Spinoff of Obesity Thread - Walking to School?

[SDFgirl]

I walked to school when I was growing up.

Now my DD is heading off to Kindergarten next year and her school is 3/4 of a mile from our house. I would love to have her walk, but I obviously don't feel comfortable letting a Kindergarten student walk that far alone. If I was a SAHM, I could walk with her, but I work and have to get to my job as well.

It just got me to thinking...at what age would you feel comfortable letting your child walk to/from school?

 

[marcyinPA]

My kids have never taken the bus to school. We live within walking distance of the elementary, middle, and high school. I let them start walking to/from school WITH FRIENDS in 4th grade.

My youngest is in 8th grade now, and he walks home every day, but usually there are a group of kids. Sometimes he is alone- but he has a cell phone. We had a couple of "incidents" in the neighborhood not too long ago of someone trying to lure kids- and they were both teens! Crazies don't only prey on little kids! We do drive my son to school in the morning, because he has early a.m. practice every day for band, orchestra and jazz band, and has to be at school for 7:30. My DH just drops him off on his way to work.

We also drive my oldest (we carpool with neighbors) to the HS because although it is 2 miles away, they need to be there early for band at 7 am. I also pick him up- but he is practicing for his drivers test, so I let him drive home every day.

I think the key is they need to be in a group. Safety in numbers!!

 

[Poohforyou]

I walked to school when I was growing up.

Now my DD is heading off to Kindergarten next year and her school is 3/4 of a mile from our house. I would love to have her walk, but I obviously don't feel comfortable letting a Kindergarten student walk that far alone. If I was a SAHM, I could walk with her, but I work and have to get to my job as well.

It just got me to thinking...at what age would you feel comfortable letting your child walk to/from school?

My child road the bus or we carpooled since we're a few miles from school. However I wanted to share an idea that you might want to see if you can get started in your district. We have a walking school bus at our elementary school for kids that live within walking distance. How it works here is that there are parent volunteers (screened via background check) at established pickup points on the route to school. Each volunteer will wait until an established time and walk the kids that have congregated to the next stop and hand them off to the parent there. This will continue until the kids reach the crossing guard near the school.

 

[mercydisney]

My child road the bus or we carpooled since we're a few miles from school. However I wanted to share an idea that you might want to see if you can get started in your district. We have a walking school bus at our elementary school for kids that live within walking distance. How it works here is that there are parent volunteers (screened via background check) at established pickup points on the route to school. Each volunteer will wait until an established time and walk the kids that have congregated to the next stop and hand them off to the parent there. This will continue until the kids reach the crossing guard near the school.

I love this idea!

 

[Southernmiss]

We chose our neighborhood because our kids could walk to and from school. Like a pp poster, as long as there are at least 2 walking together, with at least one 4th or 5th grade, I am glad for the kids to walk by themselves. Dd is now in 5th grade and a friend's mom brings the friend to our house (instead of getting in the looong car rider line) and the girls walk. I go daily to walk home with her. Busy street to cross (no crossing guard) and we also have had questionable people follow kids in our neighborhood.

 

[lizabu]

At our school kids in JK and SK have to have a parent pick kids up. The teacher will only let them go to an adult who's on a list of people who can pick them up. By the time my kids were in 1st grade we had been walking to school for 2 years. We were only a few blocks from school. I would walk the first week or so and after that they were fine. I don't worry about strangers. I worry more that they are going to poke along or start touching something in someone's yard or whatever.

 

[mombrontrent]

My kids age 6, 10 and 13 all walk just over a mile to school. My oldest started walking with friends in first grade. I always walked with them in kindergarten and after that they walked together or with friends.

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

I think it totally depends on your walk.

In our old urban neighborhood, the answer would have been never. Although we lived within walking distance to the school, there had been several shootings of young boys, generally either in the process of a robbery or because of gang violence. We lived in a safe neighborhood, and I felt safe with him at school, but some of the blocks in between were way outside my comfort zone.

In our current neighborhood, the walk from our house to the elementary school is across a park and through a nice safe quiet neighborhood, maybe 1/2 a mile. I'd probably let a 9 year old do it, younger than that I'd want a friend with him. I don't know how easy it would be to find that friend since we have a bus. They calculate distances based on driving distance which means around the park rather than through.

Right now, I won't let my middle schooler walk to school, but that's because it's along a bike path that lined with trees that drop crazy amounts of pollen that give him asthma and allergies. The last 2 times he tried to walk to school he had to turn around and come home due to severe nosebleeds caused by the nonstop sneezing. As soon as pollen season ends he could walk again if he wanted to.

 

[runsandjumps]

If you have a nice path with good visibility- lots of houses- then probably 8 by themselves. It just depends on your neighborhood. If say you had some rundown homes, with cars driving through at all hours with blaring music then maybe never.

I walked when I was I think 7. But we lived in a older neighborhood with lots of families and I would usually meet up with friends.

 

[indimom]

When I was a kid, I lived 20 miles from the school so there was no walking for me. It was a new experience when Dh and I moved to a small town with schools close by.
The primary and high schools are still too far, but the intermediate and middle schools are only six blocks away. So, once our kids hit fourth grade, they were allowed to walk to school in good weather.
If the primary building had been that close, I would have let them walk in first grade, but only as part of a group. I would have worried sending a six-year-old off on their own, not because of strangers, but because of traffic and my kid being absentminded.

 

[MomNeedsVacay]

We live about 1/2mile from school so we walk almost everyday. I walk with them because I enjoy the little chat we have and I walk our dog too and he enjoys it as well. I may never stop walking my kids no matter how old they get... On some mornings that its impossible for me to get out the door, I send them along with a neighbor who is also walking their children.. We have about 20 kids on our street.

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

The elementary school the twins will go to next year is at the end of our street(about eight houses down). I can see the school entrance from my front porch. I will probably walk them the first few days and then just watch them as long as they enter the school in the front.

If they are uncomfortable, I'll walk with them. No big deal.

 

[cybrkitn]

I've often thought about that with DS10. I don't know if I would ever feel comfortable with him walking to a school until he's in high school. If it was with a group of friends, I don't know if I would mind as much. The school he attends goes from Pre-k up to 8th grade and is not in walking distance. So walking is out for him.

Times have changed since the late 70's and into the 80's. Traffic is heavier in my area that I would worry about him. Even though DS is 10, there are times where he still doesn't look first before crossing

When DH and I were kids, we both walked to the elementary school b/c we were that close. I didn't start to walk to school until I was in 3rd grade. After that, I took the bus for 4th and 5th grade. When I entered middle school for 6-8th grade, I alternated between the bus and riding my bike the 10 minutes to school. Looking back on it now, I'm surprised my parents felt comfortable with me walking to elementary school by myself.

 

[Liberty Belle]

When my oldest was in elementary school, we lived only about 5 blocks away from his school, but our house was on a very busy street (especially during commuting hours). We did not let him walk to school until he was in 4th grade, but it was because of the street, not the distance. While we lived there, there was at least once accident a month in front of our house and I'm guessing many more along the street to the school.

My youngest's school is too far away for him to walk. He'd have to cross that same street and an even busier one, anyway. It takes us about 10-12 minutes to drive him to school.

When I was growing up, I always walked to school, except in highschool, because it was too far away. I think in k-4 I had to walk one block and 3 blocks (we moved), in 5th about 6 blocks, and in middle school, quite a few - maybe 10 or so. My parents usually would drive us if it was raining.