Walking to School

June 14th, 2021
kids
Last week Lily (7y) decided she wanted to start walking to school by herself. It's not very far, she knows the way, and if anything happens she has pretty good common sense. The main problem is cars: while we've been practicing crossing the street, she's not good enough at it do it completely on her own. We realized, though, that if she went a slightly longer way she would only need to cross two streets: one right by our house and another that has a crossing guard.

We went out and practiced: she walked the route with me staying well behind. When she got to the second crossing I pretended to be the crossing guard. She seemed ready to do it on her own.

The next morning, after getting herself ready, I walked her across the first street and then she set off on her own. I stayed, watching, in case she ran into issues. When she got to where the crossing guard should be, she turned around and came running back crying: "the crossing guard isn't there!" It turns out that the crossing guard was just around the corner, leaning on their car. Once Lily saw this, I turned around, and Lily took it from there.

The remaining mornings that week I continued hanging out and watching until I could see the crossing guard helping her across the street. She didn't have any more problems, and this week I'm no longer waiting.

She is quite proud of herself, and I'm glad she's able to be a bit more independent.

Referenced in:

Comment via: facebook, lesswrong, substack

Recent posts on blogs I like:

On Apologizing To Kids

Everyone is so weird about apologizing to children.

via Thing of Things August 25, 2025

Against the Teapot Hold in Contra Dancing

The teapot hold is the most dangerous common contra dancing figure, so I’ve been avoiding it. The teapot hold, sometimes called a "courtesy turn hold,” requires one dancer to connect with their hand behind their back. When I realized I could avoid put…

via Emma Azelborn August 25, 2025

Little Puppy

She's very little and she likes to do stuff with me. She also likes to bark around and run around and jump around. She also likes to go to places with me and that's all I have.

via Nora Wise's Blog Posts August 23, 2025

more     (via openring)