Wearing Shoes Outside?

[Nebula]

The home preschool I work in, shoes outside at all times (Texas... fire ants, snakes, spiders, any number of things plus hot hot sand & concrete)

Socks or barefoot or shoes are OK inside.

[jenn]

My kids wear shoes at all times. Inside, outside, naptime,...all the time. I request that the parents bring a water safe pair to leave here (flip flops, crocs, water shoes, whatever) for when we play in the water.

[daycarediva]

Just wondering what the providers do when it's time to run in the sprinklers or have water games,water table, sponge and bucket play etc.

If they wear their shoes for these activities ? If they get them soaked, do you have several back up shoes for this?

Also, do you require long pants, long sleeves, hats and gloves to protect their skin from scrapes and bees?

My kids have ran around in bathing suits, sandals, shorts/tops and sundresses all Summer!

They go back to school with golden tans and wonderful memories but after reading this I am getting concerned that maybe I should have them in some sort of shoes just in case

Water shoes are for water play (water parks have rules about this kind of footwear as well).

I don't allow slip & slides (liability with rocks, bumping into each other, etc)

My kids are required to wear SPF wear for outside as well.

[daycarediva]

this is the bug spray I use for the kids and the house/yard.

[nanglgrl]

I don't require shoes either. When we go outside they usually have shoes on but between the sandbox, water activities and just playing most of them loose their shoes before we go inside. We do wear shoes at all times when we leave my yard.
No thorny plants here just grass.
I'm always barefoot outside and I did actually step on a bee as a child and once I stepped on a nail in our barn so these things do happen. Lots of things can happen. Yes, you can minimize the risk by requiring shoes but it's all personal choice.
My clients wouldn't be upset by a bee sting or a stubbed toe or even a little owie on the bottom of their child's foot...anymore than they would be upset by finding a tick, a scraped knee or mosquito bite. Of course these experiences aren't pleasant for children but they are short lived and to me they are just part of childhood like running barefoot and squishing your toes in mud.
However, I would not let them run barefoot if I had prickly plants, glass or nails in my yard.

[nanglgrl]

this is the bug spray I use for the kids and the house/yard.

For those of you who use the bug spray do you have a major problem with bugs?
I've never treated my yard. We have plenty insects and do sometimes get a mosquito bite or have to dodge a bee but nothing too bad.

[Jewels]

For those of you who use the bug spray do you have a major problem with bugs?
I've never treated my yard. We have plenty insects and do sometimes get a mosquito bite or have to dodge a bee but nothing too bad.

I do, but we have a few wetlands right around my house, and a giant pond in the back yard, so we have major breeding grounds for mosquitos...I actually had my very first kid get stung by a wasp the other week, but the kicker was, it was inside the house.

[daycarediva]

The previous owners had a LARGE above ground pool, and they dug down and about 1/3 my yard is sand. We slowly overfilled it with topsoil (5 years later, still some areas where grass won't/can't grow) so we get sand fleas. We treat the yard about once/month.

[Blackcat31]

For those of you who use the bug spray do you have a major problem with bugs?
I've never treated my yard. We have plenty insects and do sometimes get a mosquito bite or have to dodge a bee but nothing too bad.

LOL! The "unofficial" state bird for us is the mosquito so yeah, you could say we have issues with bugs.

Despite being diligent with bug repellant, most the kids in this state look like they have chicken pox for a majority of the summer.

[Meyou]

I wonder if some of this is a regional thing. Bare feet here in the summer is the norm, not the exception. My kids don't wear shoes from June until October unless they are going into a building somewhere. They rarely even wear them when we walk to the beach each day which is several blocks away.

I've never had a DCP question my barefoot backyard play and most have the reaction, "Well of course they wouldn't have shoes on in the yard!" rather than something negative.

We don't have thorns, prickles, bad bugs, mean ants or anything else "dangerous" that alot of you had listed.

Just thinking out loud....

[Michelle]

My day care parents would think I was crazy if I didn't let the kids run around on our grass..

We have St Augustine grass and it is very thick.. it's like walking on a mattress.

Anybody familiar with this grass knows what I am talking about.

[spud912]

Aww I'm jealous of your grass! Ours gets pretty sparse and dry .

As far as bugs, we don't have too many. I'm sure other people from Arizona will say we have good amount, but I lived in Georgia and know better . The yard does get some ants and the normal bugs. In the spring, our trees bloom and they will fill with bees. Since Africanized bees are such a problem here I just make sure we stay far away from the blooming trees until the bees lose interest and the petals start falling. Luckfully, I haven't seen any scorpions around our house, but they are a huge problem in Arizona. They tend to follow trails and I'm pretty sure we don't live on one as we probably would have seen one by now. We have a ton of lizards and birds in the backyard, though, and I think that really keeps our bug population under control. I lovethis the lizards!

[Michelle]

Spud
We thought our grass was the coolest thickest thing ever until we went on a walk and saw this guy who's St Augustine was sooo thick that my husband got instantly jealous and went out and got some grass food and started obsessing over it... I asked him.."what's your goal? to require us to have a ladder to get up on the lawn?" he said "yep"

We don't have many bees,stickers,thorns or anything like that..thank goodness!

Scorpions would freak me out and we would never see a lizard around here (alive) because our cat would get him first