I have such fond memories of walking to school with my mum and siblings. Apparently, I would strip to my pants and vest on the way to preschool and reception class, so my mum’s memories of the school run, quite possibly aren’t as fond. How annoying must I have been? I did the same every week at church and at various other inconvenient times.
Being able to walk Win to nursery and school when he starts next year was quite a big priority for us. Mostly for convenience, but also because Jared and I both walked to school as young children, and it’s something we both really remember. Jared takes Win to nursery on his way to work and then I pick him up. We didn’t plan it that way, but Jared likes to take him and it means he gets to work on time.
I can’t say that our pick ups are going particularly smoothly, but they are improving. Win being tired from his new routine has been the main problem, but he seems to be coping much better now. The longest it has taken us to make the half mile journey is an hour and 20 minutes. I’m almost certain that every tractor, van, truck, coach and bus in the whole of Yorkshire decides to drive past to distract Ru, but it would be wrong of me to wish them away – I love that he marvels at each of them separately.
Once I made the mistake of bringing only one scooter; seeing as though they both seem to get too tired, but when there is only one – it becomes hot property, and the ability to take it in turns becomes non existent. I won’t be doing that again. Ru and I have just taken the buggy, except he refuses to sit in it. We’ve tried a scooter and a bike, just walking, the baby carrier, but the most ‘successful’ is by far two scooters.
We weren’t planning on buying Ru a scooter, but we were kindly sent an Oxelo B1 scooter by Decathlon (a shop I adore), and timing could not have been more perfect. I had the intention of giving it to Win, but Ru had strong feelings towards it and Win didn’t seem to mind. It is recommended for ages 2-4 years, and we really love it. Ru isn’t two until January, but he seems to manage just fine (if we have a gap in vehicles passing). I love it because it is so incredibly light, so easy to put together and unbelievably easy to adjust the handle bar height. Win has started asking to swap (with varying degrees of success) because the rubber wheels are faster than his plastic ones.
One of my brothers (who also has a three year old) popped by this week and we had a lovely chat about how nice it is to slow down when you have children. Some parts are faster, but getting anywhere on foot is so much slower. How nice it is to look at everything, go at their pace and the importance of allowing lots of extra time if you can. It took me a few weeks to realise just how long it would take, but now whenever Ru and I head out on the nursery run I always make sure that dinner is either in the slow cooker, or something that just needs heating up. Then it doesn’t matter if our journey takes 10 minutes or 90!
E xx
A very big thank you to Decathlon for sending us this fantastic scooter. It’s brilliant!
Adore this. Lovely pics and yes, the 10minute walk to school for us often is a good half hour or more home. I used to walk to all of my schools and loved it. I do enjoy fresh mornings and the excitement the day holds for them x
Agreed! I love letting go of time on the way home xx
They look so cute on their scooters! Being able to walk to school was a priority for me too and I also have such fond memories of it from my own childhood – although I don’t think I ever stripped on the way to school! x
Lovely Donna! It really is the simple things isn’t it? Simple childhood pleasures. If any of my children strip – I know it will really frustrate me. I only have myself to blame! xx