It sounds funny, but kids need coaching when it comes to walking and cycling to school.

Print Resources

  • Active Transportation for Life – milestone goals
    • A set of tips for parents teaching their children about walking and road safety.
  • Sidewalk Smarts – Passport (Printable)
    • The Sidewalk Smarts Passport provides an outline of the individual skills you can practice with your child as they develop pedestrian skills. When you have confidence that your child will perform these skills all the time, you can feel more confident allowing them to walk in familiar settings that include the applicable situations. School routes are a great place to practice!

There are three stages for each skill:

Your child can tell you what it means.

Your child can perform the skill.

Your child performs the skill all the time.

Videos

  • Safe walking fundamentals
    • Teaches concepts around how to walk on and off the sidewalk, driveway safety, choosing a safe route, and safe clothing choices.
  • Crossing fundamentals
    • Teaches concepts of basic crossing techniques and to use the stop, look, listen, think process. Also, covers adult supervision when crossing streets, and crossing in the dark or bad weather.
  • Advanced crossing
    • Teaches concepts around crossing at a controlled intersection or marked crosswalk, and reiterates the importance of the stop, look, listen, think process.
  • Traffic Chaos
    • Illustrates various driving decisions made in school zones and how they impact overall safety.
  • Parking lot safety
    • Teaches concepts around parking lot safety highlighting the importance of listening to adults, being aware of surroundings, and applying safe crossing techniques.
  • Bike helmet fitting
    • Teaches how to properly fit a child’s bike helmet. From CANBIKE Manitoba.
  • Bike theft prevention
    • With a little more awareness, we can all help create a world where no one has to feel the pain of a stolen bicycle.
  • Using bike boxes
    • This City of Guelph video shows us how those unusual green boxes at intersections work to protect cyclists. Note: young children should be supervised in advanced cycling settings like this.
  • Railway crossings
    • Operation Lifesaver brings us this GIF that helps us talk through the signs and signals warning of a train crossing. This can also help you speak to your children about what they can expect at a railway crossing.
  • Do-it-yourself bike rodeo
    • Appropriate for kids in Grade 1 – 6 who have mastered the basics of starting, stopping, balance and riding. This mini-version of the Ottawa Safety Councils Cyclesafe bike rodeo will allow your kids to practice in their own driveway!

Online Games

  • Assess risks and choose routes
    • This game educates young children from ages 7 to 12 on basic road safety techniques. The game player is given different road safety scenarios of which they must make the correct decisions to win the game.
  • Track your steps to school
    • Celebrate your steps to school with Hop! Log your walks to discover the positive impact walking has on the environment.