My DDs scout troop planned a trip to a theme park/water park. It all sounded great to me until now when it was revealed that there are only two adults going and 10 children!! 8 - 11 year old girls and 2 - 9 year olds. I do not think this is enough parents!!!
Worst still one of the parents is me.
How do I manage this number of children in this setting? Any clues? I know 11 year olds are pretty capable, but I prefer one to 2 ratios.
Any tips? It is also supposed to be very very hot!
We managed to get two more parents. I am the first aid person going and the other person is the troop leader. But, the leader and I had a frank conversation about the kids and we decided to let one parent know her kid could not go unless she went too, she agreed to go. And another mother agreed that we needed more and decided to come too. We worked out a predetermined buddy system and which parents would be with which children. I am still dreading this, but I feel like it is more under control now.
You need a 1st aid person going. Is the other adult a troop leader and a 1st aider?
I would question why both leaders are not going, in addition to you.
Go buy them all matching bright orange hair tyes!!! Write your cell phone number on them with sharpie marker!
Get more adults!!!!
i think 2 adults is PLENTY for that age group. a friend of mine and i took 5 kids to a waterpark/resort last week - 2 adults and 5 MUCH younger children - 2, 3, 5, 5, and 8 - it was fine. you lay down some ground rules at the beginning, and all should be well.
Id think at their ages the kids should be fine to let loose and have fun. you set up a central table, umbrella area for all their stuff, and set the rules,, such as
NO ONE leaves the park.
tell the adult when heading to the bathroom.
always go to the snack bar and bathroom in pairs, or 3s to protect eachother.
Come back every hour to report in just to make sure they know you are ok.
If the park is huge and spred out such as Disneyland, you pick an area and they stay there. Maybe in the afternoon, you will all move to another area. Have a certain time for lunch, and they ALL come at once.
I think it would be different if you were taking 5 and 6 year olds, but by 9 and 11, they can run to play without having someone hold their hand.
You can handle that... When we have field trips for the school teachers get about 10 kids and parent volunteers get about 6, depending on the size of the class.
1 parent for 10 children is not unreasonable. The children simply need to know the rules, be firm and have fun.
If you are still uncomfortable, don't feel bad about it... see if another parent can join your group and then split the children up.
Personally, I would ask for more adults to go. Maybe some of the other moms are willing to go along as too. I have a 9 & 13 year old and although they are capable, they are still just kids. I would feel better with more adults to watch over the kids. You can't be too safe.
Hi, S.:
You'll do fine. Children usually are well behaved when they go out,
This age does better than teenagers.
Thanks for taking on this role.
D.
I think you will be fine, but one more adult would be ideal. Definitely tell the kids the rules first (Everyone sticks together, everyone has a buddy they keep tabs on at all times, everyone moves to the next area together, etc). The water park will have tons of life guards working. It will also have free life vests kids can wear. We just got back from a water park and I was surprised at how safe it was. Have every child bring a change of clothes, hat, sunscreen, water bottle and money for food/drinks. You will have fun...but prepared to be really tired out at the end of the day!
I used to work in a daycare that had kids from 6 weeks to 13 yo. State ratios are 1:4 for ages 1 and under, 1:5 for kids 2-4 and 1:10 for 5 and up. We would do different things with the kids once a week thru out the summer, one being a day at the pool. The ratio was 1:10. My son was at day camp last week and there were 2 adults to 12 boys from the ages 9-11. They had a buddy system, one adult would take a group to the bathroom with 2 or more at a time. Best is when one asks to ask the rest as usually more will want or need to go. I think you will be fine as long as ground rules are set.
I disagree that 2 adults is enough. A 9 yr old went under in the wave pool at the waterpark near us. He had to be lifeflighted out of the park.\
Kids and water - that is too much risk and responsibility for me.
A ratio of 1:2 is understandable if you're talking about pre-k or elementary school aged kids, but you're not. 9 & 11 year olds are perfectly capable. I would say just break them up into a couple of groups & tell them up front that they're not going to be separating. See if you can find a map of the waterpark layout before leaving & come up with a game plan for what slides you'll all be going on & make the group stay together. It really shouldn't be that big of a deal.
Talk to all of them before they go off. Let them know exactly where you will be the entire day. Tell them at certain times they are to meet you at a certain place for snacks or lunch. If you keep having meeting times throughout the day, you will be able to keep better tabs on all the girls.
