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Just listening to a Roald Dahl biography - the only thing he remembered before the age of 7 was his walk to school. It was interesting and exciting .....showing the importance of making sure the walk to school is a good experience for children.
He remembers nothing about the expensive nursery and infant school he attended.
Enjoyable experiences stay with you.
I used to walk a good way to school - I remember it as a trudge in all weathers and uncomfortable clunky shoes!! :laughing::p
I remember my walk to school at that age. Through the woods and past the prison by myself (2 miles). But this was in Switzerland and in the 70s :D
I think I might have to take a listen to this! My walk to school was very boring...but I do remember meeting friends along the way which helped :)Quote:
Originally Posted by FloraDora
All through my infant school I walked to school on my own - from age 5-7. Crossed a hugely busy road with support from the lollipop lady, like all my classmates. I have huge memories of passing the witch lady’s house quickly, gambolling over the green, running through the scary alley, saying good morning to the cats and being greeted with a lovely smile by our lollipop lady. A mixed bag of good and not so good memories.
All my child minding children (age 5+ I'm registered for) walk to and from school every day regardless of weather conditions. This is usually met in horror by most of the parents and children when informed! But eventually they get used to it and after a few weeks (lol) they stop complaining about how tired they are. I don't tend to do anything in particular to make the walk interesting though (so if anyone has any ideas for older children do let me know!) but they are usually quite happy to engage in conversation with myself and others. On my recent ofsted inspection the inspector seemed pleased that they get daily exercise by walking so there is another positive to the daily walk :-)Quote:
Originally Posted by FloraDora
I used to walked to school. I remember my mum testing me on my spellings on the way. I used to go ball room dancing at the time and when I walked to and from school at lunchtime I used to waltz all the way.
Aww love this!! :)Quote:
Originally Posted by SYLVIA
Its amazing how many kids moan about a ten minute walk - i think they are all used to being ferried around in the car and dropped off outside the door where they need to be. Its utterly ridiculous and im pretty darned lazy myself! Anyway, dont get me started! :laughing:Quote:
Originally Posted by Lynz08
we walk to school in most weathers and I have to remind parents of this, and to send appropriate footwear and clothing.
my favourite is picking children up from school in the pouring rain to find no coats or canvas shoes etc! I don't carry spare coats, and nor do school have spare coats, so then we get home, and they then have no spare clothes and literally have to wear something from dressing up box, whilst hopefully wet clothing dries, and then put it on to go home, as I don't send spare clothing home ( as it rarely came back! )
we walk and talk about what we can see/hear etc, lots of colour/counting/letters for the younger ones and talking about our day for the older ones. sometimes we sing ... to the utter embarrassment ( :D ) of the older children who didn't come to me as a LO ... those children join in loudly !!! :laughing:
Don’t get me started. I’m constantly shocked at how parents and schools consider it acceptable in all weathers to force girls into those little scrappy shoes which mean they have cold, wet feet all day.
I blame cars for the rest. Ive had so many car-bound children whose previous walking experience never went beyond the distance from the 'family parking' bay to the trolley park before being wheeled round Laldidls or Moriscos, whatever. Because mum is warm and dry in the car, why would it occur to her to provide suitable clothing for the wee ones?
Ambrose Bierce was quoted in last year's Wisdens, with his definition of a sweater as, "a garment worn by a child when his mother is feeling chilly." Too true.
My children plus one mindee still point to marks on the floor that they declared about 8 years ago to be dinosaur claw marks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by loocyloo
In the recent bad weather we was having I could not believe that some of my mindees did not have a hat, scarf or gloves. It was ridiculous! Because they get dropped off at school in a car the parents don't think about what they are going to do after school.