Well, my son is officially walking to school alone. We only live 3 blocks, but like most of our kids, mornings aren’t his best hours! I originally told him he could start walking in 2nd grade, but his teacher told him he’s been acting soooo much like a second grader, and he came home throwing that in my face. What can I do? I cross him across the busy (busy by my standards, anyone living in the city would laugh at my “busy street”) street. He manages the one intersection, the second one has a crossing guard who “knows” him well. Just a mile stone I wanted to share.
walking alone -- often advised too soon
Sorry for posting as a guest — logging in loses my place (and please ask the moderators to fix this.)
I work with kids and was also a driving safety instructor, among other things, so I’m always alert to little tidbits.
A few years ago I read advice from safety experts about kids walking to school alone.
They surveyed parents and teachers, and found that a large number felt that kids should walk alone as soon as they were in Grade 1 — for no particular reason except the feeling that well, the kid’s in school now. A bad case of the “should’s”.
Then they looked at children’s mental/physical development, and concluded that they are *not* really ready to deal with traffic until around age 8. This makes sense if you consider developmental milestones as in Piaget. Kids in the pre-operational phase (up to more or less age 7) just don’t think logically, don’t understand consequences, don’t really know what death and injury are and don’t realize that they’re final. For *any* child, LD or not, it is a good idea to supervise, or have a very responsible older child supervise, until Grade 3.
Yes, I did let my daughter walk to a friend’s place two blocks away in a tiny village from age 5 up (requiring her to phone on arrival), but I walked her to school across the main street.
t
I don’t mind I’m not 100% comfortable with this, I guess thats why I posted. I do cross the main street with him. And we live three straight blocks from the school so I can watch him all the way, until he is a blurry dot. We live in a heavily kidded area so there are lots of kids around him walking as well. I hope he will forget about it by the time school starts, you are right, I do kinda wish I said third grade! I plan to watch him closely, if he gets careless, he will lose this small pleasure for a while.
He wants to ride his bike to and from school and is mad I put the cabosh on it. I see other kids 8-9 years old zipping around town on their bikes. If my dad saw me riding like they do at any age, he would have taken the wheels off my bike! Maybe I should buy a bike too and ride with him. Uggghh! Not looking forward to the driving lessons!
Oh Rebelmom, I understand a milestones for our kids. It is babysteps, and congratulations. :lol:
My son just had a recent milestone in Tae Kwon Do, he not only learnt the required 20 steps (after only 3 lessons) yesterday, he figured out the hand movements that went with all 20 steps after being shown only the 1st five hand movements. He figured it all out. The teacher was most impressed, and so was I, because if you know this kid, he is like the most unco-ordinated kid in the world. I am so happy I found something he can excel in to build up his self-esteem.