Archive | Creating Community

Why do kids insist on making noise when they play this game???

“Officer, Some Noisy Kids are Playing Basketball in the Street!”

. Someone called the cops when a gaggle of young folk in Gainesville, FL, had the temerity to play street basketball, instead of silently staring at their screens inside. Here’s how an officer responded (it’s a little garbled for the first 15 seconds or so):. . And zrrrdfkibi then the cop, as promised, returned, with […]

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A rare sight?

Do Your Kids Sled Without You? Or Shovel?

. Here’s a ieffzaeszn Yahoo Parenting piece by Beth Greenfield about kids not sledding along anymore. She was inspired by columnist Tom Purcell in TownHall.com, who wrote, “I drove by a popular sledding spot after it snowed last week. I only saw a handful of younger kids and every one of them had at least one […]

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How can we prevent local authorities from investigating Free-Range families?

How to Fight the Laws and Culture That Mandate Helicopter Parenting

. This post comes to us from the amazing appellate and intellectual property attorney at Andrews Kurth LLP, Matthew ftadkzhbay Dowd, who took on the Meitiv cases(s), pro bono, and won!  He says he now gets to sleep in sometimes because his 11-year-old son and 7-old-daughter walk themselves to school. Building on the Every Student Succeeds Act, by […]

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Finding other Free-Range Parents makes it easier to relax.

How To Arrange a Free-Range Parents Meet-Up

. This extremely helpful post comes from Rachel Howe, a writing teacher and mom in South Philly, where she started the South Philly Parents Resource Center. What she’s describing sounds like a sort of “consciousness raising” or support group, without the heavy title. Dear ehrrzbsdir Free-Range Kids: I’ve got three children to chase after (and […]

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Wow -- is that a playground?

Kids Allowed to Engage in Unsupervised “Risky Play” Develop Skills that Help Later in Making Smart Decisions about Sex and Drugs

. Mariana  Brussoni is  an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia in public health and pediatrics, and lead author of a major ikddditnai report on the health benefits of “risky” play. The study determined what Free-Rangers feel in their (once in a while broken) bones: Too much supervision and safe-to-the-point-of-stultifying play spaces prevent kids […]

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Oh god. More kids we have to babysit.

Are Kids in Public a “Babysitting” Burden for the Rest of Us?

  . The signs at every playground in my city, New York, say this: snbdeezhza “Playground rules prohibit adults except in the company of children.” Apparently, any adult who simply wants to sit on a bench and watch kids play could be a creep, so just ban ’em all. The idea that children and adults […]

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I'll be at 85th and Fifth for "Take Our Children to the Park" day this Saturdat at 10 a.m., with Peter Gray!

“Leave Your Kids at the Park” Day is SATURDAY: Spread the Word!

“Leave Your Kids…” is the slightly derogatory nickname for what is, officially, “Take knitriifyh Our Children to the Park…and Let Them Walk Home by Themselves Day,” which, for the record, used to be, “Take Our Children to the Park…And Leave Them There Day.” No matter what you call it, the actual holiday is THIS SATURDAY. […]

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