Independence!
I've been pontificating about mornings in our house for a few days, and come to the conclusion, in discussion with Tim, that it will be fine for Little One and Little Two to walk to school together on their own in the mornings until the end of term (about a week and a half!). This is partly fuelled by the fact that the last two mornings it has been Little Three who has made us set off late for school, which doesn't seem fair on Little Two when he has been ready on time, and partly (and more selfishly) because I've just realised that if I send them off together now, then this will be my chance to avoid doing the morning school run for the last time in the next 6 years or so! In September I'll be taking Little Three to school!
So we're going to trial it tomorrow morning and see how it goes. It really does help that Tim is the school crossing patrol right next to school, so he will be able to report back that they've both arrived in the right place every morning!
Little Two is all for the whole idea - he is going to have to get ready in time though, so he can set off when Little One normally likes to set off. She, however, is a bit disgruntled at the idea, because she has walked on her own for over a year now, and loves that bit of peace and quiet to think in the mornings (our house is not conducive to peace, quiet and thinking!)
So Little One and I got our heads together this afternoon to try to come up with a new privilege for her, that will make up for her losing her alone time in the mornings. And we have decided that it will be ok for her to walk to the library, in town, by herself - we've come up with the route with the least busy roads. So she is there now! I sent her off with the phone I bought for such occasions, and she phoned me from the library to say she had arrived safely, and will phone again when she is about to set off back home. She will borrow a few books for herself, and one each for L2 and L3, at their request. I really hope it all works out ok because I do think it is good for children to have some independence and learn to get themselves about from a sensible age. And to deal with a bit of real life risk rather than be shut up at home all the time. She will be 10 in August and she does have a sensible head on her shoulders.
It still feels really odd though! But I'm pleased, because taking three children to the library quite often feels like a bit of a trial so we don't go very often. She will benefit tremendously from being able to go by herself and borrow different books to read.
In other news, we have a pigeon in our back yard! We know where it comes from; a chap in a house just behind ours keeps loads of them, but we aren't sure why it has chosen our garden to land in. Little Three was outside with me and thought it was terribly exciting that this pigeon was pottering around, looking at everything and showing no signs of wanting to fly away. It did eventually fly onto one of our bins, and then walk along the wall and fly off for a while, but it's back on the wall again now - oh, just as I typed that, it flew away!
So we're going to trial it tomorrow morning and see how it goes. It really does help that Tim is the school crossing patrol right next to school, so he will be able to report back that they've both arrived in the right place every morning!
Little Two is all for the whole idea - he is going to have to get ready in time though, so he can set off when Little One normally likes to set off. She, however, is a bit disgruntled at the idea, because she has walked on her own for over a year now, and loves that bit of peace and quiet to think in the mornings (our house is not conducive to peace, quiet and thinking!)
So Little One and I got our heads together this afternoon to try to come up with a new privilege for her, that will make up for her losing her alone time in the mornings. And we have decided that it will be ok for her to walk to the library, in town, by herself - we've come up with the route with the least busy roads. So she is there now! I sent her off with the phone I bought for such occasions, and she phoned me from the library to say she had arrived safely, and will phone again when she is about to set off back home. She will borrow a few books for herself, and one each for L2 and L3, at their request. I really hope it all works out ok because I do think it is good for children to have some independence and learn to get themselves about from a sensible age. And to deal with a bit of real life risk rather than be shut up at home all the time. She will be 10 in August and she does have a sensible head on her shoulders.
It still feels really odd though! But I'm pleased, because taking three children to the library quite often feels like a bit of a trial so we don't go very often. She will benefit tremendously from being able to go by herself and borrow different books to read.
In other news, we have a pigeon in our back yard! We know where it comes from; a chap in a house just behind ours keeps loads of them, but we aren't sure why it has chosen our garden to land in. Little Three was outside with me and thought it was terribly exciting that this pigeon was pottering around, looking at everything and showing no signs of wanting to fly away. It did eventually fly onto one of our bins, and then walk along the wall and fly off for a while, but it's back on the wall again now - oh, just as I typed that, it flew away!