Is 25 minutes too long for a reception child to walk to school?

[poppetmum]

I'd welcome views on this. My DS starts school in September in reception. We are thinking of moving, but want to remain within walking distance of the school she will attend. I don't want to be driving every day, I think it's much nicer and better to walk. What do you think is the maximum to expect a child of 4 to walk? Is 25 minutes too much?? (I'm basing this on a walk that's about 15-20 minutes for me). I know my daugher could do this, but am worried it will be too tiring every day, twice a day.

My DS will be 4yo next week. When the weather is bad (rain or windy) we walk to kindergarten, otherwise we go on bikes. It takes about 15 mins for me to walk, 25 mins for the DCs to examine every stone and beetle walk.

I prefer going on the bikes, we have quite good cycle paths and it is a bit quicker.

No that's totally fine IMHO.
Scooter is good or even bike if practical (ie is pavement flat and not too many roads to cross)?

We walk

Used to do similar with DS1 when he was four and in reception.

ds2 couldn't have gone that far in reception, but he has very low muscle tone and got tired very easily - dd's in reception and although she could walk that far, in practice I'd always take her bike to avoid the moaning ...

My just three year old (three at beginning of June) walks twenty five minutes to church every Sunday and has done since before Easter. She will do the same journey to Nursery every day from September. DS did the same when he was her age but moaned and groaned considerably more than DD does, hanging on the pram and generally dragging his feet. was a bit grim at first, but he'll walk anywhre now, especially with his two- years -younger -than -him -sister trotting along so well.

Short answer - no, not too far at all, more of an opportunity to spend time chatting, looking at things, discussing the seasons, singing songs and feeling smug becasue you are all getting excercise and not polluting the environment.

Also shoul say, have you thought about cycling? DS who is now in reception cycles 4and a half miles with DH to and from school on his tag-a-long-bike two days a week. DH has DD on the front on a child seat and they all enjoy it. I couldn't manange the two of them on one bike, sounds like a nightmare to me, but I could manage DS on tag a long.

We do that sort of distance every day and have done since DD1 was at nursery. Sometimes she flags a bit, but mostly she's fine. Sometimes she runs all the way.

From experience, my top tip would be to train her that she must use the loo before leaving school at the end of the day. It's a long, long walk if they've forgotten to go all afternoon and then the teacher chucks them out without allowing time for them to go ...

depends entirelyon whether youare happy to walk it or not.
we do, and have done so quite regularly. i know someone whose 2.9 year old regularly , once a week walks this distance.
i also know women wh odrive down the same road as five minutes walk is too much for them

My two could both manage that distance/time - they are 2 and 3. But we have really tried hard to have them walking.
Ds1 can manage a 3 mile walk we do, and ds2 can do it as well if we stop for a snack half way and carry him the last bit. I think it depends how you 'train them' and don't just suddenly expect them to start walking a fair distance one day when they are not used to it.

Can I just ask the scooter mums - are they suitable for a 3 year old (and have to consider that his 2 year old bro will want a go too) or will he scoot off into the traffic? We don't have anywhere to keep bikes but I think scooters would fit under the stairs....

I had that length of walk with 3 of my DC. It didn?t bother them; in fact it was a great time. Time to chat about life. Great when it?s wet as we counted the worms etc. We moved ridiculously close to school and we all really miss that special time.

My two have always had to do this length of walk. DD1 walked 25 minutes each way from nursery age; dd2 walked with them from about 20 months; she was in the buggy before that. She moans more now, aged 11, than she ever did as a littlie!

We live a half mile from school, should only take 12 minutes each way. And I have to say the daily trek there and back (we almost never drive) is Hell.

Bickering, I'm thirsty, I need a wee,
slow down, speed up,
Can I have a laser party for my birthday, PLEASE? [birthday is 6 months away, last week it was begging for a swimming pool party],
we'll talk about it after school,

My dinner lady is so mean!
Do I have to do my homework?
Get out of the road now!
Can I have a sand-duster for my birthday?
We'll talk about that when we get home
Fall over, cry eyes out,
I'm thirsty, I need the toilet!,
Dawdle, look at the flowers!,
Baby squawking as hungry because it takes so long to get home from school,
extra bickering,
Mummy, Tommy just called me a turnip brain!
Etc.

So sometimes we drive .