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

I used to let my son take his favourite teddy out when I was teaching him about road safety. I would teach him about crossing the road safely and he would teach teddy! Worked really well and he grasped really quickly how to be safe on the roads (And loved keeping teddy safe too!)

I think they most important thing is to teach them by example! Also whenever we walk anywhere we always talk about keeping safe and I always repeat the stop,look and listen code.

Always set a good example and use the crossings available and only when the green man shows plus make sure they look before they step out even when green man shows as some drivers still drive through them
teach them to use their ears as well as their eyes and if they hear a siren to step right back from the road as some emergency vehicles have to mount the pavement to get round traffic
When they are on the way to and from school to use the lollipop man/woman and to do as they are asking them and never play chicken it is not big it is very dangerous

I think the main thing is consistency - it's no good teaching road safety when you have time, them dashing across a quiet road without 'stop, look, listen' when you're in a rush. You need to lead by example! Our kids are grown up now, but I see so many mums rushing across roads with a pushchair, or pulling young children across without walking down to a pedestrian crossing, or taking time with the crossing!

My 4 year old DS knows to always stop and wait to hold an adult's hand before crossing any road. We then use the stop, look and listen method that I was taught as a child, and we always wait for the green man if there is a pelican crossing.

I always make sure i wait for the green man ...tell children that he is there for a reason...green means go , red means stop...no in between !

Hi one of my tips is to always look in the driveways, as even though you maybe walking on the paths, there is a possibility that a car could pull out of their drive without looking.

At every driveway I can trust my daughter to look and make sure, even though she is 7.

I try to be consistent eg always wait for the green man when with DD, even when the road is clear.

Have involved DD in crossing the road from an early eg getting her to spot cars on the road, to suggest where we cross etc

Don't make too much of a game of it as I think that it would make DD overexcited.

The hardest thing to do is be a good role model. This means not crossing when the light is red and making yourself look like a crazy person by looking left and right when you cross. Easier said than done.

I talked to mine about crossing the road safely right from as soon as we could chat together - even when they were in a pushchair we would talk through what we had to do to ensure we were going to be safe. We also talked about when we we saw other 'silly' people who were doing it wrong & risking their lives! Children need to be under no illusion that roads & vehicles are very dangerous and that when things go wrong, it can be really, really horrible. I don't sugar coat anything!

Standing at the kerb for a long time waiting for everyone to look each way and check for traffic. Learning to stretch your arms very wide, without actually knocking a child out in your panic that they might step out into the road. Consistent instructions and repeated every time you get to a road. My 9 year old still struggles not to dash out without looking, but we are making progress slowly. We've now got the "Never run into the road after a ball" rule firmly embedded - after much repetition.

I always used a sing song rhyme I made up with my DS, and we always, always held hands (he's 12 now and I've drumme fit into him so much and he still sometimes subconsciously slipshod hand into mine)
Anyway the silly rhyme was

Keep looking left and right to make sure that it is right, and we always use our ears to check and see if the coast is clear.

I know it's pretty rubbish but it became a habit for him and because it was a rhyme he picked it up quickly and he paid attention because it was fun doing the actions

I tell the kids to keep checking with eyes and ears before they've started to cross and while they are crossing - never stop being vigilant. And to walk, never run. They are only 3 and 5 though so it just takes something silly like a bumble bee to fly past and they get spooked.

My children and other adults have loved my phrase of "Peep and Creep" when they have attempted to cross the road.

It really has worked and gave me the confidence ( and them) to start crossing small roads together.

My advice to my dc is a bit negative really, rather than fun. It's:

Even if you are in the right as a pedestrian or cyclist, and the car in the wrong, the car will win and you could die. So be super careful and don't assume the car driver is being careful enough or has seen you.

talk to your children about the traffic and the dangers

Start young! Even when my kids were in a buggy, we stopped, looked and listened and I told them what we were doing. Now holding hands is non-negotiable and you don't scoot/ride/run across roads you always get off and push it. Mine are pretty good but I still keep drilling it in to them.

We've been teaching since around 2 but still working on it. 7yo is a runner but he stops at kerbs and 9yo wants to be allowed to the local shop without me but I'm not convinced she's safe enough yet.

I'm not sure I'm ready yet either. I think I want some kind of formal competency test to do with them

We stop look and listen, and we started doing that as soon as they could walk. They got it quite early on because it had always been done.

The best way to teach the children road safety is to show them by example.

I've seen too many parents failing to wait at zebra crossings to cross the road. As soon as they see a gap between traffic they zoom across the road, grabbing the kids as they go.

Showing them to wait for the green crossing light and cross safely is the best way.

As well as the usual stop , look , and listen , I tell my kids to always take two steps back from the kerb so they are a safe distance away from the road while they wait to cross .

We absolutely need a lollipop lady (or 2) at dc school, it's an accident waiting to happen. It's a big, busy village and animosity between parents haring in late & local residents not stopping at the zebra crossing.
I tell my kids, always assume the driver hasn't seen you. Wait for them to stop completely.

Set a good example of road safety when with your children. Even when DS was in a press we waited at traffic lights. Now he is 2.5 we talk about road safety and how roads are for cars, pavements are for people and the kerb is the safety buffer he must not walk on. I often hear him chatting to himself about these things - V cute.

Just picked my friends daughter up from preschool, and thought i'd share as had never thought about it - she scooted along the path, and as we got to the road, she swiftly picked up her scooter in her hands, ready to cross the road! Made me think that it's actually very important to do this, and teach them to do this, to ensure they are fully aware of the road, and not too busy scooting!

I teach my children that they should wear contrasting coloured clothes so they are more visible in poor light and I tend to explain the clothes that I have chosen to them.