October is Walk to School month, encouraging kids and their parents to leave the cars at home and kick the school day off with some activity.

Bruce Krentz, Health Promotion Coordinator with the Northern Health Region, shares the benefits.

“Walking to school provides kids with essential daily exercise, it helps prevent chronic disease, it promotes independence and confidence, shows some road safety skills, fosters social connections with friends, family and your neighbourhood. I mean there are just so many benefits to having your kids walk to school.”

Krentz said that as a planned community, Thompson’s neighborhoods were built around the schools, making them easy to access for all students.

And parents can find the time walking with their children to school as an opportunity to have some unstructured conversations that will also provide some informal teaching moments.