea life. The kids start looking forward to this trip in 1st grade. DD did just fine. In 5th grade they take a week trip to the mountains. DD also did overnight church camp in 4th grade.

She spent a week in FL with my brother and his kids when she was 10. Last summer at 11 she spent 6 weeks down there.


You know your kids and when they can handle being away from you.

 

[Kirby]

Here our 5th graders go on a three to four day overnight trip to a camp chosen by the school. A lot of those kids have never been away from home before except maybe to grandma's house for more than one night.

My kids have been going away to week long camps since they were in 1st grade. My son went to Canada with the Boy Scouts when he was 13 for two weeks and to Fort Lauderdale during spring break with the Boy Scouts the following year.

My daughter had the chance to go to New York last year when she was 14. Her history teacher put the trip together. About 30 kids went and they had a good time but I didn't let her go because I felt that he was too "familiar" with her. I didn't want her around him outside of a school setting. He does not work at that school anymore.

I think that you have to look at each trip individually.

 

[mermaidlady]

In my district the first sleepaway is in 6th grade to a place about 1 1/2 hr away. Some HS Jrs go as counselors. My DD also went to Theatre Fest at ISU in Normal Il as a freshman and sophmore. The college kids are still on break when they go. I went to France and Switzerland as a Sr in HS and it was great. We went with a company that specialized in HS trips, so only our French teacher went with us. There was also only about 6 kids going though

 

[mcnuss]

DD first went to overnight camp at age 7, right before 2nd grade. She's gone back every year for at least 2 weeks. She loves it there. She has been away from us loads of times although not overnight with a school trip, only bc none have been offered. If I felt comfortable with the chaperoning, I would not hesitate. I think kids need to spread their wings and learn to get along without their parents. I think not letting them have some independent experiences is half the problem with college aged kids going wild when they get their first taste of freedom. They've never had to make an independent decision. They are over-coddled. A 17 yo who has never been away from mama and daddy's house is one who is more likely to make bad decisions.

I spent a year in France as a sophomore in HS and it was the best experience of my life. Thank heavens my parents were not too chicken to let me go.