FIRST, A PLEA: IF YOU LOVED YOUR OWN “FREE-RANGE” CHILDHOOD AND WANT THAT FREEDOM GIVEN TO THE NEXT GENERATION, PLEASE DONATE TO LET GROW BY CLICKING HERE! And now: Head over to Let Grow to read the whole list of parenting moments — good and awful. But let me just state my favorite one here, […]
As you will read over at Let Grow today, kids who are “just playing” are learning a ton. They even learn a lot from the part that drives you crazy — the bickering and the “That’s not fair!”s. Learning to be jerks? No — they’re learning to get along, believe it or not. This involves […]
Growing up I always made my parents presents for the holidays — great things like egg carton candy dishes, and egg carton jewelry boxes, and sometimes even things NOT made out of egg cartons. Like mugs made from half-and-half cartons. No, really — I was better than that. Wish I’d saved some of these masterpieces. […]
“Daddy, help.” Those were the words Rebecca Gomez’s toddler kept repeating when he couldn’t get the battery into his Buzz Lightyear. But daddy was distracted helping his other two kids — and this turned out to be a small blessing. Read the tiny, happy story over at Let Grow by clicking here!
I realize that headline wouldn’t have made sense in any generation till now. Of COURSE 9-year-olds roamed, and of COURSE they didn’t have phones. The fact that this is, indeed, Free-Range headline material shows just how normalized constant adult supervision — in person and via electronics — has become. So read this Alaska mom’s essay […]
Fourth grade teacher Kevin Stinehart, the 2020 teacher of the year in his South Carolina District, stumbled onto a surprising new way to fight bullying. As he explains in eSchoolNews: “A few years ago I had a student who walked around with a chip on his shoulder. He never smiled, never laughed, and always seemed angry. He […]
Let your tots do what the Japanese kids do on the TV show “My First Errand,” and I’ll be visiting you at Sing Sing. Take a look at the video I posted at Let Grow. The kids look like they’re about 5 and 3, and off they go — to several different stores — to […]
How is it I had not heard of these before? Every year there are hundreds of Acton Children’s Business Fairs around the country — and world. They look like a farmer’s market — lots tables under pop-up tents –Â but instead of overpriced kale, there are kids selling everything from cooking classes to origami to […]
Neil deGrasse Tyson sounds like the most Free-Range of fathers when he begs parents to let their kids stomp in puddles, try new things, and make a mess. His inspiring video is posted on Let Grow, so all you have to do is click here to watch 3 wonderful minutes of Tyson explaining, in the […]
Columbia University Professor Samantha Boardman is a psychiatrist — but she has come to suspect the whole psychological model might have it backwards: Rather than trying to help patients to change their thoughts as the key to changing their lives, vice versa could be the way to go. That’s pretty radical…and pretty helpful. In her […]
