preschoolers and school buses

As the most recent step in the saga of trying to get my three-year-old
into a good preschool for him, our school system is thinking of placing
him in a preschool that sounds great -- but there's a catch. He could
take a school bus there (hooray!) but the ride could be up to an hour
each way.

Do any of you have experience with preschoolers riding a school bus?
How'd it go?
--
Sara
accompanied by TK, due in April

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"Anonymama" wrote in message
...
As the most recent step in the saga of trying to get my three-year-old
into a good preschool for him, our school system is thinking of placing
him in a preschool that sounds great -- but there's a catch. He could
take a school bus there (hooray!) but the ride could be up to an hour
each way.

Do any of you have experience with preschoolers riding a school bus?
How'd it go?

My daughter took the bus to her public developmental preschool from the time
she was about 3yo until she turned 5, and it went fine. (At one point in
time, she referred to the bus as her "space ship". Very cute!) I'm trying to
remember whether she spent an hour on the bus in either direction, and
though I don't think it was quite that long, it may have been fairly close
to it in at least one direction. It never seemed to bother her, though, and
she often just fell asleep in the bus on the trip back from school, so she
surely had no sense of how long it was on those occasions!
--
Be well, Barbara

"Anonymama" wrote in message
...
As the most recent step in the saga of trying to get my three-year-old
into a good preschool for him, our school system is thinking of placing
him in a preschool that sounds great -- but there's a catch. He could
take a school bus there (hooray!) but the ride could be up to an hour
each way.

Do any of you have experience with preschoolers riding a school bus?
How'd it go?

Yes, my now 13-year-old took the bus for her developmental preschool when
she was 3-4 years old. It was awesome. They picked up and delivered her at
our front door. It wasn't an hour though, I think she was on there for 1/2
hour. In my experience, they take good care of the preschoolers, meaning
they personally put her on the bus and then met her at school to make sure
she got to her classroom. She takes the bus now to middle school and that
even hasn't produced any problems. She is probably on the bus now for 1/2
hour.
--
Sue (mom to three girls)

Anonymama wrote:
As the most recent step in the saga of trying to get my three-year-old
into a good preschool for him, our school system is thinking of
placing him in a preschool that sounds great -- but there's a catch.
He could take a school bus there (hooray!) but the ride could be up
to an hour each way.

Do any of you have experience with preschoolers riding a school bus?
How'd it go?

Luke is 4.5yo and I have him ride a bus (well a public transit system - a
van ;-) to his preschool. He is on there for about 1/2 an hour sometimes a
tad longer. He doesn't mind it other then that they don't let him take his
coat off and he 'sweats'...which is very torturous to Luke ;-) Whenever
possible, he now wears a lighter jacket and I stuff his winter coat in his
backpack. I rode with him the first time. It was all similar age kid and
fine. You might ask to ride along to see what the atmosphere is like.
Buses can sometimes be kind of ugly I think.

--
Nikki
Hunter 4/99
Luke 4/01
Thing One and Thing Two :-) EDD 4/06

In article IP3Jf.27891$sA3.18124@fed1read02,
"Circe" wrote:

My daughter took the bus to her public developmental preschool from the time
she was about 3yo until she turned 5, and it went fine. (At one point in
time, she referred to the bus as her "space ship". Very cute!) I'm trying to
remember whether she spent an hour on the bus in either direction, and
though I don't think it was quite that long, it may have been fairly close
to it in at least one direction. It never seemed to bother her, though, and
she often just fell asleep in the bus on the trip back from school, so she
surely had no sense of how long it was on those occasions!

Hey, that's a good point -- although he doesn't nap at home, he does
fall asleep in the bike trailer and sometimes in the car. Thanks!
--
Sara
accompanied by TK, due in April

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In article ,
"Sue" wrote:

Yes, my now 13-year-old took the bus for her developmental preschool when
she was 3-4 years old. It was awesome. They picked up and delivered her at
our front door. It wasn't an hour though, I think she was on there for 1/2
hour. In my experience, they take good care of the preschoolers, meaning
they personally put her on the bus and then met her at school to make sure
she got to her classroom.

Oh good. I was a little worried about that. Thanks!
--
Sara
accompanied by TK, due in April

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In article ,
"Nikki" wrote:

Luke is 4.5yo and I have him ride a bus (well a public transit system - a
van ;-) to his preschool. He is on there for about 1/2 an hour sometimes a
tad longer. He doesn't mind it other then that they don't let him take his
coat off and he 'sweats'...which is very torturous to Luke ;-) Whenever
possible, he now wears a lighter jacket and I stuff his winter coat in his
backpack. I rode with him the first time. It was all similar age kid and
fine. You might ask to ride along to see what the atmosphere is like.
Buses can sometimes be kind of ugly I think.

Heh -- especially a bus full of boys on their way to a preschool just
for kids with social and emotional delays...

That's a good idea, riding along the first time. Thanks!
--
Sara
accompanied by TK, due in April

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In article ,
Anonymama wrote:

In article ,
"Nikki" wrote:

Luke is 4.5yo and I have him ride a bus (well a public transit system - a
van ;-) to his preschool. He is on there for about 1/2 an hour sometimes a
tad longer. He doesn't mind it other then that they don't let him take his
coat off and he 'sweats'...which is very torturous to Luke ;-) Whenever
possible, he now wears a lighter jacket and I stuff his winter coat in his
backpack. I rode with him the first time. It was all similar age kid and
fine. You might ask to ride along to see what the atmosphere is like.
Buses can sometimes be kind of ugly I think.

Heh -- especially a bus full of boys on their way to a preschool just
for kids with social and emotional delays...


I was thinking more of the atmosphere on a middle school bus ... either
gender, just kids on hormones

--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care

Anonymama wrote:
In article ,
"Nikki" wrote:

Luke is 4.5yo and I have him ride a bus (well a public transit system - a
van ;-) to his preschool. He is on there for about 1/2 an hour sometimes a
tad longer. He doesn't mind it other then that they don't let him take his
coat off and he 'sweats'...which is very torturous to Luke ;-) Whenever
possible, he now wears a lighter jacket and I stuff his winter coat in his
backpack. I rode with him the first time. It was all similar age kid and
fine. You might ask to ride along to see what the atmosphere is like.
Buses can sometimes be kind of ugly I think.

Heh -- especially a bus full of boys on their way to a preschool just
for kids with social and emotional delays...

That's a good idea, riding along the first time. Thanks!
--
Sara -- I was trying to remember the situation with your son, and
that's what I recalled.

IMHO, no matter how well they treat your son on the bus, that's a long
trip for a very little boy, and esp for a little boy with social or
emotional delays. Is there any way to find out what *up to an hour*
means? If it were me, and if there were other alternatives (even
private ones), I'd fight this placement, and demand that they pay for a
closer one.

Have you had your son privately tested in addition to any bd of educ
testing? If so, will the tester be willing to opine that this is
simply too long a ride for your son's emotional health?

Barbara

In article
,
dragonlady wrote:

In article ,
Anonymama wrote:

Heh -- especially a bus full of boys on their way to a preschool just
for kids with social and emotional delays...


I was thinking more of the atmosphere on a middle school bus ... either
gender, just kids on hormones

Oh, the only reason I was gender-specific there was that it turns out
this program is all boys. Not by design, it's just turned out that way.
--
Sara
accompanied by TK, due in April

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