A Bus-sy Day

2013-01-22Uncategorized Standard

Anna’s flirting with starting to practice handball with a few of her classmates.  And no, this is not the spineless ‘American handball‘ but the sometimes insane-crazy ‘Team handball‘, which is a somewhat bizarre high-speed indoor amalgamation of basketball and football (soccer).  Here’s a How To Play video, here’s an insight into the goalie position, here are some highlights from the Olympics final this past summer.

The tricky part is that the practices are at a venue that is a short bus-ride away, and Anna’s never really ridden the bus.  Sure, she’s gone on the bus with her old after-care program and on school-trips, but she’s never gone ‘solo’.

So last night we planned it out, but when it came to actually taking the bus, her nerve faltered, and she called home all defeated.  I summoned her home, and while she was on her way, Finnur and I hashed out a plan where he would take her on the bus (we still had plenty of time) and I would follow to take Finnur back home so he could keep working.

So that’s what we did.  We drove up to the swimming pool, and then Finnur pointed out all the various stops on the route past where some her friends live.  Right by her school, a couple of her handball-practice-going classmates came on board, so now Anna knows that they do.  They all then got off where they needed to, and Finnur showed her the stop to go back.

Exiting the bus.

Exiting the bus.

Entering the practice venue.

Entering the practice venue.

We were invited to a birthday celebration after practice (Happy Birthday Anna Sr.!) so I picked Anna up after she was done.

Now we just have to wait and see what happens next time Anna’s supposed to take the bus solo…

COMMENTS

Guðrún Birna

I did similar practice bus trip with Baldur, but he got so nervous about missing the stops that he prefers to walk or bike, rather than to take the bus. And that is a shame, considering how much it is costing us all to keep up a decent bus service. Garðabær started offering a mini-bus to children to use to go between practices, and we used those services last winter, but after Baldur got winter studded bike tires he refuses to get into a bus of any kind and just goes solo.

You should discuss with Anna, what to do if she misses her bus, and outfit her with a cell phone or some resources to deal with the forgetfulness that comes with this age.

Hrefna

I would totally have her bike to practice, except it’s up the steepest hill ever (much worse than our local hill, almost San Fran style) and she’d be navigating all the traffic around the shopping malls, which can be dangerous. Even her studded tires won’t change that.

They do have a couple of ‘sporty’ buses running in our neck of the woods, but the timing for one of those is terrible (she’d arrive 40 minutes early, and have to wait 40 minutes to go back), and the other one might have one useful run we can use, but is overrun with tiny kids from after-care and may therefore be late (we drove past the stop, and yikes, that was a lot of kids!).

The big issue for Anna yesterday was ‘missing the bus’ a whole hour before she really needed to be on the bus, because she saw one pass by. And yes, we need to get her a wristwatch so she can keep better track of time (she has one, we haven’t seen it in months). She calmed down a little when I showed her the real-time tracking map, and that there were in fact FOUR buses driving the route, and that there would always be another bus in 15 minutes. I also explained the time-schedule to her in more detail, and showed her how to read it properly (I hope).

Her anxiety had more to do with the mechanics: How to pay, where the stops are, how to request a stop, which side of the street to be on. Now we await tomorrow to see if this stuff sank in, or if she’ll spin off into anxiety-world again.

I’m desperately trying to hold off on giving her a cell phone (her three best friends have them so I can just call them!), so the current back-up plan is ‘wait for the next bus’.

Good times! 🙂