For Those Of You That Walk

[MsLaura529]

How long of a walk do you normally take? How old are your walkers? How often do you go for walks? What are your rules for walking?

I have 3-4 kiddos that walk with me, age 4, and 2.5. We normally walk a quick 10 minute walk down the next street over and back. Today we took a longer route, about 25 minutes, and the second half of it was so much complaining and whining (the always lovely "I'm bored" from my 4 year old, and "I'm so tired of walking" from the rest of them)! My rule is, since we don't have sidewalks and are walking on our street (it is a very quiet neighborhood, with wide streets), we have to hold hands with a walking buddy, we stay to the side of the road, no running, and if there is a car coming it is the only time we go onto someone's lawn to stop and wait for the car to go by. It seems to go pretty smoothly, but I'd love to be able to go for longer walks more regularly, they just didn't seem to love it today. Any tips for making longer walks possible?

I feel like walks are the best use of our outside time, since any other time we go to play outside, they are fighting over toys (even though we have many multiple ones), or complaining about the sun, or the bugs, or that there's nothing to do ...

[Meyou]

My group is 1.5 to 3.5 right now and we walk for 30-40 minutes. You might need to build them up to longer walks. We also play games like finding things that are certain colors and songs we can play and sing while walking like Going on a Bear hunt.

[MrsSteinel'sHouse]

We are at the walking around the block stage. My block is bigger and takes us around 15 minutes. They can walk for longer though and some days we do. I still have a stroller and have attached straps that the walkers must hold on to.
Some ideas.
Before you head out have them brainstorm things they might see on the walk and add in some of your own. I would include like a number 5 or a letter B, a red flower. Write them down. Have the kids looking for these items as you go along. Walk or drive the path before and have some harder and easier things and things to see all the way on the walk.
Read the book "The Listening Walk". Then go on a listening walk and tell them to listen carefully and you will make a list when you get back of what they heard!
Be sure and tell moms' and dads' if they were a good walker today

[MsLaura529]

We are at the walking around the block stage. My block is bigger and takes us around 15 minutes. They can walk for longer though and some days we do. I still have a stroller and have attached straps that the walkers must hold on to.
Some ideas.
Before you head out have them brainstorm things they might see on the walk and add in some of your own. I would include like a number 5 or a letter B, a red flower. Write them down. Have the kids looking for these items as you go along. Walk or drive the path before and have some harder and easier things and things to see all the way on the walk.
Read the book "The Listening Walk". Then go on a listening walk and tell them to listen carefully and you will make a list when you get back of what they heard!
Be sure and tell moms' and dads' if they were a good walker today

Thank you! Those are great ideas I will definitely be looking up that book.

[Blackcat31]

My kids range in age from infant to age 5. I usually have 10 everyday (some days I have 12). We usually walk right after lunch and walk about 4 blocks one way and then turn around and walk 4 blocks back.

Each child has an opportunity to be the line leader and choose our route.

We use a walking rope and the buddy system. One big kid paired with one little.

The walking rope is attached to the stroller and the end of the walking rope is held by my DH.

Any kid who can walk, does.

[MsLaura529]

My kids range in age from infant to age 5. I usually have 10 everyday (some days I have 12). We usually walk right after lunch and walk about 4 blocks one way and then turn around and walk 4 blocks back.

Each child has an opportunity to be the line leader and choose our route.

We use a walking rope and the buddy system. One big kid paired with one little.

The walking rope is attached to the stroller and the end of the walking rope is held by my DH.

Any kid who can walk, does.

I need to get one of these, I think. They've been doing pretty well with holding hands with a walking buddy, but once I get a couple more kids here, I can see the rope working a lot better.

[spud912]

I independently walk all 6 of my kiddos. We use a 2-seater wagon for the youngest children. If the older children are slow or tend to wander, I use a walking rope (either one that they hold onto if they are slow or a strapped on rope if they wander). We build up the walks over the course of the cooler season. In the summers, we don't walk at all because it is entirely too hot (low temperatures during daycare hours are usually in the 90's already). But, starting late September/October-ish, we start with short walks around the block or to the park (usually about 15-20 minutes one way). By spring time, we are taking 2 to 2 1/2 mile walks, which take approximately 1 to 1 1/2 hours round trip since my group likes to stop a lot to investigate things. We make it fun by walking different directions and looking for different things. I rarely get complaints unless I took a wrong route and it ended up being way longer than intended (which happened once last year when we ended up walking 2 1/2 to 3 miles ....luckfully my group at the time was acclimated to 2 mile walks, but I ended up having to hold a 4 year old and pile 4 kids in a 2-seater wagon for the last few street blocks....NOT FUN!).

[nannyde]

1.2 miles in 45 minutes. They start walking at around 20 months or so.

[Cradle2crayons]

We can't walk where I live as far as the road is concerned but we do nature walks. I live about a half a mile off a busy rural highway with no sidewalks so walking on the road is impossible.

The upside is I live in the woods and we cut out several nature hikes. I have no clue how long in distance they are though. In the deep summer we don't do a lot of heavy walking with temps over 100 but since I have only afternoon kids we try to walk late in the afternoons if weather permits.