Share your tips on teaching kids about road safety with Churchill Insurance. Win a £300 Love2Shop voucher! NOW CLOSED

[PoppyMumsnet]

Roads can be an intimidating place for children and a worrying place for parents, especially on the school run. Churchill Insurance wants to introduce extra lollipop men and women across Great Britain to help keep our children safe. Churchill would like to know how you teach your children about road safety. Which rules do you pass on about roads and cars? Do you have any fun and creative techniques to make them stick? How old were your children when you started teaching them – and how long did it take for things to sink in?

Lucy Brooksbank, Head of Marketing at Churchill, added: "Lollipoppers are the stalwarts of our communities, national treasures who bring fun and joy to everyone’s school run, as well as importantly keeping children safe. Churchill looks out for customer's best interests, so what better way to demonstrate that than by supporting our Lollipoppers and taking action to keep them on our streets? With child pedestrian casualties during the school run still an issue in the UK, we want to put 50 Lollipoppers on school crossings. We want people from across the UK, whether they are a parent or just concerned about a local crossing to nominate their schools and help to keep children safe during the school run.”

Please share your ideas about teaching road safety with Churchill Insurance below.
Everyone who posts on this thread will be entered into a prize draw to win a £300 Love2Shop voucher.

Make sure your school has a chance of receiving Lollipopper funding by nominating at www.churchill.com/lollipoppers

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Thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

Always cross at a pedestrian crossing, even if it means walking further. Even when the ' green man ' flashes still check that the oncoming cars are looking and stopping.

Ever since the DC were in the buggy I've taught them about the green man. They also know to stop at the kerb and wait for me to hold their hands. I'm just in the process of teaching DD2 to cross without me holding her hand, which, in theory, will make her more aware of the traffic.

always use the crossings that are near all schools wait for the green man do not talk too load when near a road so little children can concentrate on what they are doing

Don't listen to music or chatter when crossing the road because you should be looking and listening and concentrating on the traffic and checking that it is safe to cross before and whilst you are crossing.

We always make sure that we wait for the Green Man when crossing with the children. Always hold hands for crossing and make sure they stop , look and listen etc.
It is worrying my 2 older children do have to cross a busyish road on the way home from school that doesn't have a crossing so just always on at them to make sure they pay attention and listen and look out.

When they were smaller and also with my littlest when walking home from playgroup or nursery they always wanted to run ahead , I always would only let them run to the next lamppost -that way I could still see them and they were close and they felt it was a bit if a game.

We also used to read the 6 part books that you could send off for children with my oldest two -the road safety ones with stickers and characters like handy hold etc -but I don't think they do these anymore?

the tufty club

thats all i have to say

bring it back

There is The Children's Traffic Club

Consistency is essential. there's no point telling your kids how to cross the road safely, then ignoring the rules when crossing yourself. It has to be re-enforced every single time they cross the road and every time they see you cross the road.

Fears the roads are too dangerous has created a generation of children who don't have the necessary skills as they're used to being ferried everywhere!
Also not helpful is that smartphones can distract parents from chattering to their children if they are walking along.
It could be said that things were simpler "Back in the day," but also there was less traffic.
Children need to experience in order to learn. Parents can model safe practice, but children need opportunities to practise in a safe environment. Walking to school, discussing whether or not it's safe etc can be invaluable.
"What if"s enable children to assess risk and make plans / judgements for keeping safe.

Spend lots of time actually walking and practising road safety with your DCs - there's nothing else to it. They need to be aware of all potential safety threats (including cyclists), issues of traffic lights not working, cars driving thro' red lights etc... And they just don't get that know-how unless they're doing lots of journeys on foot. And they need to be walking in busy and quiet areas too (sometimes seemingly quiet side roads can be the most dangerous as adults and children can be more complacent).

Driving children everywhere is not the way to teach them road safety at all, so ditch the vehicle and use legs instead!

We live in the arse end of nowhere. Our village has no pavement, and neither does the village where the kids are at school. No marked crossings. The main town we use for shopping etc is completely pedestrianized. So opportunities are limited and I do worry about the kids when we go to stay with friends etc in busy towns.
Rules are:
Holding hands in car parks (my 7yo doesn't have to anymore, but she's not allowed to run and has places where she has to stop and wait for me.
Use crossings if we can - not many chances to do this so I over-egg the ones we do get.
Emphasis on listening as well as looking - our village is built round a corner so you don't see cars until the last minute, but you can always hear them.

shock tactics and true stories; worked for me

We've just talked about it naturally from day one, when they were tiny babies just verbalising or singin about crossing road, waiting for green man etc and that continues now. Dc are 4 and 2 and get cross when other people don't wait for green man!!

Teach them the Green Cross Code rules. Have a little quiz after, to check they've understood. Practise the steps in real life.

teach them the basics, stop, look and listen. when crossing roads with them, don't take chances. let them help you look for a safe place to cross.

Start early! Talk through crossing the road when they're tiny in the buggy so it becomes automatic to stop, look and listen.

My lo was about 2 when I started to talk her through crossing the road, there is a relatively busy road near her nursery which is perfect for practicing. We always stop, look and listen and now she is older (3.5years) she is in charge of holding my hand and telling us when it is safe to cross. I always ask her, can you see any cars? can you hear any cars? Then I ask trick questions I.e. When I see a car I ask "can we go now?" And she will reply "no" and point out why.

Not only does she know the stop look and listen. I have also taught her that we walk "quickly but carefully" and never run across the road. I have also told her that even if she sees a Zebra Crossing she has to stop and wait for the car to let her pass as some people are naughty and don't stop.

We do this every single day and I always practice the proper way to cross when I am with her I.e waiting for a green man where there is a crossing.

We also practice stopping and listening to instructions at other times I.e run ahead and stop at the first tree or stop at that gate. By practicing this often she is use to listening to instructions of when she must stop. We do it as a game I,e she will walk along and I will suddenly say STOP and she will stop. We also do the traffic light game in the park or garden red- stop yellow-walk green- run.

I always keep her with me and she knows she is not allowed to just run off and do her own thing. She is never aloud to run along a busy road or towards a road as I've explained it's dangerous to run out where there are roads as she could get hurt. We always practice these games on quiet streets.

It is important also to get her use to stopping at drive ways and checking it is safe to cross so she stops at every driveway and checks. I always leave plenty of time so I can always do this with her as it is so important to teach this from a young age do she can be safe and independent as she gets older.

A combination of skills and confidence is needed. Demonstrate to them all the practical things, and give them the chance to use what they know (with an onlooker at first, and only intervene if necessary) often enough so it becomes a good habit.

And yes, bring back the Tufty Club!

Now they are a bit older and from September will probably be walking home from school I talk to them about safer places to cross and how it's harder to see properly where there are parked cars, junctions, bends etc

We have a wait at the curb rule. And then we talk about what we're doing as we do it.
The thing that really helped both my daughters learn and remember was whatever activities they do at Rainbows and Brownies.... Not exactly sure what they do and how they teach but massive improvement in understanding after it was covered then!

have fun impromtu pop quizzes as you're out walking around

Constant reminders seem to work well - each and every time we cross the road -the stop, look and listen -go through the motions whether or not the road is clear. An early teaching of the road signs, the crossings and zebra crossings too.

Always wait for the green man. Practice stop, listen and look with participation!

Asking them 'what should we do?' every time you cross a road helps to drum it into them!

I think it is important to be serious when you explain so that they understand that road safety is a really important issue. And always set a good example by using crossings and waiting for the green man before walking across the road!