People who walk to school

[purpleme12]

Those who walk to school with their children, how far away is the school from your house? How far away would you consider a school? And do they walk willingly?

just under a mile, 20 mins with young kids then about 15 mins.
We've walked to school rain or shine since they were out of the buggy aged 4. scooters were great for a few years.
It's hard/tiring at first but they get used to it very quickly. Was always painful when they had friends who weren't used to walking.

I really recommend it - no matter how stressful it is getting out of the house you have that 15 minutes of walk & chat. No getting mad at the traffic or trying to park. In fact the more horrible the weather the more the benefit as traffic/parking tends to be even more hideous. They won't be cold standing in the playground waiting for the bell as they'll have warmed up.

I really miss walking with my DD now she is in Secondary. Took about 10 minutes, but half of it was footpaths as opposed to pavements and it was lovely seeing the seasons move.

First school took about a minute to walk although crossing the road took 5!
2nd first school (we moved) and Middle school took about 15/20 minutes involving a couple of fence hops and crossing a field and a small wood as it was preferable to the busy road, knocked off a few minutes too 🙂
High school takes 15 minutes walk all uphill although we have recently got a car and as I start work at a similar time I give dd a lift, well she has walked for several years so i do t feel too bad about that and it is her last year ☺

0.5mile takes an adult 10 minutes. We allow 20 with the children but are a few minutes early so it probably takes 17.

I didn’t answer your question, with younger children I’d hope to keep under 0.7 of a mile.

It’s a 15 minute walk. We take the car if it’s pouring with rain, and I quite often have to pick them up with the car because we need to go straight on to other activities. They do moan a bit if I pick them up on foot because we have to walk back up a bloody big hill.

About 100 yards. It would actually take longer to get in the car and drive!

Various options over the years.

It’s easiest if you walk every day (if you can), without fail. Once you ‘sometimes’ take the car then the whinging starts.

We drive now as the school is 11 miles away. My preference, however, is to live close enough that taking the car is MORE faff, then I happily walk it. For me, that’s 1.5 miles or less without even thinking about it, anything over that & I’m terrible for ‘needing to take the car because of xyz’. Plus you’re then back to the sometimes walking & sometimes taking the car & (understandable really) whinging starts.

Half a mile takes 15 min in my power chair

0.3 miles - takes just over 5 minutes with a dawdling 3 year old. I can do it in 3 mins.

Absolutely no point in driving, even if going straight on afterwards as our house is pretty much the nearest parking anyway!

15 min although some of that is waiting to cross a busy road. DD scoots. She seems to quite enjoy it (getting her out of the door is another matter)

"Half a mile takes 15 min in my power chair"
That's a long time is it really hilly? Mine would take 7.5 mins for half a mile. ( for miles and hour).

10 minutes with my 3 year old (pre school). Why would he complain? We live in town and he regularly walks all over the place. We don't use the buggy any more.

Myself & kids walk 1.5miles and have walked willingly since starting, when younger they would scoot on micro scooters and now they are older we sometimes bike to school. Kids also do the mile run at school each day

We're a street and a half away and there's a ginnel /shortcut between the houses so it's quicker.

But we sometimes drive. Because I want to.

Ours is 1 1/4 miles, about half of which is a steep hill (upwards on way to school). It would be shorter along the busy road, but we prefer the longer, mostly traffic free route.

When DS was in reception and DD a baby, we usually 'walked', that is, DS had the scooter for the flat bits, and on the steep bits I'd pull him by a scooter strap (whilst carrying DD in a sling, or pushing the buggy up the hill with my other hand - I was really fit by the end of that year!) That way we were quite fast, maybe 25 minutes compared to 20 minutes when on my own. When DS actually walked, it would be more like 35-40 minutes. For the way home, although downhill, it would rarely take us less than 45 minutes, usually around an hour. It was lovely actually, lots of time to decompress from school, be outside in the fresh air, chatting about everything and anything. Though it did make for short 'evenings'

From Y1 we cycled, again most days, and though initially we weren't faster than me power-walking and pulling DS along on his scooter, after two years we can now do it in 15 minutes, if we're lucky at the traffic lights (the lights regularly add 5 minutes to our trip). By myself I can do it in 10 minutes. But cycling is much less conducive to conversations and a lot more stressful, because you have to be super-alert 100% of the time. It does give us more flexibility and extra time at home though.

Previously my DD went to a school 25 mins walk and it was hell that walk. Partly, because I then I had another 25 mins to walk to get my son to his nursery and then 15 mins walk home so was exhausted (and pushed them in double buggy bc they would not make the entire school run with out whining, crying, driving me mad - even though they still did that in buggy, but at least I was able to get them there on time). I moved my DD to a school that takes us 5 mins on scooter/bike or less then 10 mins walking. It has made such a difference. I love the school run now. Both schools are good, but the closer one made such a difference for all of us. So much less stressful.

10-15 mind. I wouldn’t drive it even if I could park at school. I love the walk and the chat and the DC just accept it as part of going to school, and love bumping into their friends.

DD2 is nine in February and walks to school on her own or with a friend. Ten minute walk with no roads to cross.

Some of the schools I'm considering are 1.6 miles away (there is one that's nearer so it's not kind they're the only options). And I'm just thinking of that will be too much

I don't drive anyway. But there have been times where she's refused to move and I just can't make her walk she will stand there and just cry for absolutely ages. Hasn't done it recently but I guess I'm thinking of those situations.

We walk about a mile. Takes around 20 mins or so. I do drive if the weather is very wet though and often pick up in the car as we have busy evenings.

I’ve done the walk when childminding too with lots of children. Easier than getting in and out of the car. Scooters can be helpful as soon as they are trustworthy with staying close and being sensible. Bikes I’ve found to be more hard work!

Depending on the traffic, you could:

• scoot, and if she gets tired then she stands on scooter and you pull it along
• cycle with a trailer until she starts to cycle for herself

Remember when she starts school she'll be 10 months older / more mature than she is now. The journey home is likely to be harder when she is tired, but if you meet with a snack and eat it en route that will help. (Morning walk is great for time tables practice )

purpleme that kind of distance is doable if it's a decent place to walk, i.e. not next to a busy (dangerous, loud) road.

DS was like that as a pre-schooler, the absolute refusal to budge. DD is 3.6 and like that now too. Strangely by the time DS started school this barely ever happened anymore. Once we were out of the house (now THAT is another story altogether) we were fine.
I'm sure the scooter with pull-along-strap helped massively here. DS had options: a) walk, b) stand on the scooter to be pulled.

Also we had all sorts of fun on our 'school run'. Counting steps (or anything - lots of counting was done), spotting wildlife, determining birds by their calls, singing, finding pretend/imaginary treasure chests, collecting sticks/stones/conkers/feathers/... odd little races, we experienced the weather in all its glory, including wind, hail, snow, downpours, heatwaves, and really noted the changing seasons also with shorter/longer days ... walking to school was FUN. Obviously it would have been a lot less fun if part of our walk hadn't been through a park/forest.