4 year old legs and what they can manage

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Would love some advice please! We're trying to decide in which order to put our three primary school preferences for dd1 (applications due today) and it may boil down to the logistics of getting her to and fro. Our catchment school is a 20 minute walk away, or a short drive but thru heavy traffic and with nightmare-ish drop off as it's down a tiny road with loads of cars parked all along both sides. Her grandfather has offered to change his working hours to do the school run for us, but do you think a 20 minute walk is too much for a 4 yr old before school? She won't need to make the return journey as an after school club will pick her up by bus. Alternatively he could take her in the pushchair but do school children still travel by buggy really??

My children had a 25 minute work to and from school at that age and we thought nothing of it. I didn't drive then, so there were no other options. Lots of children of this age will be walking to school.

They won't need a buggy and would have thought using one would be very unusual for an able bodied 4 year old.

I think a 20 minute walk is fine. Or take a scooter?

That's brilliant - thanks for your speedy responses!

Easy. Our walk to pre-school is a mile give or take. Initially it took us around 30 minutes to walk, we have now got it down to about 20. We can do this walk four times a day some days, and then play on the adventure playground next to school for an hour or so. We don't drive though so dd is used to walking a lot, she is 4 in February btw. Our first preference for primary is the school a mile away we have 4 others all closer to us two just around the corner (2nd and 3rd choice), the distance doesn't really seem an issue for us.

Most 4yo would be fine with a 20min walk. I agree it would be easier with a scooter but get a proper mini-micro as other brands can be harder work to scoot on. Also get a scoot'n'pull strap so you can pull her along if she's tired and restrain her if she wants to zoom too fast down hills.

depends on if they are used to it.
mine were at that age, but others wouldn't be.
try to build up slowly and it will be fine!

walking is great and gives lits of extra conversation time

I used to run an after school club, and there were many children doing that walk as part of our walking bus. Reception children may get tired, but they get used to it pretty quickly, and you can tell the children who are used to that walk. It's really not far!

Get a scooter. Total lifesaver. If they get too tired to scoot themselves, you can hold their hand and pull them along. Easy :)

Hi OP, we had a similar scenario and found that the walk isn't a problem for little legs but bear in mind you will probably need more time than you think you will as 4 year olds like to dawdle or stop to look at interesting stones or pretty flowers!!

I'd say 20 mins definitely do-able :-)
I'd love to be able to walk mine to school but it's 2 miles down narrow but busy roads with no/very narrow pavements in places so I guess we'll be taking the car....

Great, I do love the idea of dd and grandpa having a lovely stroll and chat of a morning. She does have a mini micro scooter but is pretty wayward on it at the mo, to say the least, so we don't use it on pavements yet; I'm sure by September she'll be much better and would love to scoot to school. Bit of a pain for grandpa to push it home again though? Might make that an occasional thing.

She might well be able to keep her scooter at school - check.

Where I live the infants and junior schools are 20 minutes apart so loads of Reception children with older siblings walk/cycle/scoot between the 2 (and then walk/cycle scoot up to another mile to get home). If you do it regularly they soon get used to it.

Is that a 20 minute 4 year old walk, or a 20 minute hurrying adult walk? What's the distance in miles?

If it's a mini micro scooter, you do know that you can take them apart if it makes it easier? In my case I put it under the buggy, but it might fit in a bag- worth experimenting?

Penguins it's 0.6 miles according to walking.com and they say 19 mins at a slow pace. I guess a 4 yr old could take longer again. Her Grandpa would have to bring the scooter back home as there's no way she'd remember to take it on a bus to the after school club even if school let her keep it there.

Always thought the scooter didn't come apart but on closer inspection I've found the little release catch - that's going to make park trips a lot easier! And yes, I guess my dad would then easily carry it home in some kind of bag.

Oh 0.6 miles is a piece of cake. She'll be totally fine. I'd say that's a 4 year old 20 minutes.

I can do to our school (around 1.3 miles) in a little over 20 minutes, but it'd take a child a lot longer. I have to allow 30 minutes if I'm scooting with DD1 (age 5) That's mostly uphill, which affects them more than me.

The scooters- I see people all over the place with them balanced really awkwardly on the back of buggies and I want to run up to them and say "they come apart!"

She should be fine and it's probably is around 20 mins. My DS's school is 0.3 miles and it takes us 7-8 mins with me walking and him on his micro scooter...he's in Reception. He did moan abit to start with but quickly got used to it.

I think that's fine. Ds's school is 1.5 miles away and it takes them 40 ish minutes to walk ( ds1 is 4). It's 20/25 mins adult walk

Maybe grandad could scoot back!

that distance is fine. It will be a good way to start the day.

I can't believe I am reading this.Can a 4 yr old walk half a miles once a day!! No wonder there is an obesity epidemic amongst children

That's really helpful Choc

I can understand the issue. Especially with your first and if you don't know how far other children walk, it can be difficult to gauge what your child can manage on top of a full day in reception.

I think a half mile walk in the morning will be no problem.

I'd be more worried about after school club on a separate site every day. That might be really hard going. Reception children are exhausted when they first start.