Walking to school.

Jay-Jay_4

I just wanted to add that my eldest had only turned 4 yrs old three weeks before she started school and by the end of the school day she was very tired simply from being mentally stimulated all day. Often she would be weepy at hometime and just want to rest on the sofa. By Friday afternoon she was exhausted.

She started to cope much better the following year when she was 5yrs old and had much more stamina. It wasn't to do with physical exercise, it was simply because she found the school day more manageable. She could happily walk home after school and play for a couple of hours by then.

All children are different and you will know quite quickly of your son isn't up to the journey. It may be that he's quite tired at first but he'll soon have more stamina and the journey will become easy.

jellyhead

i remember lots of crying exchausted 4 year olds in our playground, and more than one mum took the buggy for the home journey. my boy was almost 5 when he started (he's a summer birthday but he didn't enter reception until the april/summer term) and i think that made a difference, he would charge around the playground, run home and spend an hour on the park on the way home. it's only half a mile away and i think he'd have managed a 2 mile walk fine.

black-saturn

Jay-Jay wrote:

I just wanted to add that my eldest had only turned 4 yrs old three weeks before she started school and by the end of the school day she was very tired simply from being mentally stimulated all day. Often she would be weepy at hometime and just want to rest on the sofa. By Friday afternoon she was exhausted.

Sounds a bit like me :rolleyes:

filigree_2

Sometimes with catchment areas it isn't so much a case of a circle drawn on a map, but the school will accept the children who live closest. In a year where there is high demand and a lot of children live much closer than you, they'll be given preference. Siblings of existing pupils get preference so there might only be a handful of vacancies each year. It would be a shame if you got your heart set on this one school then were disappointed. The school should publish a prospectus with information about their admission procedure.

Sorry if this sounds silly, but have you considered moving closer to the school? I've heard of parents trading down to a small flat just so they can afford to buy a property in the same street as their preferred school. Of course if you rent this might not be an option.

As for the two mile walk, my son had to walk nearly a mile each way including a long hill and he was exhausted - on bad days I caved in and took him in the pushchair. He had physical disabilities but honestly I would have balked at making a healthy 4 year old walk two miles. Remember, if your child does that walk twice a day you'll have to do it four times a day! It's cheaper than going to the gym

black-saturn

I find the school run one of the most mind numbingly boring, repetetive tasks when looking after children. So the shorter the better for me. Mind you I have been doing the same route every single day for 8 years so that could be why.

Jet

I don't think a 2 mile walk is unreasonable.

However, I do think you will need to put the little one into training a while before he starts school. You wouldn't expect to run a marathon without training first would you? It will be too much for him/her to cope with - school life and the walk all at the same time.

As for being exhausted when they start school - yes they are. But it's mental exhaustion not physical exhaustion. If I have a stressful day at work, going to the gym makes me feel better, not worse.

mummysaver

My children have all walked to school, currently dd2 and dd3 walk to their school which is just under 2 miles away, dd2 is 8 and dd3 is just 5 and has been walking well since she was able! However if it is very wet or windy, or sometimes when they are near the end of a week or term and are getting tired we go by car. The children are more than happy to walk when it is sunny and bright, but nowhere near so keen when it is wet and blowing a gale, and to be fair nor am I!

All my children have had plenty of energy getting to and from school, the day seems to tire them mentally rather than physically, but sometimes the mental tiredness can have a knock on effect of just making them grouchy and miserable and simply not want to walk.

So now we sometimes walk and sometimes take the car, depending on what activities are on and what has been happening, and also how we all feel. This year we are planning on cycling to their first school, we can go the back way to avoid the main road, and though it's about 3 miles it's a nice ride through country lanes, but we will be practising with dd3 over the next half term hols to make sure that she is up to it!

Philippa36

I used to walk 3 miles back from the school with my children, they were older though ~ 8 & 10 at the time. We didn't walk every day but in good weather we did. It was a really nice way of spending the time after school. While we were walking we discussed far more than we would have done in the car for the short time it would have taken to drive the distance. It was tiring but there was no rush and we could wander along at our own pace. The only issue I had at the time was the lack of proper pavement to walk on but we were unlucky if we saw more than one or two vehicles. We lived in a rather remote area on a single track road.

Bikes were always useful but I had to get them to the school first which wasn't my idea of fun!

I would say you should have no problems even with the hills. If you don't have to rush back, and then you have a car to use for those times.

jellyhead

our school doesn't have bike racks, which is a shame.

black saturn i quite enjoy the walk to school and my son does too. he says we always have our most interesting and varied discussions while we're walking, and most of the time if my mum or sister call to offer us a lift he'll say no thanks (as long as the baby is ready and won't make him late for school!). i get educated on the way home if he's had history, geography or science lessons as he regurgitates the entire lesson for me and they have much better lessons now than they did when i was at school, i think by age 7 he could have taken my high school exams :rotfl:

black-saturn

Perhaps its just me or it could be that there are 7 roads and about 5 of them are busy ones so most of the time I am concentrating on those. I find it very tedious :rolleyes: