A few years ago I was watching an episode on Dr Phil about parenting styels, a ‘helicopter parent’ vs a ‘free range parent’. A helicopter parent hovers over their children, follows them around and won’t let them out of their sight. A free range parent gives the kids freedom and independence for them to venture out of sight. (I hope I defined these correctly, but this is how I interoperated them). I certainly felt I fell into the ‘helicopter’ style of parenting, I have been known to follow the kids to school (they scootered) in the car just to know they got their safe. However over the past few years I have let go a little and given my kids the freedom to go outdoors by themselves. Be it they are older now, it’s easier. Anyways, this post isn’t about parenting styles it’s about giving the kids the freedom to ride to school.
We live in a really lovely neighbourhood, most of the kids in our street go to the same school and are around the same age. They all enjoy playing together on weekends and holidays. So when the kids asked if they could ride to school by themselves we thought it was a great idea, there’s about 8 of them that ride together. However, as some kids have before and after school commitments it’s hard to co-ordinate all the kids. So I have created some bike riding/walking schedules for both boys and girls to write down when their friends can ride/walk to school.
Print the schedule and write when friends can ride in pencil, using pencil will allow you to make changes as it always happens.
click to view
Walking Schedule
Bike Riding Schedule
