Little B is going to Secondary in September and it’s suddenly daunted on me that I can not walk her to school for the entire future. At some point she will have to start walking on her own and independence doesn’t come overnight.
If you are a regular reader of Little Scandinavian you might remember that we moved last summer. Our previous schoolrun in London was through enchanted woodland, passed peaceful ponds and down into a Dickensian village. You can see it here in our post from 2011 on Walking to school. As we’ve moved away from a very residential street to a more urban area, the school run has changed as well. We are now passing our local vegetable shop, butcher and post office on our way, walking along tree lined streets up to the old part of the village where the school is situated.
© Little Scandinavian. Our schoolrun on a rainy day in May 2013
So when it comes to building up and encourage independence I’ll be talking to the school for advise as well as to other other parents living in our neighbourhood. And although the schoolrun hasn’t always been that enjoyable, when work is piling up or on a rainy and miserable day… I sure will miss it when that chapter will be closed.
If you are considering allowing your child to walk independently to school, you might want to read our post No Schoolrun. If more parents would be interested you could easily form walking groups, with children walking together to school, and parents taking it turns walking the whole or parts of the way together with the children. In our school several of the children start walking independently from when they are in Y4. I’m sure it’s depending a lot on the distance you live from the school and road safety along the route as much as how responsible and mature your child is.