5yo - what distance is ok to walk to school?

[treedelivery]

What do you think? Assuming ok-ish weather and a good nights sleep and big breakfast etc etc. On a day with no afterschool clubs etc.

cast your votes please.

[chixinthestix]

Its about 1.5 miles to DCs school and we bike it as walking takes too long - more than 1/2 hr. DS has been riding his bike since he was 5 and DD now 4 rides a tagalong behind me. Before that I had a trailer and towed them both since they were babies.
Admittedly we don't do it as much this time of year and if it wasn't along country lanes I might feel differently. We used to push the last busy bit near school until I was sure DS could cope with riding in traffic. They love cycling and beg to ride to school not drive.

[fernie3]

oh it is annoying in the rain (like today) but it just means a good layer on her in the morning plus wellies etc and changing into something dry at the end of the day. The only real problem I had was ice, the roads were clear so the school opened but it was impossible to get there walking as it was just ice the whole way and we were all falling over!

[fernie3]

we walk about 1.5 -2 miles (depending on if I have to go the long way around with the double!).she did moan at first and so sat on the front of the pushchair but now (after a few months) she is used to it.

[Gubbins]

Only you know how it'd go. We are lucky enough to live about 100 yards from the school, but used to walk everywhere with my elder daughter, who would be absolutely fine with a walk like that twice a day. My younger just wouldn't manage it at all though, although she'd probably be ok scooting for the journey in, at least. Coming home would be a nightmare.

I'd cycle, with the small one in a bike seat and the elder on the pavement.

[onlyjoinedforoffers]

Riven i hope you dont mind me asking why does the school not lay on transport for dd?

[UniS]

2 and a bit miles will be fine. you all need proper waterproofs tho or you will wimp out at first excuse. Stick the school bag on the buggy and splash in puddles, look at cows, hit hedge with stick etc.

[SpawnChorus]

Mine are 3 and 5 and it usually takes about 45 mins to walk 1.5 miles. They are slow lazy buggers.

Scooters definitely help, and you can even pull them along while they ride the scooter if they're flagging.

2.3 miles would take blimming ages with my kids though.

[Builde]

Snow is hard if you have a younger child; pushchairs don't work in snow! If you can persuade younger one to sit on a sledge then you're ok...

We walk a mile in most weathers. A mile seems very little distance for a five year old; she skips home. The bigger problem is the younger sibling who - not being at school - has to be pushed/carried/cajoled twice the distance.

[roisin]

At our primary school they have a 'healthy living' policy of walking whenever possible. So a local trip - say 4 mile round trip - that might have been done before in a morning with a bus, will now be done as a whole day trip, with the children taking packed lunches and walking.

[CarGirl]

My youngest walked the school run there and back twice a day (1 mile each way) from about a month after her 2nd birthday, she had turned into a pushchair refuser . Once she got to 3 she started using her scooter instead but they all walk briskly as I can't bear walking slowly so they had to either keep up or sit in the pushchair!

I am mean I suppose. I was shocked when escorting reception class to the church at Christmas at how many of them struggled to walk half a mile - some of them kept wandering off it was just bizarre.

[roisin]

We are big walkers and dss walked (relatively) long distances from being tiny. But I still found the school run a real drag at first. It was only 0.6 mile, but ds2 had to do it 4 times a day for the first year when he was 3. The last journey home - when they were both shattered - was a killer and always took ages.

[legalalien]

DS is 5.3 and we walk a mile each way every day. He's been doing it for over a year now without complaint - he particularly likes the rainy days as he gets to jump in puddles (I am less keen). Although he's the smallest in his class I suspect he's the fittest - I'm amazed at the amount of whining, huffing and puffing that his classmates carry on with at the shortest walk!

[Bonsoir]

My DD (5.3) can manage 1.4 km to school easily now, at quite a cracking pace.

However, we do use the bus when it is very wet or she is very tired. Thankfully we have the option.

[HennyRettaBadaBada]

I meant how busy the roads are for me. I am a wimp about cycling on roads. We live on a main one, and I ride (carefully) on the pavement...

[CarGirl]

they cycle on the pavements!!!! Actually the police told us that our road is so busy and dangerous with the school run mummies that even the adults should be on the pavement!

[HennyRettaBadaBada]

Onlyjoined: what you do is get the waterproofs out. If you ever decide to venture out in the rain with children, don't take a brolly - I have a plastic old lady-type hat which is far more practical, and doesn't cover my eyes in the way a hood does. I suppose we could drive as it's nearly two miles to DS's school, but don't choose to (not least as it would take just as long). There are worse things in life than getting cold and wet, and the DCs are so used to it that they don't complain (though will presumably be starting threads on MN in 25 years' time about mean mummies who made them walk in the rain ). If it's raining, they wear wellies and carry their school shoes. Their coats are waterproof (not shower proof). If I am sodden when I get home, clothes soon dry in the airing cupboard.

All that said, I wouldn't make DD, who's five, walk 2.3 miles twice a day, and I'm quite hardcore. Biking would depend on how busy the roads are.

[MumNWLondon]

With no buggy board - around 1 mile is reasonable - we live I think 0.86 miles from school and DD has walked from start of reception (just turning 5) - DS sometimes walks (nearly 4 in nursery) but sometimes in buggy. If its pouring we drive, and they often moan as we get close to home.

However there is a family in DD's class who always walk and live around 2 miles from school; they have P&T buggy and their daughter age 5 (nearly 6) walks some of it and goes for part of time in buggy. Little sister in the nursery goes in buggy. Could also do that distance with buggy board.

[HSMM]

Used to walk mine 2.5 miles to school and back once a week and we used the car the rest of the week (I walked with my bike, so I could get home in 5 mins).

[treedelivery]

I just did a route finder to the school I went to. It was 0.9 mile each way and we must have just done it in all weather as we had no car and there was no bus.

I remember it as being miles and miles and miles. I'm a bit gutted to learn it's less than 1!

[onlyjoinedforoffers]

i never said they had and i used to have to walk a mile when i was little but cant remember much about it old fogey luckily primary and secondary schools were near for ds1 and ds2 gets taxi because he has asd i was just wondering

[CarGirl]

torrential rain, wellies and raincoats?????

I have before now taken them with a change of clothes in a bag.

Not everyone has the luxury of access to a car.

[onlyjoinedforoffers]

for those who walk miles serious question What do you all do when its torrential rain, blizzard or Thunder and lightning etc it must be miserable then?