Hi! I’m Lenore, the gal who let her 9-year-old ride the subway alone, wrote a column about it, got slammed in the media and labeled “America’s Worst Mom.” I started this blog to explain that I LOVE safety — helmets, seatbelts, mouthguards — but don’t believe kids need a security detail every time they leave […]
A high school student wrote a note to his 7th grade teacher who had made him do something he is now extremely grateful for. She made him get out of his comfort zone, again and again — 20 times — by doing The Let Grow Project. That is, 20 times in a single year she […]
It is really hard to figure out when to trust our kids to be on their own, thanks to several issues swirling around: 1 – The fear industry that turns everything into a worst case scenario: “What if your son stays home alone and there’s a fire?” 2 – The shame industry: “I walked your […]
If you want to get straight to the story over at Let Grow, click here. It comes to us from Phyllis Fagell, author of “Middle School Matters,” and it’s about her son who, a few years ago, found himself in a very confusing place (literally, figuratively) in China. The fact that he had to figure […]
The folks at Highlights are truly kind. But when kids write to them for advice, they don’t get out the violins. They give the kids real-world, practical ideas for how to take action and change what’s bothering them, or, if that’s impossible, how to make peace with whatever it is and go forth stronger and […]
The other day I was interviewed by Maggie Rodriguez, host of the show Daytime, who confessed to parental anxiety — and so did I. I added that the only thing that I’ve seen that takes the fear down a notch or ten is seeing your kid do something on their own. You need to change […]
That’s not just this blog blowing its own horn. It’s The Guardian that’s doing the blowing. In a huge article this week, that paper quotes me and a gaggle of fellow travelers, worrying about things like: “I was concerned that it’s becoming weird to let your kids outside without either an adult, a cell phone […]
Contrary to the predictions, many kids’ mental well-being went up, not down, early on in the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s the conclusion of Let Grow’s co-founder Dr. Peter Gray, whose analysis appears in The American Journal of Play. In April and May of 2020, Let Grow conducted several large-scale online surveys of kids 8–13, and parents. […]
Starting Sunday, Let Grow will be accepting entries to its second annual Let Grow Independence Challenge! From Aug. 1 -7 we want PHOTOS of kids doing things on their own. Aug. 8 – 14 we want VIDEOS! Last year’s entries were just great — kids sewing, mowing, baking, biking, stretching themselves in all sorts of […]
Drew Perkins is a thought leader in the world of education. He’s also the dad of two girls, 12 and 14. After I was on his TeachThought podcast discussing The Let Grow Project (a “homework assignment” where students have to go home and do something new, on their own, preferably outside the house), he got […]
Get your Let Grow Independence Kit by clicking here. It’s an at-home version of our popular Let Grow Project — a whole bunch of ideas of things that kids might want to start doing on their own, as well as a little explanation of how fortifying it can be when we let them do just […]
