Field Trips

[hope]

Who does them? How does that work with insurance and liability? Are all the parents on board for the ideas?

I didn't have any daycare kids today (I only have one ft and one pt now bc I have had some medical issues and bc it's summer and I watch many teachers kids). I had planned on going to the local farm to pick strawberries with my kids and asked a dcm if I can take her two kids with me. She is a teacher on maternity leave so I haven't seen her kids in a couple of months. We all had such a great day! We picked strawberries and walked around the farm to see the animals and all the veggies and fruits being grown. We then went to a park to have a picnic and played on a playground. I would love to do this more often. I would like to incorporate field trips into my contract for summers when I only have one or two kids but not sure how I can do this. DH is so worried about a child getting hurt while we are out or in a car accident and what that would mean for us.
Can those of you that do do field trips please tell me how this all works?

[daycare]

I spend about an additional $650 a month to be able to transport and have kids go on field trips. You should really ask your auto insurance first before you do anything. they may not cover your DCKs. You may also need to acquire additional DC insurance in addition to your auto insurance.

I had to switch from all state to state farm......state farm will only cover me as long as I use my vehicle for less than 50% of the time for my business.


all state wanted me to get commercial insurance which would have cost me about $700 a month just to take a FT when we wanted....

[childcarebytori]

For the summer, we do field trips daily. I pay $400 a month to transport (includes insurance). I own a mini school bus and we had to register it as a passenger van for insurance.

Field trips are one of the biggest selling points of my daycare.

I would NEVER survive staying home with my daycare kids each day.

[CraftyMom]

We take lots of field trips. Usually at least once a week, even if it's just to the park. I only have 5 daycare kids though so it's manageable.

For the summer we are doing one field trip per week on Fridays in addition to weekly trips to the spray park on Tuesdays. There is a once a week children's series not too far that runs for 3 weeks that I want to try. It's outdoors, singing songs, listening to music, being silly...I think the kids will love it!

I love getting out of the house and the parents love it too! The parents and I love the idea of breaking up the day and letting the kids have experiences outside of my daycare home.

Our trips are usually low key and if I'm not feeling it that day we don't go. I always plan them to be during our normal outside time, just a little longer, so we can stay on schedule the rest of the day.

Works out great to spend time at the park, run through the spray park, have a picnic lunch and then home for nap and they crash!

[TomCopeland]

field trips

Who does them? How does that work with insurance and liability? Are all the parents on board for the ideas?

I didn't have any daycare kids today (I only have one ft and one pt now bc I have had some medical issues and bc it's summer and I watch many teachers kids). I had planned on going to the local farm to pick strawberries with my kids and asked a dcm if I can take her two kids with me. She is a teacher on maternity leave so I haven't seen her kids in a couple of months. We all had such a great day! We picked strawberries and walked around the farm to see the animals and all the veggies and fruits being grown. We then went to a park to have a picnic and played on a playground. I would love to do this more often. I would like to incorporate field trips into my contract for summers when I only have one or two kids but not sure how I can do this. DH is so worried about a child getting hurt while we are out or in a car accident and what that would mean for us.
Can those of you that do do field trips please tell me how this all works?

You need to make sure you have vehicle insurance that covers for accidents while in the vehicle. Once you get out of the vehicle on a field trip, you need to have business liability insurance to cover any accidents.

[hope]

Thanks everyone for all the advice. I don't think I can afford to do field trips. If I only have one or two kids during the summer it will not cover the cost of all the insurance I would need to get to cover the trips.

[nothingwithoutjoy]

Thanks everyone for all the advice. I don't think I can afford to do field trips. If I only have one or two kids during the summer it will not cover the cost of all the insurance I would need to get to cover the trips.

Don't forget about walking field trips. For the first 6 years, I never took the kids anywhere in my car (and now do only very rarely). But we got out a lot by walking, using a stroller, and--on occasion--taking a public bus. Nearby (within a mile or so) field trips for us include:
library
woods
stream
hardware store
post office
cafe
two parks
watching at construction sites
just checking out what's going on in the neighborhood
Sojourner Truth statue
fountain