Ready Kids › Out and About › Badge 1 › Lesson 1.2
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Two is harder than one
Agree who you walk with before you leave, and never peel off without saying so.
1Watch
Three leave the gate
Three leave the gate
Three kids leave school together, talking. At the corner, one slows down to look at something in a shop window. The other two keep walking without noticing. The film stops on the one at the window, looking up to find the pavement empty.
24 secondsNobody has done anything wrong yet. That is the point.
2The idea
Two kids are a much harder problem than one
Somebody who wants to bother a kid on their own does not want two of you. Two of you notice more, remember more and are louder. Two of you can send one to get help while the other stays. That only works if you are actually together.
Three kids strung out along a pavement with one lagging behind is not a group. It is a kid on their own with company up ahead. The company does not know it has lost anybody, so it cannot help.
3The idea
What a plan actually is
A walking plan has three parts, and you can say it in one breath.
Who: the name of the person you walk with.
Until where: the exact spot where you split up.
The sentence: what you say when you leave, loud enough that they turn round.
“Me and Priya, to the corner shop, then I go left.” That is a plan. A parent hearing it knows who to ring and where to look. “We all sort of go the same way” is not a plan. It is a hope.
4The idea
Priya, the corner shop, and a shoelace
Say you and Priya are walking to the corner shop, as agreed. Halfway there your shoelace goes. The plan says you do not just stop. You say “hang on, shoelace” before you crouch, and Priya waits. Thirty seconds, and you are still two people.
At the shop, you say “I’m going this way now, see you tomorrow.” Priya nods. Now she knows exactly where you left her, and if you are not home by four, so does your mum.
5Decide
Which of these is a plan?
Pick one to carry on.
6Say it
The sentence for when you peel off
Say this out loud, in your normal voice
“I'm going this way now, see you tomorrow”
You need it every time you leave the group, even if it is only twenty metres early. Loud enough that they turn round.
7Find them
Which of these break the plan?
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 4.
8Build it
Pick the walking plan
Plan builder
Drag the names of the people you actually walk with into the order you walk, mark the spot where each one leaves, and it prints as a card.
Do this with a parent so they have a copy. The card is who they ring first if you are late.
9Do it
Before you leave this page
Agree one walking buddy for tomorrow. Say their name to a parent tonight, and say where the two of you split up. If you walk alone, say that instead. That is a plan too.
Tick it when you have done it.
Lesson done.
Agree who you walk with. Nobody peels off without saying so.
Next lesson: The person behind you