Curious...What age for DCs to walk/bike alone to school?

[trcy]

Every so often DD and I will walk to school. I am always amazed how many kids I see walking/biking alone to school. Just curious (not judging), what age would you be comfortable with your DCs doing this. In our district, anything over 2 miles gets a bus. There are sidewalks and crossing guards. It is a safe area, but a lot of traffic.


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[ahisma]

My kids walk together. It's a busy suburban area immediately adjacent to a mid-sized city (we live 1 block from the city limit). They are 8 and 10. They walk 6/10 of a mile.

ETA: We are a walking district. No busses.

[belovedgandp]

We in a similar sounding neighborhood. It's exactly a mile from our house to the school. We have sidewalks and only cross one street before getting to the crossing guard at the school. I typically walk with the kids. If I'm in a hurry I will just walk them to the crossing guard and they still have the last almost 2/10 on their own but no street crossing and by then people have converged from all directions.

My youngest is now 6 and in first grade. Since there were almost always younger siblings over the past 7 years we've been walking to school, I just always have walked with them.

DC1 and DC2 have had days when siblings were sick or something and they walked solo to school. The youngest I remember starting was in 3rd grade - would have been 8. Not every day routine but a few times a year.

[AnnieW625]

I will let my kids bike or ride the city bus (excellent well maintained and clean busses) to school in 7th grade so they will be 12. We live 2.5 miles north of our school and the school is on two very busy streets. If we lived in the neighborhood behind the school where you don't need to cross the busy streets I would be fine with them walking by themselves by 3rd grade as long as they had a friend with them, but honestly from what I have seen most kids don't walk alone or take the city bus until at least the 5th or 6th grade. The bus stop is catty corner the school so they have to be able to cross the major intersection on their own.

If my kids went to our home school down the street, and I was a SAHM or a wahm then I would be fine with them walking by 1st or 2nd grade. I could stand on my front lawn and watch them the entire time. If DD1's decides to go to our home middle school she will be able to walk or bike in the 6th grade. There are a lot of kids who walk so I would feel she would be safe.

[mom_hanna]

My kids walked alone by the 3rd grade. There are a lot of kids walking/biking alone and lots of kids who walk the same way so I am fine with it. They are never really "alone". They are now 4th and 7th grade. Last year we lived abroad and they biked together 20 minutes each way. They were fine and they loved it.

[twowhat?]

I would love to let my kids walk alone, but I won't until they are much bigger/more visible to cars. Car manners around the schools here are TERRIBLE. We have had a kid and a grandparent hit by a car recently - IN a crosswalk. We have nearly been hit before, and that's with DH or I watching very carefully. Cars stop in the middle of crosswalks all the time.

I am sure it is relatively safe...there's a brother and sister here that have been biking to school ever since they started Kindy. First it was just the boy by himself and then this year he's in 1st and sister in in K and they ride together. They are so tiny and I feel so protective of them when they ride by. I also kind of applaud their parents for being OK with it...these kids are clearly on a good path to independence:) I never see them stop or dawdle...they are focused on getting to school on their bikes!

I'm really just too chicken to let mine walk alone with the bad driving behavior around here. I have a feeling I will be walking them to school until they ask us to please not do it anymore:)

[mackmama]

We live in a very safe town but no sidewalks. So likely not until around age 10.

[vonfirmath]

Every so often DD and I will walk to school. I am always amazed how many kids I see walking/biking alone to school. Just curious (not judging), what age would you be comfortable with your DCs doing this. In our district, anything over 2 miles gets a bus. There are sidewalks and crossing guards. It is a safe area, but a lot of traffic.


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At our school, 3rd grade is the youngest allowed to walk home on their own.

[bigsis]

I allowed it at 6th grade.

[baymom]

DS just started taking the city bus (the afternoon buses pick up at local MS and HS only, so it's only students on the bus) this year. He's in 7th grade and our stop is the first stop, so I like that he's not just sitting on the bus for 20+ minutes to get to his stop. He has to cross 1 major intersection (at a diagonal, so crossing two cross walks) and it's less than a 10 minute walk to our house. Next year, when DD starts MS she'll join him in taking the bus as a 6th grader. I have to admit that I would have preferred to join a carpool that dropped DS off all the way home, but he begged to take the bus and DH sided with him. Now that we are a couple months into it, I love the feeling of pride and independence it gives DS, and I do think he's old enough to do it.

[KrisM]

Our 3-5 elementary is about .5 miles from here and my kids could walk or ride their bikes in 3rd grade. No sidewalks in our sub, but there is a path on the more main road to the school. We do practice in the summer to make sure they know to watch for cars coming from behind them to turn into the school's driveway. DS2 rides nearly every day and he is 8. DD does sometimes.

DS1 is in 7th grade and the middle school is 3-4 miles away. Most days, I drop his bike off and he rides home. It's pitch black in the mornings, so he only rides in on late start days. He has to cross a busy road at light. He really enjoys it. It takes him 20-25 minutes, but he still beats the bus by 20 minutes!

[mom2binsd]

When older DD was in 3rd (age 9), and then the next year she walked her K brother to school as well on their own. They walked with two other friends as well, lots of kids around her walk on their own at about 3rd grade.

[hillview]

we live across a pretty busy street it's 1/10 of a mile (I can almost see it from our front door). DS2 has been walking alone since 2nd grade. I have to say that many parents around here were surprised about this. There were 5th graders still being walked by a parent.

[Mommy_Mea]

I have been thinking a lot about this lately. We have told DS1 that he could ride his bike to the library (~1 mile) on his own (7 yo), but he hasn't taken us up on that yet. He has ridden to his best friends house, but it is only about 1/3 mile away, and I was right behind him. I really would like to let him ride his bike to school next year (it is just past the library), but I know DS2 won't feel that is fair, and I feel like DS1 riding his bike AND being responsible for DS2 is a whole different thing. I definitely see a lot of 3rd and 4th graders walking and riding their bikes by themselves to school though, so it wouldn't be out of the ordinary. Our town has sidewalks *everywhere* though, so that really helps.

[123LuckyMom]

Our school allows walking alone to and from bus stops or the school starting in 2nd grade. My son is in 2nd now, and he walks home from the bus stop by himself, and I would have been comfortable with him doing it last year. If we still lived at our old house, he'd be close enough to walk to school by crossing one street and cutting through the college campus. The street on the other side of campus would have a crossing guard. I'm not sure I'd let him do it by himself this year, because it's a pretty far distance, but certainly by next year he'd be ready. He's walked home with friends to houses a few blocks from the school. We live in a rural small town. There are a few busy streets, and if my kids had to cross one of them I might be concerned, but, on the whole, it's very safe, especially in town. Outside of town there are worries about wildlife, especially bears, but that's not a concern near the school.


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[94bruin]

Our school recommends that kids be in the 3rd grade before they go to school alone. I was leery of letting DD1 go to school on her own. She started to bike on her on at the end of 5th grade. She actually biked to a friend's home about 3 blocks away and they biked the rest of the way together.

We're a mile away from school and no busses in our district. If we lived closer and I probably would have allowed her to walk to school on her own since we have sidewalks in town. However, I was just too nervous about cars. In fact, I'm still nervous about cars, car doors when I bike DD2 to school (she's in 2nd grade.)

[Carlasmom]

We live in Switzerland where it is the norm that kindergardeners walk to school by themselves. So at five years old.

[ilfaith]

This is the first year my boys are riding bikes to school. My youngest learned to ride midway through first grade, but by then we were just in the habit of my driving to and from school. The elementary school is almost exactly a mile from our house. We leave together, but my fifth grader usually rides ahead and meets up with a friend on the next block. I ride with my second grader (just to keep him from dawdling) until we are two blocks from the school. There is a footbridge where many parents (who don't want to face the carpool line) drop off their kids to walk the rest of the way. After the bridge there are two more streets to cross, but with crossing guards and plenty of other kids, so I say goodbye at the bridge and don't worry about his safety those last two blocks. After school I meet him at the same bridge.

If I could trust my fifth grader to stay with his younger brother, I would consider letting them ride without me. I do let them ride together to their friends' house, but that is closer than the school with fewer streets to cross.

[doberbrat]

I think it really varies on your community, distance, traffic, sidewalks etc.

Here it tends to be around 4th/5th grade. We see hordes of parents walking their kids to school together. Another parent & I have talked about how its a bit funny- seems like it would be perfectly fine to just send the large group of kids.

We started dd1 midway through 3rd grade. The school gave us a hard time letting her walk home alone in 4th after school activities but we held firm. Its 2/10 of a mile. Yes, she can walk home in the rain and in the dark. Honestly.

dd2 is now in 1st. We will occasionally let her walk to school 'alone' with dd1 but dd1 balks and I have visions of them screaming at each other en route so its only been a few times. We have not let them bike to school alone together -only walk. dd1 does get to ride back & forth alone though.

[american_mama]

Most people in our neighborhood let their kids walk home from the bus in 5th grade when kids here start at a new school. Before that, no bus in our neighborhood to the local elementary school and most parents walked with their kids before and even after school. Some families are happy to do the morning walk because of bonding time with kids or neighborhood social hour.

[rlu]

When DS was in 4th we moved two houses down from the elementary school so he walked by himself. He did have to cross the street so we watched him cross (with a crossing guard). Before 4th grade, we walked him as there was a crazy busy street he had to cross.

In 6th grade he moved to middle school and biked. For a few months I biked with him to his friend's house where he met up with his friend and friend's dad who biked with them (and a few others they picked up on the route) until December then they biked on their own but in a pack. We did give DS a pay-as-you-go phone when friend's dad stopped riding with them. His friend also has a phone.

DS crosses that crazy busy street to get to his friend's house and on the way home. It worries me and we've been to the city council meetings and community meetings about putting a light there. It got shot down so we're still going to meetings to find out how they are proposing to slow the traffic and make the intersection safer. DS is older now and assumes the drivers are distracted when he crosses the street. No way I would have let him go by himself when he was in elementary.