School Route Training

Your child's enrollment in school is coming soon? Then you are certainly already thinking about how your child will get to school. There are good reasons to walk. Here's what you can do to make sure your child arrives safely at elementary school.

If your child goes to elementary school in your district, the distance is often not far. Can your daughter or son manage the distance well on foot, this has many advantages:

• If your child walks to school already in the morning, this promotes physical and mental development.
• The fresh air strengthens health and your child arrives awake at school.
• The movement promotes performance and concentration.
• Your child learns early to move independently and safely in traffic.
• Your child learns to orient himself and consciously perceive the environment.
• Your child meets classmates and can make friends.
• Mastering the way to school strengthens self-confidence.
• Walking instead of using the car protects the environment and the climate.

Before you start practicing walking to school with your child, you should choose the right route. Don't choose the shortest route, but rather a route with less traffic and as few dangerous spots as possible. It's okay to take a little detour. The elementary school may even distribute school route maps to help you make your choice. Allow enough time for the walk to school right from the start. Your child should leave early enough so he or she doesn't have to rush to arrive on time. Convey to your child that he or she should always follow the agreed route and not take a dangerous shortcut on their own.

The same applies to the way to school: practice makes perfect! Once you have found the optimal route, you should practice this route together with your daughter or son at an early stage. Preferably before your child starts school and at real times: in the morning in the morning and at noon or in the afternoon when your child will go home. This way, you can explain to your child where he or she needs to pay extra attention. Take time to do this and practice both ways regularly. With each repetition, your child will become more confident. Observe your child's behavior and let him or her lead the way more independently as time goes on. This will allow you to assess what your child can already do and how he or she is behaving. Also, let your child walk in the group when he or she sets off together with other children on the way to school in the future, because children are more often distracted in a group.

These places in road traffic require special attention:

In the first few weeks after starting school, you should still accompany your child on the way to school. Perhaps you have the opportunity to take turns with other parents in the neighborhood. Observe with some distance how attentive your child behaves in traffic and how he handles dangerous situations. Intervene only when necessary. You will see that your child becomes more and more confident. Praise it when your child behaves correctly in a certain traffic situation.

Especially in fall and winter, it is still dim or dark in the morning when your child walks to school. Make sure that your child can be seen well by other road users. The school bag should be equipped with sufficient reflectors. Your child's clothing should also be bright and as reflective as possible. A bright high-visibility vest or safety collar will help prevent accidents by increasing visibility.

Ideally, your child should not go to school alone, but together with other children from the neighborhood. This makes the journey to school even safer. Or a so-called "walking bus" is organized. In this case, the children with the same route to school meet at an arranged point nearby. From there, they walk together to the elementary school, accompanied by adults. The escorts can be parents, volunteer seniors or other reliable people. Check with the elementary school to see if there is a walking bus.