What do you do when your school district doesn’t have enough school bus drivers to pick up all students in time for class? Some school districts tell parents to drive their kids to school. Others instead encourage parents to organize a “Walking School Bus”. A typical walking school bus is a group of elementary school children walking together to and from school along a fixed route. Kids who live along the route can join the group when it passes their home or designated stops. Depending on the size of the group, one or more parents supervise and teach the kids how to safely navigate car traffic and street crossings. The concept is used around the world, but the pandemic-induced school bus driver shortage has put a spotlight on the concept also in the car-centric United States.
A walking school bus stop sign in Rome, Italy, that we snapped in 2016.
Most readers with recent German heritage have likely already figured out what the “school cone” is: a “Schultüte” or “Zuckertüte.” It’s a colorful card stock cone that German children receive on their first day of first grade. It is sometimes as tall as the kid and always stuffed with a mix of useful school supplies – pencils, erasers, a ruler, some fun paperclips, a few safety reflectors for the “Schulranzel” (the school backpack) – and treats like pretzels, granola bars, cookies, candy and maybe an apple.
This time of year, colorful school cones in all sizes are on display in every shop in Germany and also quite popular in neighboring areas of Poland, the Czech Republic and Austria, but not so much beyond. If you are in the US, the German Girl in America blog has tips on where to find them.
German school cones, “Schultüten” on display in a department store in Berlin, 2019. The colorful designs range from solid colors to space ships and ponies.
Back to school safety reflectors for backpacks and book bags
School supplies piled high, schedules checked and papers signed. Getting kids back to school can be daunting, and it is easy to forget all the soft things that are not on the provided supply lists, for example talking with your kids how to handle difficult and dangerous situations or what to do if they see bullying or are the target of it. Strategies and safety tips for how to deal with bullies, strangers and traffic dangers is something every kid should be taught.
1. Tools for Kids to Deal With Bullying
Bullying hurts, emotionally and/or physically, and as if that wasn’t bad enough, it also prevents learning and developing new skills. Take the time to talk with your kids about bullying, how to stand up for others and how they can protect themselves. It’s not always so easy to bring up the topic of bullying with the kids, we found some good tips here on how to talk about bullying. Go here to get strategies for your kids to deal with and prevent bullying. Give them the confidence to stand up for themselves but also to help others who might be the target of bullying.
2. Teach Kids More Than “Stranger Danger”
“Stranger Danger” is easy to tell kids, but it does not give them any tools to deal with creepy, scary and dangerous situations. When doing nothing is not enough, kids need to know what action to take. We like the site ChildSafetyFun.com as it gives kids and parents tools to assess strangers, most of whom are thankfully good people, and take immediate action when they are not. It teaches kids how they can verbally and physically protect themselves and encourages you to practice different situations with your kids.
3. Practice Road Safety With Your Kids
Whether your kids walk or bike to school, or wait for the school bus at the side of the road, they need to understand to take traffic seriously. That goes for teens in middle and high school too! We have mentioned it many times before on this blog, but here is a quick reminder:
Cross streets on crosswalks and at intersections. Most pedestrian crashes (70%) occur in the middle of the block.
Walk on the left side if there is no sidewalk. That way you know what’s going on with the traffic closest to you, and you will have more time to step away if needed.
Wear reflectors from dusk to dawn when walking, biking or running. Cars have rear lights to be seen and it is equally important for anyone not in a car to make themselves seen by drivers. Of all fatal teen pedestrian accidents, 75% happen when it’s dark. Make sure your kids don’t end up as a tally mark in the 2016 crash statistics.
The best way to teach kids how to behave is to practice what you preach. Be a good role model and park the car a block away next time, and use that to practice crossing streets. Especially, teach the kids to watch out for drivers turning “right on red” because those drivers are often only looking to the left… Wear reflectors yourself (you don’t want to become a tally mark either, right?) from dusk to dawn. For those adults who don’t think ninja or kitten safety reflectors are the right style for you, we have some more “neutral” ones too 🙂 The funflector team P.S. And to all parents out there who need to take a deep breath now when kids are back in school: This safety reflector is for you, enjoy!
Last week, we posted about how prismatic safety reflectors work and some fun science projects to better understand retroreflectors. The posts were inspired by an order we recently shipped to a Seattle school for a reflector safety project.
Yesterday, I received this awesome story:
“Elisabeth,
The reflectors were a big hit. A parent and I did a safety talk and demonstration with a flash camera. I was in the school the next day and I heard a kid whispering “that’s the reflector lady”, so it must have made an impact.
At the assembly, we turned off the stage lights and I wore all black and walked across the stage, and then I turned and walked back the other way, but I had the star reflectors pinned on that half of the coat. Then the parent took a series of flash pictures to illuminate me in the dark. It was a quick and fun demonstration. We then delivered reflectors to each classroom.
Tomorrow at “Science Friday” the kids will be looking at reflectivity and retroreflectivity. Thanks for some of your science ideas.
Thanks for the fast turn around of my order.” Monica Sweet, Seattle Safe Routes to School project Safety Reflector demo by Monica at a Seattle School
Thanks, Monica, for the story and photo and for letting us share it with our readers! Elisabeth
Kids benefit so much from walking to school, but fewer and fewer do it on a daily basis. A local walk to school program is a great way to get kids into the habit. Parents at Vienna Elementary (VA) organize “Walking Wednesdays” and here they share their story:
Vienna Elementary, a school with just under 400 students, has been participating in the October International Walk to School Day and a local spring Walk/Bike to School Challenge for several years. Almost all of our students live within 1/2 mile of the school, but about 3/4 are bussed because of two heavily traveled roads near the school. Bussed students are allowed to walk if accompanied by their parents. Our turnouts for these walk and bike to school days was as high as 120 walkers during nice weather.
The bright orange hand was one of the pedestrian reflectors that Vienna Elementary students could get in their walk-to-school program.
This year we received a grant from Prevention Connections to implement a “Walking Wednesdays” program that was launched on this year’s International Walk to School Day (October 9th). Every Wednesday that a student walks, they are given a small foot charm to put on a chain. A local coffee shop, Cafe Amouri, has donated free coffee for the parents. The program has been an overwhelming success. We are regularly seeing over 150 students from all over town walking on Wednesdays and the charm and coffee table has become a small social scene. As part of the grant, we purchased several hundred funflector reflective charms to give away on a few special days each year. We gave them out this year on December 7th and 14th and let the kids know there would be a special surprise for walking. Now that it is getting dark early, we wanted to help keep the children be safe when they walk in the dawn and dusk hours or on rainy or overcast days. Turnout was high and the children were very excited to see the reflectors which were in the Paw and Peace Hand designs. Now, almost all of our walkers have one on their backpacks to help make them more visible. Kids like the designs and proudly display them on their backpacks. Because it is not obvious that the funflector tags are highly reflective, we are sending out followup information to the parents about the pedestrian reflectors. Close to St Patrick’s day, we’ll have another funflector day with the shamrock design so that students will have one for their front (typically jacket zipper pull) and one for their backpack if they choose.
Sean McCall, a father of two Vienna Elementary students, is engaged in the PTO walk to school committee and contributed this post. Thanks for sharing your project and experience with our readers!
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