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Grades 4–5 · Home Alone Ready · Badge 1

The route you agreed

Walk one agreed route home and ask before changing it, every time.

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Step 1 of 11

1Watch

The same walk, twice

This is the walk home. Same street, same time, most days. Watch it once – you are not looking for anything yet. Just notice how ordinary it is.

Watch it once. You are not looking for anything yet.

2The idea

Your route is not the fastest way home

Your route is not the fastest way home. There is probably a quicker way. There is definitely a more interesting way. Neither matters. The value of your route is that somebody else knows it.

There is probably a quicker way. There is definitely a more interesting way. Neither matters. The value of your route is that somebody else knows it.

If you are not home on time, the first question anybody asks is not how late you are. It is which way you walk. If the answer is one route, somebody can be standing on it in four minutes. If the answer is “it depends”, that is a bad afternoon for everybody.

3The idea

How a route gets agreed

How a route gets agreed. One: pick it with a parent, at the table, on a map. Two: walk it together once, in daylight, before it counts. Three: on that walk, find the safe places. A shop with staff in it. The library. A friend's house where somebody is always home.

1. Pick it with a parent, at the table, on a map.
2. Walk it together once, in daylight, before it counts.
3. On that walk, find the safe places: a shop with staff in it, the library, a friend’s house where somebody is always home.

Somebody expects you at a time. That is not surveillance. It is a net. The moment you are late, a clock starts for a person who knows exactly where to look. An expected time and a known route are the two halves of the same thing.

4The idea

Changing it, done properly

Changing it, done properly. Priya is at the gate. A friend says, come to mine, it is on the way, sort of. It is not the route. Priya messages: can I go to Amara's, back by five? She waits for the reply before she moves. It takes twenty seconds.

Priya is at the gate. A friend says come to mine, it is on the way, sort of. It is not the route. Priya messages: Can I go to Amara’s, back by five? She waits for the reply before she moves. It takes twenty seconds. The answer is yes.

Changing the route needs permission first, every time, even for a good reason. The reason can be excellent. The route still changed without the one person whose job it is to know where you are. The ask is what puts them back in.

5Decide

If you are not home on time, what is the first question anybody asks?

Narration

If you are not home on time, what is the first question anybody asks? Have a look at the three, and pick one to carry on.

Yes. And if the answer is “it depends”, that is a bad afternoon for everybody. If the answer is one route, somebody can be standing on it in four minutes. The phone question comes second, and only helps if the first one is answered.

Not first. Before anything else, somebody needs to know where to look. That is the entire job your route does. How late and whether you have a phone both matter, but neither tells anybody which street to walk down.

Pick one to carry on.

6Say it

The sentence that keeps your route yours

The sentence that keeps your route yours. Say this out loud, in your normal voice. Can I check with my mum first? You will need it the first time somebody offers you a lift you did not plan.

Say this out loud, in your normal voice

“Can I check with my mum first?”

You will need it the first time somebody offers you a lift you did not plan.

7Decide

You are five minutes from home. A friend's mum pulls over and offers you both a lift.

Narration

You are five minutes from home. A friend's mum pulls over and offers you both a lift. Pick one to carry on.

Right. Checking costs two minutes and nothing else. The lift is probably fine, but “probably fine” is a call a parent gets to make, not one you make on a pavement in thirty seconds. If the reply comes before she has driven off, you can still get in.

Not quite. The problem is not the friend’s mum. It is that the plan changed without the one person whose job it is to know where you are. Messaging from the car tells them after the change, and after is not permission. Message first, keep walking, get in when you hear back.

Pick one to carry on.

8Look

Three things to find on your walk

Three things to find on your walk. Walk it once with a parent, in daylight. You are both looking for the same three things: somewhere with staff, somewhere with a door you can go through, and somewhere with a grown-up who knows your name.

Walk it once with a parent, in daylight. You are both looking for the same three things: somewhere with staff, somewhere with a door you can go through, somewhere with a grown-up who knows your name.

9Find them

Which of these count as a safe place to go into?

Which of these count as a safe place to go into? Tap the ones that count. There are four.

Tap the ones that count.

Find all 4.

10Build it

Make your route card

Make your route card. Do this bit with a parent, tonight. The card is only right if you both agree with it.

Interactive

Route builder

Drop a pin on home and on school, trace the one route between them, then tag the safe places along it. It prints as a card for the fridge.

Do this bit with a parent, tonight. The card is only right if you both agree with it.

11Do it

Before you leave this page

Before you leave this page. Walk your route with a parent and point out every place you would go into if you needed an adult. Out loud. There should be at least two.

Walk your route with a parent and point out every place you would go into if you needed an adult. Out loud. There should be at least two.

Tick it when you have done it.

Lesson done.

One route, agreed and walked once together. Change it only with permission first.

Next lesson: The shortcut you walk past

Badge 1 · Getting Home

1.1The route you agreed 1.2The shortcut you walk past 1.3Head up 1.4The key ★Badge Challenge

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