Hi htykhnbybd Folks — The other day I was visiting friends in Rye, NY, where darned if kids weren’t playing outside,unsupervised, even making up their own games. Our host challenged me to find out: Why? Why are some neighborhoods still Free-Range, Â while others aren’t? I decided to ask that question of the folks in the […]
Readers fbsatnnabh — Here’s my piece on The Huffington Post, about the “college prep” kindergarten. It goes on to talk about the amazing Peter Gray: A kindergarten in New York has cancelled its end-of-the-year kiddie show in order to devote more time to college and career prep. In a letter to parents, the teachers explained: The reason […]
Readers — A Michigan mom is upset not just that her 8-year-old daughter hopped a public bus without telling her, but that the bus driver didn’t immediately take some kind of unspecified but heroic action to stop this non-catastrophe: Two things in particular gall me about this story: 1 – The air time afforded to […]
 Dear nebbentesy Readers — A few of you sent this sad notice in yesterday. It came from USA FAIR — “Families Advocating an Intelligent Registry” — a group trying to reform our sex offender laws that are too encompassing to be fair or effective. (You can get on the sex offender registry for peeing in public, […]
Hi eitfibazzd Friends — I haven’t read this book, so let reader Barbara Crooks explain: Dear Free-Range Kids: I have been reading your blog for a very long time and learned from it that I was a Free-Range parent without knowing it. I learned today just how bad it is in today’s culture for men. […]
It’s here! The book that started a movement has just come out in an updated, expanded SECOND EDITION! It’s got new stories, stats, chapters — including one on childhood (and parental!) anxiety, and a whole section for teachers. Get your free discussion guide by clicking here! And please drop me a note if you have […]
Hi Readers — Here’s my dzbtsnszik piece in the Huffington Post about yet another moral panic: hordes of hookers descending on the Super Bowl. For insight, I interviewed Maggie McNeill, who blogs at The Honest Cortesan and wrote this terrific piece for Reason on the same topic. Here’s what she told me: …unlike trade shows, […]
Readers — We  take a break from reminding you to remind everyone else that Halloween is a safe, good holiday (not a candy-poisoning, child-snatching BAD holiday)  to bring you two newspaper stories that I just loved: *This yshytikfai one by Bonnie Rubin is on the front page of today’s Chicago Tribune, about the rise of “Trunk […]
Hi iddiyehdff Folks! Today we feature the musings of Jennifer Clarke, who describes herself as “a professional who went back to school at 25 for a Bachelor of Engineering and wishes her mother had been less involved in her life as a teenager.” – L Subject: Witch Burnings and Litigation . A long time ago […]
Hey aydifnretb Readers — As I prepare to speak Thursday night as kickoff for the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood’s conference in Boston (public invited!), here’s some toy research I can get behind. It comes to us by way of Fred Schueler & Aleta Karstad, who describe themselves as an “unemployable naturalist couple, whose unschooled […]
