What are your top tips for getting your lo's to school when it is tipping with rain!!!

[Yurtgirl]

We are moving soon and will be travelling further to school - its still only just under a mile but I know that dd will refuse to walk quite often!!! She has just turned 4. I also have ds who is nearly 7 and not good on a bike.

Just wandering what other people do really - especially when it is tipping it down with rain

Cars and buses are not an option for us

TIA

get wet.

we take an umbrella and if we get wt -tough.
if it's really bad i stick their waterproof trousers and wellies on.

Wellies, waterproofs, manic grins and a bit of Gene Kelly-style tapdancing if necessary.
Or sometimes I pretend we are intrepid explorers.
The older children tend to find this embarrassing so they walk on ahead as fast as they can.

Thanks guys - so far we have

1 get wet
2 waterproofs, wellies and umbrellas
3 manic grins
4 pretend to be intrepid explorers
5 Gene Kelly style tap dancing

anyone for some more

Waterproofs, including trousers, and lots of jumping in puddles.

wellies, waterproofs and carrier bag for school bag. Then tis just troop through all brave and feel sorry for those not properly equipped.

No, Yurtgirl you forgot my TOP tip. Embarrass them into trying to get to school really fast so they can pretend they don't know you.
Singing is good.

run and get wet!

1 get wet
2 waterproofs, wellies and umbrellas
3 manic grins
4 pretend to be intrepid explorers
5 Gene Kelly style tap dancing
6 singing
7 carrier bag for stuff
8 jumping abilities
9 embarrassment skills

Would cycling in the pouring rain be completely mad then - you would at least get their quicker surely?

taxi but I am bone idle and pampered beyond belief

at taxi twinset - that is not in the spirit of mutual motherchild suffering!!

But why suffer, for me it costs 2.60. Jump in a cab.

£2.60 is rather a bargain! Does that include going home as well

I might investigate that option then
I shall remove my !

I have a lidl cape and dd and ds (4) go in the bike buggy, dd is now getting too old for bike buggy and I am going to learn to drive for next winter but still mostly walk, dd likes walking and ds is quite happy to sit in the bike buggy even if I am walking with dd.

the bike buggy is great btw, it takes me 6 minutes to cycle to school but 20 mins to walk with my children.

We get wet as well,taxi would be about £7 even if we could get one at that time of the morning on a wet day ,buses charge full fare up till 9o/c so not much choice.
I do take school shoes and socks in a bag,and make them wear wet weather footwear.
And when we get to school we nearly always get splashed by driving parents trying to get as near to the school gate as possible so that they dont get wet.

Heronsfly - thats what gets me, we turn up soaking and the car drivers panic about the prospect of walking 20 metres. I get really grrrrr!

The good bit about where we are moving to is that we will have a outside yet inside space for taking off all wet things, to be hung up to dry. In our current house coming home soaking wet is a nightmare.

Aefondkiss - what did you mean by a bike buggy exactly? Did you mean one of these

www.amazon.co.uk/Bumper-TRA110S-Explorer-Solo-Trailer/dp/B0011HVYEM/ref=pd_sbs_sg_4

Oh I am so pants at links!

I was wondering about one of those - but dd is 4 so maybe she is already too big

my ds is also 4 and my dd is (small) six and I still squeeze them in on wet days... they are fab, I have used mine for a year now... the one we have takes up to 45kg weight. iirc

there was another thread recently and someone had a link to a relatively cheap bike(£250 -£300), that could be customised, the children would sit on the front in a box with a hood(there are v expensive versions of this in Holland, called christiana bikes I think), the bike buggy thing that trails behind is cheaper if you have a bike already.

Oh I see aefondkiss - so its your 6year old that is getting too big. I misunderstood.

So as dd is 4 weighing 17kg atm I could reasonably expect to get 2 years use out of one. By which time she will be about to join year 2

This little plan will work perfectly if ds perfects his cycling skills - hopeless atm if I am honest

Practice practice practice

aefondkiss - have you got the duo version of the one in my link then

Would you reccomend that brand?

he he

www.christianiabikes.com/english/uk_main.htm

I can't remember the brand of mine, only had it since last April, but it was fairly cheap, because I wasn't sure how much I would use it, I have used it 5 days a week, three times a day, plus cycling the three miles into our nearest town, so it has paid for itself, but is now a wee bit battered looking.

I would go to a bike shop and talk to someone who knows their stuff, plus you can hire them for a week to try them out, I think.

It is a two child one, if you are not getting a car, I would say get a bike buggy.

here's another possibilty:
DON'T GO. Home educate. Then you can stay snuggled in bed at 8:30 and think about all the poor wet people walking to school.

There's no point trying to drive when it is raining as you end up parking miles from the school due to the increased volume of traffic. Have decent rain proof coats; ones for the kids should have hoods that stay up properly, as should yours. Forget looking glamorous and get used to getting wet; it rains at picking up and dropping off time with amazing frequency. When walking home talk fondly about large chocloate cake you have just made or exciting TV programme on tv very soon.

yup that is the bike I was thinking of , they seem like they would be quite eye catching, but I wear a lidl cape which is quite eye catching too, I think I quite like those christiana ones, imagine how much shopping you could get in them, lol.

what I really want is a horse and cart/pony and trap, my dd would be in heaven.

go to a proper independent bike shop, not halfords, somewhere where someone actually has experience of riding with a bike buggy