I was reading this thread discussing the difficulties of getting a young child to school in scenarios where you are too close for the bus, but too far for you to be comfortable with the walk, and I caught myself thinking that the OP was right about the distance being too far, until I remembered my childhood where I walked around 1.5 miles each way to elementary school, and didn’t think much of it as everyone else was doing it.
How far did you walk to school? Would you let your kids do that today in your neighborhood?
In this day and age (meaning: in a day and age where my neighbors might call the cops and I might face negligence charges NOT a day and age where actual danger in greater than it used to be), I wouldn’t let a kindergartner walk alone at all. I’d walk with her or arrange for an older kid to walk her if the school was a mile or less away.
There’s a school a block and a half from my front door, and I’d let a first grader do that alone - probably up to a half a mile, if no major streets without crossing guards were involved. We’d practice it together several times over the summer, eventually I’d walk but she’d have to declare all the turns so I was confident she knew the way, and I’d step into the street without looking to see if she stopped me and crossed properly. But I bet she’d be the only solo walker at that age.
Third grade feels about right for a walk up to a mile, and fifth grade for up to 2 miles. My son’s commute now is a bit over 3 miles - he bikes to a friend’s house closer to the school, and then walks the last mile from there. He started doing that as a freshman in high school.
We live in Chicago, the city proper - not that part you see in the movies with all the skyscrapers, but in an area about half houses and half 6-unit apartment buildings. A lot like the neighborhoods you saw on Sesame Street, actually. Definitely urban.
I walked about 3/4 of a mile in a suburban area growing up. The first day of kindergarten, my mother walked us, and from then on we were on our own. I had one other friend my age on my block I walked with, and two girls a year younger that sometimes walked with us, as well. To be honest, my Stranger Danger programming is strong enough that it would scare me today, but I’d overcome that and send her on her way anyhow. (With, again, some training over the summer.)
Most of elementary school I lived way too far away to walk, but in 5th grade I walked about half a mile in all but the coldest and snowiest weather. In middle school I never walked but rode my bike sometimes, and that was maybe four miles. In high school I walked five miles home occasionally because it only took an hour and a half or so, and that got me home as much as half an hour before the bus would.
In fifth grade it was a suburban neighborhood but I usually cut through the woods anyway. After that, I was walking alongside a country highway most of the way.
Last year, totnak was in second grade and walked about 2.5km to school most mornings. He walked with three friends (brothers) who live nearby; sometimes one of their parents would give all the boys a ride to school. I work nearby and usually picked him up and drove him home. This year, in third grade, he’s not going to the afterschool program any more so he will either walk both ways or come to my work and wait for me there.
Flodjunior is in ninth grade, and his school is closer. He walks or bikes both ways every day.
Two questions here: how far, and would you let them go by themselves. And we really ought to be talking specifically about 5-year-olds, since that is the age mentioned in the other thread.
To the second question: the answer is most definitely “no”, unless the trip required crossing no roads at all, ever. Never mind “stranger danger” - I don’t want them squished!
To the first question: with my daughter it would be hell on earth. We’ve taken some practise trips up to the school she’ll be going to next year - it’s 700 metres away, took us 25 minutes. Obviously she’ll get better with practise, but if you scale that up to two miles (about 3.6 km I believe) we’re talking over two hours :eek:
When I was a little older, I walked to the bus stop (about 800metres, so GoogleMaps tells me) and I can clearly remember the trauma my mother went through dragging me so far, every day - oh the agony! - and how I protested about it. So it’s probably genetic. Funnily enough, these days I really like walking - go figure!
On the other hand, Rachel’s best friend from preschool walked over here the other day from his house, which is almost exactly 2 miles away, took 'em 45 minutes and not a care in the world. His two younger sibs came, pushed in their stroller, and I very much suspect that the only reason their dad didn’t let the three-year-old walk is he doesn’t trust him not to run on the road. And when I suggested the bus on the way back they totally blew it off, and apparently had a fine trip home too!
So clearly it is possible, depending on the child (I don’t know if the fact that the best friend is a boy is significant for stamina. The fact that he’s turned five already probably is though). Hard work for a littly though. Myself, I’d take a bike!
I used to walk 1.8 km with my brother, I was 5 and he was 7. It was the other side of a ridge - really uphill both ways! He still (38 years later) complains that he had to miss Huckleberry Hound on Thursdays to walk me to Brownies in the afternoon. The hall was next to the school. I’d have preferred to go by myself and by 7 years old, I did.
My kid walks 800m to school and has since she was five. I walked with her until she had just turned seven, then I only went halfway with her on my way to work. She’d be quite capable of going by herself.
By five years old, she was happy enough to come on a 5km walk with me and possibly ask for a short rest about a third from the end (that would be just within 2 miles)- me carrying her for a couple of hundred meters was enough for her to get her wind and finish by herself.
One of the kids we knew at Playcentre could keep up with his dad on 10km jogs. He was almost four. Impressive kid.
I would let my soon-to be 5th grader do it. In fact I think he might ride his bike to school this year. It’s a little over a mile away. My soon-to-be 1st grader could manage it, as well, I figure. But the bus stop is less than 50 yards from my door, and the kids kind of like riding the bus with their friends.
I used to walk all over town by myself when I was 5. Very different time and place, though; I grew up in a small southern town, somewhat Mayberry-ish, and everybody knew me, because my mom would get reports of my activities from time to time (apparently, I would go around to a few ladies’ house’s whom I knew would give me cookies). I was a 5 year old back door man.
But I didn’t walk to elementary school, even though it was only 4 blocks away…I think it was more because of my proclivity for wandering than anything.
From Kindergarten to 2nd grade I walked about a bit over a mile to the bus stop in a rural town near Lake Tahoe… most days alone. In winder we sometimes had several feet of snow and I had snowshoes because they only plowed up to the street where the buses ran… above that got plowed much later in the day. After that, I lived in more urban settings and the walk t the bus stop was only a couple blocks.
When my sons were little guys I let them go just about anywhere, if there were enough of them. Trip into town on the train - requires 6 or more friends; walk to school 2 or more friends, go to the movies without an adult 3 or more friends.
Really I just played it by ear. When my second son started school I was on leave for 3 months. I used to walk him 75% of the way to school and then say goodbye at the shops so he could continue with whatever friends he met up with there. If he met friends on the way up the hill I would drop off and lag behind and just make sure they were being sensible.
In the afternoon I would walk up to the shops, buy what I was going to cook that night and meet him on the way home.
In kindergarten, I walked a little over a mile to school, but not alone. The girl next door was my age and we walked together. There was a shortcut that lopped about a quarter-mile off the walk, but we couldn’t take it if our moms were waving goodbye as we left; the shortcut required us to start off in the opposite direction from the normal route. We crossed a four-lane on the way, but there was a crossing guard.
In 4th grade I was walking a little over 5 miles. My folks lied about where we lived to get us into a better school. Same school district, so we weren’t breaking any laws; just violating the rules of the school district. Two of my sisters and I walked together; I was in charge of navigating and one of my sisters was in charge of my behavior. Heh.
In high school, it was also about 5 miles. There was no school bus service at all; if you took the bus, it was the regular transit bus. You’d either have to transfer, taking two busses between school and home, or you’d walk 2 miles to the stop for the second bus and take it the rest of the way. I walked for the first year of HS; then I started riding my bicycle, which was definitely *not *cool. I was the only kid out of nearly 2900 students who rode a bike. There wasn’t even a bike rack anywhere; I chained my bicycle to a pipe in a small area where the ‘hoods’ parked their motorcycles. Surprisingly (at least to me at the time), the bikers were the only guys who didn’t make fun of me.
In college, it was only a mile and a half to campus. I picked where I lived and I made sure it was a reasonable distance, as some days I’d have to get to school three times.
I live just under 2 miles from the nearest school. I wouldn’t want any of the elementary school kids in the neighborhood walking there on their own, especially not the littlest ones. Why? The speed limit is 45 mph all the way there but most people speed anyway, they’d need to cross that busy road twice, and there are no sidewalks. Middle school kids I don’t bat an eye at, but kids half their age need to be with someone much older if they’re going to be skirting the side of the road, you know?
On the other hand, I don’t think the distance is a big deal at all - little kids have a lot more stamina that people give them credit for these days. I used to walk that distance myself home from kindergarten, but I had both my dad and city sidewalks to keep me safe from traffic.
My son is eleven, starting sixth grade this year, and he’ll be riding his bike 1.3 miles to school. I’m pretty much petrified about it. I’m most worried about him being hit by a car, only a little worried about stranger danger, but then there’s the weather, which is usually either blazing heat or torrential rain. And I’m having a bitch of a time finding him the right bike.
I’m trying to contain myself though. This is going to be a really good experience for him, mentally and physically, and certainly convenient for us as well. He’ll be with friends, there’s a crossing guard…
I was a basket case when my son started riding. But you’ll see, it’s really amazingly good for them. Not only the exercise (which, let’s face it, with 20 minutes of gym class a day, and most of that spent standing around, they really could use) but the increased confidence and self-awareness is pretty darn cool, too. There aren’t enough opportunities for building a sense of competence and independence for our kids these days - this is still a really, really good one.
Does he have a cell phone yet? When Ky started biking, I got him a cheap pay-as-you-go phone (they’re literally $10 now for the cheapest TracFone, and they can’t go over their minutes without warning!), and the first few days he texted me when he got to school safely before putting his phone away for the day. And it was very freeing for us both when he could call me and ask if he could bike over to a friend’s house after school for an hour, instead of me picking him up, driving him to friend’s, picking him up again and hour later and driving him home. Once he had wheels and a way to get hold of me, his world and mine both opened up a lot!
It’s about 1.4 miles to the neighborhood school. That’s outside the 1 mile limit our county has for elementary school kids (high school is 1.5 miles or higher to get a bus ride) so it’s a non-issue. However - I would let my daughter (now 11) walk that, since it’s along a major road, and other kids would be doing the same. Much before that, no - too much risk of her getting distracted. There’s also only one major road crossing, which is very close to our house, so we could see her across that.
However… 2 years ago, she was attending a different school for a bit. There was confusion over the bus routing (she was added at the last minute) and one person from the transportation tried to argue me into having her go to an existing stop, which was roughly over a mile. “The limit for elementary is 1 mile so that’s allowable!” she insisted. I pointed out that the mile, in our case, was along a stretch of road which - though no major street crossing was required - had no sidewalks, nor any houses, she’d be the only child going that way, and if she got there and missed the bus, she’d have no way of contacting us. Or she could walk along the other side of the road (involving a major crossing at both ends)… where there was a sidewalk the whole way, only, well, at one point the sidewalk dips down and is invisible from the road and goes right next to a wooded swampy area, and there are no houses there either… (as in, I don’t go down that way myself!).
I would not have let her go to that bus stop even if it were less than a mile.
In the neighbourhood where I grew up and similar, today? The only concerns would be time and weather. Of course, in reality, the school was (and is) either just up the hill (a five minute walk) or down the hill (a ten-fifteen minute walk).
The neighbourhood where I live now? To get anywhere, you’d have to walk right by the main road, where the insane morning commuters drive. Not a chance in hell for a child younger than 12. Of course, there is a school just behing my house (a 30 second walk). And some decent public transport to everywhere else (not great, but decent.)
And thank you for the reassuring words!