Any carpooling tips for school?

[pantherlj]

My daughter will be attending a school about 2 miles from home. There are no buses and no sidewalks (so no walking).

We are considering carpooling with 2 other families in the neighborhood. Do you have any been there, done that tips for carpooling? Ie what works, what to avoid?

Is it best for one family to do an entire week of drop off/pick up and then switch? Or, is it better to rotate days?

I know it's not rocket science but I am not sure the best way to set this up.

Thanks

 

[dawson5]

We're doing this for two boys in football. Doing it both ways. One guy drove back and forth all week because he could not help for the next two weeks. The other mom's in that carpool, one at least, cannot do this because of work. The other carpool it seems like one family drives to and from for one day, we have enough people that we only drive once a week for that carpool.

 

[cvjw]

I have 2 carpools going - one with 3 other families to soccer practice, and another with 2 other families to the bus pick-up site for Magnet High school. We do a week for each family - with that family dropping off and picking up for the entire week. We have had our same soccer carpool for 3 years, and it works great - with 3 other families, I am only responsible for soccer practice one week per month - can't beat that! If someone has something come up during their week, we just switch with each other.

 

[dreamer423]

we've had set days b/c a week at a time doesn't work. have an emergency/sick policy. ie-if ur driving and ur kid is sick-who still takes other kids on short notice?

 

[Disneycrazymom]

Also discuss procedure for dropping off a child to an empty house. I am not a fan of car pools. We have done them in the past but honestly I avoid them when I can.

 

[sk!mom]

To me the easiest is one week at a time or one does drop off and the other does pick up every day. Trading days is harder to keep track of. For us, though it always takes a lot of coordination as we only have working parents in our carpool so we're working around parent schedules too.

 

[verlee]

To me the easiest is one week at a time or one does drop off and the other does pick up every day. Trading days is harder to keep track of. For us, though it always takes a lot of coordination as we only have working parents in our carpool so we're working around parent schedules too.

I agree with this. I carpool with one other family. Last year we tried to do it by days, an every other schedule. But it got confusing pretty fast and was suprisingly tough to keep track of. We are both stay at home moms. At christmas break we switched to they drop off, I pick up and that was great. Make sure to have an idea of what will happen if there is a last minute problem. Kids get sick cars break down ect. I like the carpool but it takes some coordination especially with multiple families involved.

 

[Dizneydaz]

Until today, I was carpooling with just one family (across the street). I take in the a.m. and she picks up. Works well for us since she has a 16 month old and doesn't want to have to wake her for the ride in the a.m. Last year our kids were on different tracks so they only went to school together 2 out of every 4 months. That meant for one month per quarter I had to drop off and pick up-HATED IT! Now that our school has changed to traditional schedule our kids all go at the same time. One of the few positives about losing our year round schedule.

Today I had a 1st grader from down the street join our pool. (With my DD10, that makes 4 kids) The mom has 2 babies at home-one only a few weeks old. She feels bad that she's not driving or picking up (at this point) but my other neighbor and I told her it's okay for now and we'll see how it goes and let her help out a little later. I would be a nice break for me not to have to drive every morning.

Next year DD will be in intermediate school so I'll have to figure that one out, once I figure out which schopl she will attend. If she goes to the same school as the girl across the street that will be the easiest. If she goes to a different school, I don't know what I'll do yet.

 

[FoundMyPrince]

Two years ago we car-pooled with another family. They would take our son to school, we would take their son home in the afternoon. It worked great since it was the same schedule all year long.

 

[sk!mom]

Make sure to have an idea of what will happen if there is a last minute problem. Kids get sick cars break down ect. I like the carpool but it takes some coordination especially with multiple families involved.

Very good point. In our carpool, we agreed that switching the night before was fine if you needed to but in the mornings we would only cancel in an absolute emergency- car broken down, etc... The driver drives the other kids even if their own child has gotten up sick and is staying home. This works best for us since we're all working parents and might already be gone to work or unable to change our own schedule at the last minute.