School bus or change schools for 2 year old?

Hi all,


Would appreciate advice on this matter.

I work part-time, have a 11 week old and have no helper, so my tot has been attending daycare/playschool 3 days a week. We LOVE the school - it's been a lifesaver esp. in the early days of new baby's arrival.


But due to the collective sale of the entire estate where we are staying, we are going to have to move as the landlord has given us notice! And the high rents means we will likely have to move somewhere too far to take the public bus or cycle to school (that's how we are currently going about).


Now, I am not sure if I should put him on a school bus or change schools. Is he too young for the school bus? They have a bus auntie who looks after the kids on the bus. I really hope to avoid changing school as I think a new baby brother and a house move is more than what a 2 year old can handle so don't want another big change for him. Besides, we are renting so who knows where we will be 2 years later.... My head says be practical and switch schools if we move too far out but heart says bite the bullet, put kid on bus so he can still enjoy the familiarity of school...what should i do?

I myself strated taking school bus in Hong Kong to go to kindy when I was 2. Mum said that I used to throw up all the time in Dad's car before, the motion sickness was cured since I started taking the school bus.


As far as I can remember, I quite enjoyed taking the school bus as I had more time chatting to my friends after school (it was the time before mobile phone and internet were invented).


My boy is 3, taking the school bus is definitely the highlight of his day. Before, I used to drive him to kindy and the school bus takes him home after. He now prefers to use the school bus both ways. His favourite cartoon is the "Magic School Bus". He actually yells "Magic School Bus" in joy when my helper puts him on it every morning. He possibly imagines that he is one of the characters in the cartoon!

We've just been through the same thing. Our rent was increased by 50%, so had to move. The question was whether to move closer to our 5 year old's school or our 2.5 year old's pre-school. We decided that the 5 year old was old enough to take the bus but the 2.5 year old was not, so stayed close to the nursery.


It depends on the child. Many 2 and 3 year olds do it every day and love it. Personally, I'd go for a school move. Children are so adaptable at that age (our poor eldest has been moved from pillar to post for years). If you have to move again in 2 years' time, he may be ready for 'big school' anyway, and most of his friends might be moving too.

Congratulations on #2!

Would driving be a possibility for you? I also do not have a helper and my son who is nearly 2 yrs has been doing the school runs with me since he was about 4 months old. My daughter has just turned 7yrs and I still can't face putting her on a school bus everyday. I know, I'm so over protective :)

Hi all

thanks for sharing.

spoke to my husband last night, he prefers our son stays in the same school and get him on the school bus instead. also just enquired with the bus company and the fees per month are really quite cheap...only problem is the bus company is not willing to go to the area we might have to move to because the bus will be caught in the morning traffic and not make it to school on time!

so i suppose now the thing is to find a decent apartment near enough to go on school bus but not too expensive!

dora - how long did it take for your child to adjust to a new school?

happychick - i'm pretty useless, i can't drive :P if i could, i reckon we would have bought a car by now for me to drive the kids around!

Mine was a tad older when we moved (just over 3), but I can honestly say that it was an overnight adjustment. We walked in at playtime, I had planned on spending a couple of days 'on standby' in or around the building in case we had any settling in problems. After less than an hour the teacher and principal asked me to go shopping or have a coffee and promised to call me if they had any problems. Of course it's different for every child, but we were very lucky.