Buggy or not?

Good point Pippa - we once were out walking, somewhere in N. Wales, with a family with young children. When we got back we adults were exhausted, the children still skipping around. If they're doing something interesting they don't seem to get tired.

Last Sunday Grandchildren and parents , ages just 3 years (birthday last week) and nearly 5 years did a walk to a ruined castle had a picnic and walked back, 6 miles in all, not a buggy in sight.

There's only 14 months between my two, so when DD had outgrown the pram, DS had to give up the buggy for her. We couldn't afford to buy a twin buggy to accommodate them both. We moved to the West Country when DD was two weeks off her 3rd birthday. The first time I took them down to the shops, using the buggy for DD, was also the last time the buggy was used - the route home involved walking up a steep hill which was an unmade back lane, very uneven and full of ruts and holes, impossible pushing a three year old in a buggy! (The lane was always referred to by the local children as 'the bumpy lane')
DS started school as a rising five, 4 yrs and 9 mths, and both he and DD had by then become completely used to a buggy free life, so we never had a problem with the walk to school, despite it being nearly a mile away.

One of my granddaughters (now 17) was a lazy child and reluctant to walk anywhere. I once asked her what she would do when she was grown up and she said, "Wheelchair?"

I bought little backpacks with a rein attached, but DGD2 doesn't seem to use it any more. She did respond and grip my hand very tightly when crossing the road. Today the children were all belting down the park at top speed and when I yelled her name she stopped on the spot!

hildajenniJ yes, you have to allow about 3 times as long!!

My DGS 3 picks and chooses when to use the buggy. He is 2 1/2 and will say "push" or "no push" when he goes out. When he is walking, he is v e r y slow. He looks in every hole in the walls, peers down drains in the roadside, smells every dandelion flower. It is lovely to see him so interested, but very time consuming. He can use cutlery appropriately, and is learning not to walk around with a cup without a lid. My DD would be mortified if she had to send any of her children to school still needing help with the tasks of every day life.

I always used reins with mine, more unobtrusive as they got older, but I swear I would have lost DS several times over if I hadn't had them, he was dreadful. See a conker or a pine cone or a friend on the other side of the road, and he was off. After the full reins, we progressed to a curly wrist strap thing. He also had a horrible habit of slipping away and hiding from us in department stores. He loved playing hide and seek at home, but of course eventually we knew all the places, so he thought department stores were wonderful. In the end, when he was five, we paid him a lesson and hid from him. I think it was about 20 minutes before we let him find us, and he never did it again. One day I might own up.

I can fully see why it might be considered far easier to keep on using a buggy! DD on the other hand was positively angelic.

I stopped using a buggy for DD2 when we moved to the top of a steep hill; she was 3 years 9 months and after I had pushed her up a couple of times I persuaded her it was more fun to walk!!

However, I do appreciate that some children live a long way from their schools.

So sorry to hear about your family tragedy, absent; our friends' son slipped from his mother's grasp, ran across a car park and went under a car. He recovered after a long time in intensive care and hospital thankfully.
I was very nervous shopping with DGD2 the other day when we crossed the busy road in the middle of town.

When DS started school, it was half an hour's walk away. At just four, with a really huge steep hill home, it was just too much for him. It was a bit too much for me, but we would walk down the hill to school, then I would walk back up the hill. When I collected him I would take one of those little foldable buggies with me, make him go as far as he could, then pop him in it for as long as I could stand to push it. Lots of us did the same. At first it wasn't so bad, because there would always be an ice cream van outside at the beginning of September, when he started. Bribery can be a wonderful thing and eating it would give him an energy boost, but in October the van disappeared.

I had a car, but was determined to get exercise for myself, not for him! It was a lovely walk, his school was by a river.

My first 2 were only 13 months apart, so I used a twin buggy for quite a long time. The trouble was, if I let them walk, one would be rushing way ahead, the other dawdling a long way behind, thinking. They're still like that
I don't remember any problems walking to school and back on their own, a 10 minute walk.

Re children in buggies. I do not drive so used a buggy for my daughter until she was about four. I would walk down to our village, stop off in the local country park for her to play and then around to the intfant school.to collect my son. Probably a 2 1/2 mile round trip. I often got 'still.in.a buggy' comments from.another mum who.used, the car instead of a 5min walk.

Like Katek, I think the Scottish system works well. The youngest start in our family was my son with a late February birthday but desperate to get to 'big school'. He started in mid-august having just made it!
My niece however had a march birthday so was 5 and 5 months.
My DDs had summer birthdays and went into p1 as they turned 5.
All had 2years part-time at pre-school and all did very well.
Still feel 4 years and a few days is too young for school unless there's a seamless join !
I feel that walking to and from nursery is an excellent opportunity for road safety training and was so sad to hear of absent's family tragedy.

4 year old children walk terribly slowly and they are very tired after a day at school. My grandchildren aren't allowed to use a scooter if I'm taking them to school as my daughter points out that,if anything happened, I wouldn't have to speed to keep up with them and I don't trust little ones to stop at kerbs; in fact my younged GS fell sideways off his scooter when he was with his father a few weeks ago; thankfully he was ok and a passing car slowed right down in case he fell into the road [which he nearly did]. I hate seeing young children running on ahead of their parents along roads [even quiet ones]; even more so when the mums all seem to be chatting to each other and not even watching them .

It is rare to see small children on reins nowadays. I remember having them for mine, but never saw them in use for my GC. Wonder why they have gone out of fashion.

Here in NZ children start primary school when they are five whichever term it might be. There is a detailed early years education plan for preschools and kindies – that does not involve testing little ones to see if they can write their names or count to 100 – and it is well supported by professionals. It seems very wrong to put young children into a situation where they feel out of their depth and expect them to adapt.

rosequartz, I don't think there was any one rule that applied across the whole of England. We moved from one county to another before my DS1 was old enough to start school. Had we stayed there, he would have been admitted to reception class on his fifth birthday which must surely have resulted in chaos for the teacher. That was, however, almost forty years ago. The county we moved to had a more rational policy and two entry dates.

I think using a buggy has its place like absent says.
To lose a child like that is utterly devastating.
I am always astonished at how quickly DGS can move at 20 months old, and I my heart is often in my mouth when following small children along a pavement or driving past them - I've witnessed several very close misses where a child has stepped off the pavement without looking.

I have a degree of understanding about using a buggy. After all, many children are driven to and from school and what may seem a short walk to an adult could feel like climbing Mount Everest to a tired three- or four-year-old at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. I collect my three-year old grandson from preschool quite often and it is a short walk to my house, but I do take the buggy if it is pouring with rain as a) it has a hood and b) we can get home quickly. He still likes riding in the buggy – he usually travels in a car with mum, dad and siblings – and we use it when we have a longer walk or one along a relatively busy road, such as when we go to the library. He is allowed to get out and run when we cross the school field and then holds a strap on the buggy for the last little walk down the road before galloping off along the drive to the house.

My cousin's eldest son sadly slipped his hand out of his father's grasp when he was just a little lad, ran across the road to see his friend and was killed. That family tragedy has remained impressed on my mind. Holding hands is not always enough.

There used to be a rule in England when my DC were young that children with birthdays in the summer term could not join in the previous September. They had to be 'rising 5' before they could start school.
DS is 'summer-born' and he and other chidren who had summer birthdays were not allowed to join the others in reception until after February half-term (half days) and full-time after Easter. They then moved up to Year 1 with the whole class.
Consequently he and other summer-born children missed out on one and a half terms of school. A note was made on their work but they still had to catch up at some point.

That sounds quite a long day for a little one, apricot. DGD is lucky because there is a village school not far away, she did start with all her friends and is doing well.

Katek- that sounds so very sensible - I might kidnap my Gs and move to Scotland. Why isn't there such a ruling here in England? Concerning buggies and 4 year olds - I remember from when my children were young that at the age of 2/3 they wanted to walk everywhere and not get in the buggy at all - but by the age of 4 they had decided that a buggy was a very comfortable way to get from A to B with little or no effort on their part which afforded them more energy for play when they got to the fun place i.e. park, playgroup, etc. I often could be seen pushing a 5 year old in a buggy with his 2 year old sister happily walking alongside!!!! I'm not saying it's right but it worked for us!

In Scotland children have to be 5 before the end of February if they are to start school in the preceding August. That means that the youngest they can start school is 4 years 6 months. Additionally, if children are born in January or February you have the option to defer entry until the following school year. Deferred children aren't placed with their year group but start in primary 1 with the other new entrants. We don't have a reception year-2 years of nursery then primary 1-7.

My DGS in California is five and only goes to school half days (the class is called pre kindergarten). In September he will be six and in kindergarten year and will still not be full time. He'll be almost seven before he is full time. I think the children in UK start full time too early, and parents who wish to defer are put under pressure not to.

Tresco I guess it was like a social event for him and that can be the downside of home schooling a counter balance to the advantages.

It is not the age a child starts school but the quality of provision that is provided that matters! My job has taken me into lots of pre-schools and Reception classes and I have seen excellence in both and disaster in both!! Some pre-school give kids work sheets and do formal work with under 4s and some Reception classes provide brilliant play based learning activities for children.

Re using a buggy I do think that children should be encouraged to walk or scoot/balance bike as much as possible as it is good physical development! However it is not a major problem..how many kids still use buggies by the end of Reception? They will all get there in the end!

If they have a long walk at the end of the school day it can be hard for tired litttle legs..may be a deal to walk to school and a buggy ride home for the first week or so! I bet if he realises he is the only one in a buggy he will soon ask to walk or run with his friends on the way home.

The curriculum for reception children is, as I understand it, a continuation of the pre-school programme. In the primary school where I chaired the governors, our new building had a specially designed unit for our pre-school and reception classes. They had activities together and shared a section of the playground with their own equipment. It was in Y1 when they got down to the nitty gritty of the 3Rs.

A parent has the choice of when, or if, their child starts school if they really feel strongly about it. I taught my son at home until he was six. When he did start, he did nothing he had not already done for a whole year, I was so disappointed. He, on the other hand, was delighted because it was absolutely no effort for him and he treated school as mainly a social event.
I think children start school far too young in this country, I would prefer a more continental system, with greater emphasis on social and life skills for the under sevens.