Our youngest has been on buses and boats when he was three with another krippe.
I wouldn't worry to much but you probably will - that's normal.
Last year we took all the children from our primary school on a 2 day camping trip to France- including all the 4 year olds. They love it- and we had plenty of staff to ensure all were supervised at all times and safe. None of them cried, even at bedtime- which I was amazed about.
We had a campfire and sang songs and palyed games before bedtime- and the UK families and couples who were at the campsite were totally in awe.
Not only is it normal Tom, it is just wonderful and so so Swiss- to create this early independence that UK and USA children will not have the chance to experience.
yes, I agree with the others. Yes, kids do such trips in Switzerland. It has a long tradition.
Also, learning to walk as a means of getting around (including road-safety), and to use the public transport, are considered basic skilsl every child should have, to be taught by the parents and to be practiced in such group outings with the school, and to be mastered for a child to do alone, at least on small local trips, roughly by the time he or she can read.
I think that, since you've not grown up with this kind of trip being usual, it is quite understandable that you feel a bit worried. Of course. So well done for asking.
For your own and your children's safety, you should make sure they can recite, clearly, their own names and your full names and your address. And if possible also a telephone number, though that might be a bit much for the younger child. It can help to pack this information into a rhythm, a chant or (if you are very creative) a song, and rehearse it with them over and over again till they know it by heart. Just please take care not to pack this exercise into any alarming message that Things Could Go Wrong, or words like "don't worrrry". Instead, just tell them that it is normal in all families for everyone to know each other's proper names and the home address.
If you feel worried, you could ask to speak to the teacher (or other parents who may know more, if their older children have already been on such trips) about a few of the practicalities, (usually there's a list sent home in advance, of what each child should take along, when they are leaving, and when and where parents should collect them if they will not be returning to the school by the regular home-time) and specifically ask that she/he takes your phone numbers along.
In addition - as long as you can trust yourself to let your children run free with the group and you know that you will not mutate into a helicopter parent - you could offer to go along to help with taking care of the group. That would teach you how it is done, which would probably make you feel more comfortable for futher trips.
If you feel secure about sending your kids to that particular KG/school every day, you should feel secure about excursions as well. Swallow your doubts and encourage them to discover the world is my opinion.
The Troll here is extremely fortunate and attends a school where the kids (age 3-12) go in the forest every Wednesday afternoons and have an excursion every Friday afternoons (we are not told us where beforehand). Other than making sure he has the right attire I let him do his thing, I know they take good care of them.
It is a bit different from the UK, but as others have said, it does teach independence. Later on from 6 to 15 years old there is the ZVV-FerienPass, and it gets a bit scary when your 2 kids 7 and 8 year's old go out of the door heading off on a journey to Millandia Minigolf, Aquamara or Technorama all by themselves.
Even later, there is a inter school 'treasure hunt' competition, where all the school classes in Kanton ZH can go around the Kanton looking for clues. They have to organise the route themselves.
Go with the local flow.
But I don't know any parent that would let their four-year old take the bus by him/herself. Nor do I know of any 7-8 year olds that take public transportation to visit big museums by themselves.
I also am amazed at overnight excursions starting at four. How do you handle bed-wetting incidents with children this young?
What I see are kindergarteners that are accompanied by their parents or walk in groups accompanied by one parent going to and coming home from school. I would say the norm here is to let first graders walk by themselves.
For our youngest (1st year école enfantine) we had to give the names of those allowed to pick up our child from school.
I guess it is not the same all over Switzerland.
Two of the children didn't come on the trip as they were not dry at night. The others had all been dry for a long time and we didn't have a single 'accident'. As the little ones were 6 to a tent with one of the members of staff who knew them very well, it would have been dealt with easily as we had several spare sleeping bags, etc, just in case.
I was in charge of 8 x 9 year olds who had never met me before, and we had a great time, telling bedtime stories and jokes. It's lovely now to meet them in the village as they rush to say hello and have a hug whenever they see me. Yes- here in rural areas, we still hug children- how wonderful.
My little one in kindergarten was traveling quite frequently to a farm or Zurich Zoo... you just need to get used to it
I have had one child freak out on the bus in that time....the child had *never* been on a public bus at almost 3. Only ever in the car.
We made sure we took a lot more regular bus rides..
I can only talk about overnight camp, at our school the holiday care program during Herbst- and Frühlingsferien implies participating in a 5 days camp during the first week for kids 5 years old and older. We were concerned since the Troll is a bona fide bedwetter (it comes and goes, to my great despair), but apparently they deal with that as well.
Unfortunately, as sods law would have it, one of ours did go astray, once, but fortunately we were able to retrieve her, a couple or so weeks later, from the lost and found office.
Picnic in her backpack was a bit smelly, though.