Hi Readers — Okay, so the kids in this Sesame Street video look a little languid and catalog-ready. And of course there is the inherent tension between a song encouraging kids to go outdoors and the fact that it is on TV, and if it’s REALLY good, kids will want to just sit there and watch some more, sunny day be damned.
DESPITE all that — and the sad fact that I find Elmo cloying — this is still a video with a lovely message. And great birdies in a tree. And it’s to one of my very favorite songs (sap that I am):
P.S. Another reader just sent in THIS song as a “Free-Range” anthem. “Hey, Won’t Somebody Come Out and Play?” from the show “Yo Gabba Gabba.” The last line of this sweet ditty actually makes me sort of queasy with regret: “Childhood won’t last, so won’t somebody come out and play?” Despite my best efforts, it is STILL hard for me to get my kids out of the house during the school year, often because no one else is outside and playing. So let’s hope this song convinces the younger generation to burst outside and not repeat the mistakes of the tweens.
15 Comments
Thanks for this – it made my day!
Thanks! What a wonderful way to start a weekend. I am going to forward that outdoors video to all my daughters friends!
Great songs. It always makes me sad when my kids can’t find any friends who can play when I send them out. They have each other, but more friends to play with would be nice.
FR has a theme song perhaps? Lenore, why don’t you get your children’s friends to come over. Yes they may still be indoors, but they will at least be playing with other kids. Eventually, because they are all together anyway, you get them all to go out and play. Say you need to clean the house or something, encourage them to go out while you do. Or maybe send them all off on a errand for you to the store. I’m sure they can find something of interest along the way. Just a thought.
My husband just bought me a bike for my birthday! This is the first bike I’ve ever owned and I haven’t ridden since I was 13, and even then it was only for a month. Anyway, I’m not very good, but it’s SO MUCH FUN! Now I just need to convince him that he should get a bike, too, so we can go on family bike rides. And we’ll hook one of those toddler trailers to his bike. YEAH FOR BIKES!
Er, we have been know to force our children outside (small house, big garden – it makes sense). They whine and complain while we dress them and get them to find their shoes and then within seconds they’re off. Sometimes tone of them is back in 15 minutes crying at the door because they both want a turn on the big girl swing and why do they have to be outside anyway and it’s not fair (at which point we may relent or we may go outside and sort out the problem). But sometimes the next door and over the road kids hear them playing, they emerge too and we don’t see them all day. And sometimes the oldest rounds up the chooks, or the youngest rediscovers her scooter or they make up a game on the little dinky stage my husband built them or find a felicitous space outside the fenceline under the wattle trees… etcetera.
The other thing that gets our kids out is us going out too, to pull some weeds or drink cups of tea in the sunshine. What’s good for the gosling is good for the goose. Or something.
I do love that first song. I am allergic to Yo Gabba Gabba. And I am with you on Elmo. It especially freaks me out that you can buy Elmo pyjamas for grown ups.
Lenore, I love your blog!! This post in particular really was a great reminder even for those of us who think of ourselves as pretty free-range. I have been telling all of the parents in my daughters kindergarten class (she started last week) about you.
This is my 8 month old Grandaughter’s FAVORITE Sesame Street Episode!! Don’t believe me? It’s the “Camping” episode!
I taped this episode, and when Jason starts singing, She stops crying or fussing. or what ever she was doing to bop and ‘dance’ along to this song.
What a perfect theme song.
I LOVE this version of the song. And, when we hear the real thing on the radio, my 2 year old says “Sesame Street”! I’m not sure that she likes the song, but I do, and better than the real version.
Luckily, she also loves being out doors. We go for walks in a stroller (mommy exercise) every morning and play outside when we can in the evenings. (It’s crazy hot here right now, so not as much outdoors as she would like.) We marked out a nature trail in our back 2 acres of trees and frequently take walks in the woods… we pick up rocks and have a bird bath and bird feeder and… Making the outdoors fun to play in helps them play in it! Tiny back yards are just boring… no wonder city kids don’t like being there!
And, we love Elmo. It makes her happy and he’s better than the purple dinosaur. Anything Sesame Street is good with me…
I’ll add a simple, “proud-papa moment” to this wonderful thread:
I took our four-year-old backpacking in central Oregon this week. A few fellow hikers and backpackers seemed perplexed by his presence, even after “all these years.”
Anyway, before I could respond to the third curious hiker who asked if this week’s trip was his “first time backpacking,” our boy jumped in, with a bit of attitude, including a perfect hand gesture, saying, “I’ve been doing this for years.”
Technically, four years is “for years,” right? What made the incident more hilarious is that he was folding up the tent poles quite independently, at the time. This is a task that has perplexed many an adult, but is now second-hand to the boy.
I sure hope the Free Range movement makes kids in the backcountry less of a curiosity in time.
I love Jason Mraz and this version of I’m Yours. I’m gonna play the video for my kid! —–I won’t be inside, no more, no more…..—– I loved it!
Oh wow this brings back memories – LOL, i’m 33 now and grew up watching seseme street – thanks for posting this up, and happy hiking!
Thanks for the song – made my day, posting on facebook now! LOL
Jason T
Jason Mraz actually drove onto our parking lot when my buddy and I were filming a parody of HIS song, I’m Yours! It was awesome! He showed up in a limo with his security guy and everything and got out and started telling me to quit doing his music! My buddy kept filming so we have it ALL on video!
It’s on my youtube channel. Check it out. It’s called:
Scandal: Jason Mraz CRASHES My Video ‘It’s Yours’ – A Parody of “I’m Yours”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I55Ez-wD8tc
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