3yo refuses to scoot/walk to preschool, help!

[TerrysNo2]

DS was 3 in November and has been going to preschool since September (which he loves). For the past couple of weeks he does not want to go, he won't get ready and if I manage to get him out of the house he will scoot over the road and then say he is too tired to scoot and doesn't want to go to school.

We have a buggy board but its a 1 mile walk, up and downhill so I can't physically push him all the way. We don't have a double buggy as we have never thought we needed one. I don't want to wear DD in a sling as my back hurts if I wear her for too long.

Basically I need to "fix" his behaviour and make him want to scoot/walk to school again but I am not sure what to do?

Any ideas please?

why doesnt he want to go? that would be what i would be thinking about.

but if he is just being a pita, as my own ds4 does on the school/pre-school run then i just insist, i offer a 'reward' ie if he scoots/walks nicely then he will get a small treat, watching thundercats is his current choice! or alittle milkyway etc.

we have a half hour walk to school and pre-school but i have 13mth old dd and i go over a field so like you cannot use the buggyboard, in the end i just took it off and we do still get moaning but i try and make it fun, ie race me to the next tree/lampost etc, point out things for him to look at, cheer him on he is a big fan of lighting mcqueen so making referencs to that helps, or the film about a superhero dog bolt? she says 'zoom zoom' so i say that to ds4, i probably sound like a twat to any passers by, but it all helps!

there have been times when i have just had to hold his hand and make him walk and he has whinged the whole way, of course when he gets there he then runs around the playground like a loon! so i KNOW he is not tired he is trying it on.

you need to work out if there is a reason for not wanitng to go to pre-school or if he is just trying it on.

then try making it fun, offering a reward etc. you know he can do it, so unless he has been ill recently and is tired? or have a reason for being upset re pre-school then you are going to have to stick to your guns! good luck :)

oh i recently bought ds4 a 'hooter' to go on his scooter which has made him more enthusiastic to scoot! it was only a couple of quid :)

Oh I like the hooter idea! I don't think there is anything going on at preschool, I asked him about it but he has no real reason. A new intake joined a couple of weeks ago so it has unsettled the older kids a bit but I just think he is reacting to his sister.

I have tried racing him / making it fun but its not working this time.

I think you are right about the reward bit - will try it on weds although he doesn't always respond to rewards.

I have to tow my 3 yo dd along on her scooter most of the time. Irritates me but I don't mind it too much as a stop gap to her stopping being such a lazy bugger

He is only just 3 though, a mile up and down is quite a long way if you are doing it needing to get to the end on time. When my ds was in reception it was often a real struggle to get him and his friends to do the walk /scoot there and back and your ds is a year younger. Younger pre school siblings were also in the pram more often than not until they were close to 4. Normally they would walk everywhere and would be active it was just the deadline and stress of the school run that made the pram a necessitiy
So think it is normal. Can you borrow a double buggy for the next few months?

Talking to friends I think alot of children do this even though they love pre school. My DS certainly was doing this last term (but has stopped now). Having a younger sibling

I have the same problem, I just grit my teeth and bear it with the buggy board tbh.

It is difficult when they're not that into/good at scooting/biking.

The absolute best thing is to walk with someone else whose DC is walking, other than that playing hide and seek and looking for things on the path (stones or puddles) work quite well.

I have decided it is not worth pushing the issue until the weather is better when more of the other children will be walking and she can spend more time practicing on her bike.

Sorry 3yo pressed send...

Having a younger sibling who the elder child perceives to be staying at home with mummy and having fun also makes it worse. Even though the younger sibling in our house follows me round whilst I do chores.

Our route is 0.7 mile. I leave half an hour to get there even though it would take me under 15 mins to walk by myself. This way if DS refuses to walk or gets distracted I am not stressed and can just go with the flow. We always get there on time one way or another.

I also used to collect him in the car afterwards. I assume from your post this insn't an option? However since buying him a scooter for Christmas he now scoots there and back and the process is much faster with less moaning.

I would remain firm with him but be prepared for some slow journeys.

My 3yr old started off in the buggy with baby on my back in a sling. It was hard work - my arms ached from pushing him, the wheels groaned from his weight, by back ached from carrying baby but I was determined to do it. I've dropped all the baby weight!
I got him to walk a little bit then a bit more ....Then we practiced scooting in the afternoons and weekends till he worked his way up to scooting all the way. Some days I could see he was really tired by the time he got to nursery which didn't make it easy to say goodbye so I try not to push him too much. He started last September and it took at least a month or two till he was out the buggy all the way there and back.

he has scooted all the way there (except up the hills when he goes on the board) since he started in september so he can def do it. LaGuerta I leave min 30 mins but usually 45-60mins, we go through a park near the school so if we have time he can go to the playground. It takes me 12 mins power walking with DD + buggy!

Car sometimes an option when DH not using it but this means DD sleeping in car seat + probs not having a good nap, plus I hate ppl driving to school unless v v good reason.

4 months ago DD would walk the whole mile to pre-school every day, it took an hour but she did it.

I think the problem was she got a cold so found it too tiring for a while got out of the habit and now the novelty has worn off and she just doesn't want to.

She has a new sibling, it terrible at going to bed and still potty training. It feels like too much in one go to push this as well.

He's quite young still. Tricky it's that in between age. I had a go at DD walking to DS's school and back with us from January (she used to go in buggy)- also 3 in November. She can do it, but it's a load of hassle and she's slow (it's about half a mile each way), so I have quit for now and she goes in the buggy again. We'll have another go in a few months and by September when she starts with school nursery she'll be doing it- won't have to do there and back in one go then though!

I would buy a cheap second hand double buggy (I had one when DS was this age or a bit younger- £25.00 I think!). I hated the buggy board other than for very short bits, would do my back in! And then when DS was 3.3 we moved and had to drive to pre-school anyway for 6 months.

thought about this thread as i was running down the road after ds on his bike
it gets better really quickly

We had this problem with dd2, and ended up getting a second hand double buggy, it saved my sanity.

I would use the buggy board part-time, identify consistent stretches where he can ride the board if he likes & stretches where you ask/expect him to walk.
Or get a double buggy :).

I used to race with DD - race you to the next lamppost kind of thing. Bet you can't get to that hedge before me etc etc. Or I would just stop, explain why I couldn't carry her and just wait it out with her (need to allow little more time in case this is needed). I'd be silent for a few minutes, then start to talk abuot something interesting I could see, and she'd be off again. She stopped trying to get me to carry her very quickly.

She kept on getting DP to carry her AND HE DID IT BECAUSE HE DID IT !!!!!!

I think in part it was a reaction to the new baby, which was always being carried. And perhaps a little bit of backlash from wanting to grow up so quickly and be a 'big' girl all the time.