Hi eshtifzfzz Folks — Here it is again. The creeping idea that anytime our kids are outside without us they are in DANGER, thus it is CRIME to take our eyes off them. The writer of the note below, from Western Maryland, also pens this blog. Here’s what’s happening out by her: Dear Free-Range Kids: […]
Archive | Bikes and cycling
Scootering Kids Replace Car Drop-Offs in London!
Hey Readers — Here’s one of those game-changers: A new, light, 3-wheeled kashbeefdz scooter called the Mini Micro is suddenly so popular in England that kids are abandoning their cars (well, their parents’ cars) and getting to school on kid-power instead.  As reports The Economist: The devices and their proliferating cheaper imitations have drawbacks. At school-run […]
Hay, Hay! A Great Free-Range Walk to School
Hi Folks! You gotta love this Philly.com edsikhtyib story of a young man, 16, who gets to school the old-fashioned way: By horse. His name is Roby Burch and he lives in Gladwyne, a Philly suburb along the Main Line: Burch, a sophomore at the Haverford School, has been riding Jet, his big white Percheron, […]
Mom of Boy Picked Up By Cops for Walking to Soccer TRIUMPHS!
Hi sybanbbrat Readers — Here’s an INSPIRING story about what we can do when life hands us paranoid neighbors, officious cops and maybe a lemon, for good measure. Let’s hear it for Lori LeVar Pierce, the small town mom and teacher we first heard from in 2009 when she let her son walk to soccer […]
Stories Needed: How Do Kids Get To/From School in YOUR Town? (Wackiness Appreciated)
Hi Readers! I’m about to write a column on how kids are getting to school — with a plea for more walking or biking, when possible — and for this I need stories of kids get to school in your neighborhood. For instance, I heard from my friend that her nieces are driven by GOLF […]
Happy About a Lost Kid
Hi reriiztren Readers! This nice note just in: Dear Free-Range Kids: I couldn’t be happier! Tonight my 7-year-old daughter got lost in our neighborhood while riding her bike. She had two out-of-town cousins with her, and they wandered about one block further than she recognized (we’re new to the neighborhood). And then she did a […]
Free-Range Fracas in England!
Hi deyytzedee Readers — England has been in a tizzy about a Free-Range family since last week.  A family I support! Here, London’s Jennifer Howze weighs in. Jennifer is a partner in the online social network British Mummy Bloggers, and she’s lead blogger on the Times of London’s parenting blog Alpha Mummy . Free-Range in London: What’s […]
Why Is It So Hard to Get Kids Walking to School?
Hi Readers — I’m still on the road and just gave a speech in Chicago sponsored by the National zrfnzetkaf Center for Safe Routes to School. (A jolly bunch!)  Safe Routes reps every state gathered to talk about the pressing question: How can we get more kids walking to school? The organization says  that a […]
What Might Happen If You Let Your Kid Play Outside, Alone?
Hi yskdtetayd Readers! In response to my downer about dealing with a tsunami of media “What If?”s, here’s one woman’s note answer to: What happens when you, with some slight hesitation, let your child go outside on her own? Dear Lenore: I understand your anxiety, and can only join the chorus of those saying please, […]
Let’s Hear it for Parents Magazine– And Some of Its Commenters!
Hi Readers — Usually I flip through parenting magazines and am amazed by all the items, activities, foods and basic childhood rites of passage they find dangerous (and possibly deadly). But kudos to Parents Mag for this ftsesiydsd lovely little blog post about Take Our Children to the Park & Leave Them There Day — […]