Whether it’s their first time heading out to school, or just a new school year, ensuring a child is safe going to and from school is important for every parent. Amid the excitement and concern, it’s important to give your child the right advice for traveling safely, whether that is taking the school bus or walking. However, we should do so in a way that doesn’t make them too nervous to or frightened to take those first steps into the wider world.
This can be much harder than you first think, but with a clear strategy, you can help your child understand the importance of safety and send them off to school happy and excited as they should be.
Taking the school bus
The school bus is the safest way any child can travel to and from school, with supervision from the driver throughout and dropped off right at school. There are still some things that a child should take care with though, especially for the youngest ones. Getting on and off the bus is where a child must be careful, and there are a simple set of rules to teach them:
- Stay five steps away from the curb as the bus approaches.
- Always wait for the bus driver to ask you to get on the bus.
- Face forward after finding a seat on the bus.
- Exit the bus after it has stopped. Look left, right, then left again, and take five steps away from the bus toward the curb where you are safe.
Walking to School
Children today don’t always get the exercise they need, so walking to school is a healthy option, but obviously there are some safety concerns. Children under 10 should never be left to walk alone to or from school, no matter how safe you think the neighborhood is. For older children, walking in groups where possible is always the best policy, and ensure each child understands road safety rules. Don’t overcomplicate things, here is an easily remembered list to help them:
- Use the sidewalk whenever possible, and if there isn’t a sidewalk, walk on the edge of the street facing traffic.
- Focus when walking near traffic and don’t play around.
- Use crosswalks whenever they are available to cross the street.
- Look left, right, then left again before crossing any street.
Biking to School
It is not always practical, but if it is many kids love to ride a bike to school. Road safety is crucial here, so make sure every child understands these simple rules:
- Wear a securely fitting helmet
- Follow all traffic signs and signals
- If there is a bike lane use it
- Don’t use phones or other devices while riding
- Pay Attention!
Safety doesn’t end at the front door
Once your child is home, safety doesn’t simply stop. Luckily, today we have numerous tools that can help us keep an eye on children while they do homework, play or whatever they are getting up to. Home security today is much more than an alarm system to deter burglars while you are on vacation, from security cameras to a video doorbell, home security is now integrated into the smart home industry to offer impressive functionality.
Keeping an eye on things
For back to school safety where children are concerned, nothing has changed home security more than various camera systems. Video doorbells allow you to remotely see who is at the door, ensuring your child can enter the home safely, and you know they are there. This is great for your child, but gives parents peace of mind too, never having to wonder if the child has returned home or not.
Knowing where children are, and what they are up to, doesn’t stop when they get indoors either. Security cameras are of course associated with home security, but internal cameras connected to a smart home mean you can see what is going on in specific rooms of your home too. Not only that, you can get automated alerts if a child enters or exits a particular room, through a smartphone wherever you may be.
Security cameras are now beginning to include AI that can recognize specific faces. With this, smart security cameras can send alerts when a younger child enters the kitchen for instance, great for making sure that they remain safe at all times.
Conclusion
Back to school is a time to think about safety, and that makes it a great time to also look at home security too. Keeping your child safe at home is much easier with today’s technology. It allows parents to monitor children anywhere in the home through their phones or connected devices, helping to maintain that back to school safety even after they get back from that first day of the semester.