Fun on the School Run with Regatta

Walk to school month continues, and I can happily say that we are still enjoying all the new adventures we are finding to have along the way.  For many children though, a walk to school is something that they never get chance to enjoy.

Outdoor specialists Regatta have recently published the results of a survey they carried out looking at the school run. The results made interesting reading. Here are a few of the key results:-

• Despite almost half (47%) of British primary school children living within just one mile of the school gates, over a million1 have never walked to school.
• Walking to school has declined 62%2 over the past 50 years.
• Parents blame ease and convenience for their reliance on the car, despite four out of five (79%) children expressing a keen desire to pound the pavement with them.

• Over half (58%) of parents readily admit that their own children have petitioned for them to ditch the car in favour of walking.

To help combat this, Regatta have come up with a list of fun activities that you could do on the walk to school to make the trip more interesting, and to pass the time quicker. The ideas are fab fun, everything from not walking (skipping, jumping, hoping etc), looking for animals on the way, taking a diversion to your route, counting your steps like a human pedometer…the list is just endless. (If you are interested, you can download the guide here.)

Regatta very kindly sent us some lovely warm, outdoor clothing to make the cold, frosty mornings a little bit more bearable. This included waterproof coats, woolly hats and gloves, and strong, protective footwear. We have enjoyed wearing these pieces when doing a part walk of the school run. (As I explained in a previous post – we live almost 2 miles away from school, so a full walk is not possible, but a partial walk is perfectly manageable.) One of the tasks we tried was to take a diversion, and so we have made a visit to the local park part of our afternoon walk home. This has helped make the most of the lovely, warm afternoons we have been enjoying this Autumn.

How do you make the school run more interesting? Do you take the car or enjoy the walk? I would love to hear more about your daily routine.

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