How Do YOUR Kids Get To School?

[Patches]

We walk. Today I had enough leave early that I could leave my assistant with all the dc kids and drive to pick him up. Yay! So glad I didn't have to walk a mile and a half in 94 degree heat

[spinnymarie]

Thanks for all the replies I suppose we could *all* walk to one of the elementary schools. That might just work

[mamac]

Ugh. I am still trying to figure out the logistics for my ds and he started school on Monday. Currently, I am bringing him, my yds and 2 infants to school every morning until I can find alternate arrangements. He goes to private school in a different city so there is no bus option. Friends and family weren't able to help. I am going to talk to the school Friday to see if there is anyone else living in my city that also goes to that school that would be willing to bring him.

If I can't find someone to bring him I am going to have to stop taking any more clients. (I can have 3 more) I just won't be able to fit everyone in my car and that means it's going to be a tight year, financially.

[DaycareKim]

When I first started daycare, I was a single mom with a small car. Our backyard was across the street from an elementary school and my daughter was in prek. I had 6/8 daycare kids and we would all walk to the school, wait for the bus (no prek at that school, so dd got bussed from there), walk home, walk back to the school, wait for the bus, and walk home. All my kids were 3-4 years old. Each trip took us about 20 minutes, so 80 minutes of walking every day. We all took a water bottle. Kids were great about it (except one ) and held hands but Omg I'm glad I'm not in that situation anymore!! The other prek parents always looked at me like I had three heads. Happy memories though.

Now, my daughter walks to the bus stop around the corner with her cell phone. She is in third grade and very wise beyond her years. There are a lot of other kids and a parent and I think she likes the small taste of independence

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

Luckily (sometimes it feels like unluckily) the high school is quite a distance away (20+ minutes) so he takes a school bus.

I will be homeschooling the baby. Otherwise, I have no idea how I would get that child to the public school down the road.

[momofboys]

I live fairly close to the schools my kids attend (within 1-2 miles) so we do a combination of me driving them & them riding the bus home. Since my oldest is in middle school he starts very early & at that time I only have 1 DCK here so I drive him to school early (@ 7:15) & then when my younger kids (who are in elementary) need to go to school @ 8:30 I drive them plus the daycare kids. I don't watch a lot of kids so I can easily drive them. They do ride home on the bus. School let-out times too closely connect & would disrupt naptimes so all my kids ride home (@ 20 min bus ride).

[3amazingkiddos]

I drive my daughter to school every morning and she rides the bus home in the afternoon. I also only keep a limited amount of dc kiddos so I can get my daughter to school and my twins to preschool in the afternoon.

[hope]

I ran into this same problem this year and posted here for advice. I keep a small group of dcks to begin with. I decided to buy a bigger car that can fit my kids plus my dcks so that I can drive my DD to school each day. On nice days we will all be walking. It was funny watching the salesmens face when I requested a car to seat 8!

[wonderfullisa]

When my eldest was in preschool, they provided a bus.
In kindergarten, we were in the walking zone. Morning drop offs weren't too bad; I had carseats for the extras and we just dropped her off. Pickup kind of ****ed, though. For kindergarteners, you had to get out and meet the teacher at their classroom.
I lucked out, and in Oct started a new family who also had a kindergartener at that school. The mom picked up both of our 6yos, then came to my house and we switched to our own kids.
This year she rides a bus, but the bus stop is 2 blocks away. Right now we walk with her to and from the stop. As she gets used to crossing the street, we will probably phase out picking her up.
Yesterday we still met her, and she was disappointed. I pointed out that it was more to get the little ones out for a walk than it was to monitor her. Today I think we might let her walk home alone. I'll probably be in the yard, so I can see her when she crosses the street, but I won't stand on the corner.
It's hard to let go.

[spinnymarie]

I lucked out, and in Oct started a new family who also had a kindergartener at that school. The mom picked up both of our 6yos, then came to my house and we switched to our own kids.

This may very well work for us! My family right now is the kindergarten teacher's kids, so if we went to that school it might work out decently... at least for the drive TO school. Or unless they want to do 'real preschool' next year..