How aware of road safety is your child? Test their knowledge.

I don’t mind admitting it but one of the things that scares me as a parent is road safety.  The older two have been asking if they can walk home from school for months now but due to the fact they would have to cross two very busy main roads so far I have said no.  There have also been a few incidents where we have had some near misses with the boys not paying full attention. 

Right from the word go we have tried to teach the children to be safe around the roads and I know that in school from year one they the children have the chance to do Road Safety where they have the opportunity to go out in small groups and learning about the Green Cross code. 

I also know that at some stage I will need to give the boys the responsibility of walking home, especially Luc as he will be going to secondary school in September.  In the last few weeks I have started to give the older two some independence and have allowed them to catch the school bus home a couple of times a week.  This was such a big thing for me to do but as the bus stops either outside our house or across the road it sort of made sense to allow them to do it.  Plus several of their friends catch the bus too which is nice for them. 

The week running up to them starting to catch the bus I started preparing them.  We all caught the bus home one day, something the younger two loved.  Then I spent some time making sure they could cross the road safely.  Some may say I’ve been over protective and maybe I am.  But when I was younger I witness a child being knocked over having just stepped out into the road.  Thankfully they were okay but it’s an image that has stayed with me.  Plus as I work from home I have nearly always been able to collect the boys myself at the end of the day so  there has been no real need to use the bus.  

What I’m trying it say is that the best way to prepare our children is to educate them and show them how to stay safe while out and about and crossing the roads. You can do this everyday when out and about as well as finding online resources to help.  Rentalcars.com who provide car rentals worldwide have put together a fun quiz about Road Safety for children take to test their knowledge.  Why not get your child to have a go.

I asked Luc to have a go and he scored 9 out of 10, not bad at all.  What did your child score?

This post is brought to you partnership with Rentalcars.com, the contents of this post is 100% my own.