Getting to primary school on time

Running late to school/ preschool etc? 

I learnt a useful way of encouraging little children, particularly if, like mine, they are animal obsessed!

So on the days I am pushing them out of the door to get to school before the bell rings we go on ...

Cheetah speed

 I've found this a fun way to get them moving faster rather than just the yelling or screaming and your kids getting used to you saying "hurry up, we're going to be late". My middle child started saying that impersonating me so knew it was time to change!

On cheetah speed we have to be as quick as we can; whether it's on the scooter, running, buggy board (on a side note, perfect if your little ones aren't great for walking then I've found it a life saver!) and my youngest gets strapped in the buggy. All to get to those school gates before the bell!

I like to try and give them some tortoise speed time as well on days we're running early so they also learn to slow down sometimes.  That's one thing I don't like about our culture is that it's very go, go, go and (I'm originally an Essex girl, so it was quite standard for most people to go by the phrase "work hard, play hard").  But I think it's important to have down time as well.  If we're really early for school, usually because I thought we were late but read the time wrong, we play tortoise speed then cheetah speed and keep switching on the walk to school!

All 3 of my kids love animals but my eldest, who's 6 is obsessed! And now doesn't want to go on cheetah speed, he chooses to pretend to fly on his scooter and be on peregrine falcon speed as he knows they're even faster. Since his animal top trump cards he can tell me the exact speeds.  We end up having a race but a 6 year old boy on a scooter going at peregrine falcon speed against an exhausted mum at 8.30am pushing a buggy with a 2 year old and a 4 year old on the buggy board, and loaded with everyone's bags going at cheetah speed. It's obvious who's faster!