Kindergarden Safety - Being on Their Own

Have they not learned there home info yet? I would practice with them as well as maybe get an id bracelet?

Through the years we were always told with my older kids not to label their backpacks or other items in plain view. Instead of writing their name on the outside of their back pack, I sharpie it on the outside, top on the back side where it lays against their upper back. Never on the outside straps where it can be seen. A stranger can read their name and call to them as if they know them. We don't want that. Most back packs have a little pocket somewhere inside where you can put a card with info in there. We try to memorize but we move around so much my trio has a hard time remembering things. As it is, my 16 year old never seems to know our full address or our house phone number, but knows our cells since we've had those for years.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

So is your child, not attended after school nor with any parent/adult???? Or walking home alone or at a bus stop alone???

How will a kindergarten kid, call home??? Coins? Cell phone? A strangers phone? A pay phone?

A backpack, has the child's homework in it and anything else they need to bring home, from the teacher.

You can label your kids backpack with a 'luggage tag' with YOUR cell phone number on it... and it can say something like "If lost or found, call ###-###-####."

You can also put your child's INITIALS on his/her belongings.
Not, their full name.

You teach your child to memorize your and Daddy's phone number.
To call 911
To speak up.
To tell a Teacher about any problems
To go to the school office, for help.
etc.

Just teach them their address and phone number. I did put the information on the label inside the backpack but that was more so the backpack had a chance of making it home if it got lost.

I am actually not a big proponent of putting information that can be used against my kids where people can find it. I mean say someone sees their name and address on their backpack. They come up to junior, hey your mom told me to pick you up. I live just down the street from you on........ Not a good idea and I am not a paranoid kinda person.

At our school they sent home a cute index card deal for us to fill in name, grade teacher, bus info etc and we were asked to pin it to their shirts for the first week of school. I felt much safer knowing school personnell could know at a glance were my child belonged.

Also work with them now so they practice telling an adult their name, and info. stipulate it is for at school only, not running around at mcdonalds. Well actually, I do talk with mykids about who to ask for help if htey get lost, a store employee, a mom with kids etc. but they need to have the maturity to give their info if they don't have a card pinned to their shirt.

as for book bags etc, label everything that you want to come back home at the end of the day, hats mittens, boots, book bag lunch box. etc I wouldn't get the personalized things like from lands end because of strangers knowing their names, but a sharpie on the inside would work great and anyone finding an item at school will know to open it up and look.

im ca where i live you have to pick you child up from school if not riding the bus (at their class room) and if they are riding the bus you have to be there at the bus stop or they will not let your child off the bus. out here kids under 2nd grade are escorted by the teacher to the bus area.

I agree with Karen, label on the insides and only use initials on the outside.

A friend of my hubbys' decided to play a trick on my daughter. She was at Busch Gardens on a school trip. She was maybe 14, a freshman.
My hubbys' friend was there with a friend of his and their daughters. He had his friend call my daughter by name, freaked her out.
She did do the right thing and did not even turn around, she didn't recognize the voice unitl my husband's friend came over to her table. She was with a group of maybe 4.

At 5 your child will probably not ever be alone. As they grow older you just don't have that control, school trips, busstops, trips to the mall with friends. Start teaching him now what to do when there is a stranger or even someone who knows the child but has nothing to do with him, like my hubby's friend.
Teach them who is safe to approach if they are lost, the store's clerk, the Disney employees (they take lost children very seriously), a mom with a stroller, a family unit.
Have them memorize the important phone numbers, yours, Daddy's, 911, house phone.

I would assume the school/teacher has all the emergency/parent/contact/health info, right?
Isn't this part of the registration process at your school?

Kindergarteners are never "own their own" as far as I am aware!

If your child will be walking home without adult supervision, then yes, by all means, they should know their phone number and address, or at least have it labeled somewhere inside their backpack.

Don't be worried! DD just started K and I was paranoid, as you are. The truth of the matter is that they are not just going to leave the Kindergarteners to fend for themselves. If your child or the school needs to get a hold of you, a school employee will take care of it. I am assuming your child is already registered, so the school has your contact info on file. Kids won't be released after school until there is someone present to pick them up - they're not just going to let them out into the street.

I am also not huge into labeling things with such detail, either.