Seven-year-old Athena Strand of Paradise, Texas, was abducted near her home and murdered last week. It is horrible to even write those wrenching words. Below is a post I put up after a different tragedy and travesty: the murder of Leiby Kletzky, here in New York City, in 2011. Sadly as well as defiantly, it holds true today: Readers. It is with an actually, physically aching heart that I report to you the death of an 8-year-old Brooklyn boy, Leiby Kletzky, who disappeared from a short, solo walk yesterday and was later found in a dumpster. Here is the story. I…
Author: lskenazy
What a thrill to watch CBS Mornings today and hear Amazon Books’ Sarah Gelman recommending…Free-Range Kids! Here’s the clip (with an ad before it — so it goes). Legitimacy at last! And speaking of last…mine is the last book Gelman recommends, about four minutes into the segment. BUT the other four books sound great, too! And there’s a theme to them — getting parents to relax. That means giving up on perfection AND giving kids more trust and freedom. AMEN!!!
Here you go! This is a Let Grow Play Club at a Title I (high poverty) elemetary school in South Carolina. Note how the kids are having…what’s that thing called again? FUN. No adults shouting, “Be careful!” No adults asking, “Are you okay?” No adults suggesting things like, “Next time, try to make it a little wider. Take turns raking. Wear long pants.” It’s like a time capsule, but it’s going on in real life, right now. And your kids’ school can start a Play Club too. All our materials are here — a letter to the parents, a description…
What works when it comes to making folks think twice about constantly hovering, helping, supervising and scheduling their kids? The message they mostly hear is that constant intervention is good, and anything less is lazy or dangerous. So below, please find my very basic attempt at a little culture-nudging video. Can you please let me know if this is something — more short videos — I should be pursuing? Or is it something you can make, too, to further the cause? Or maybe your kids can? Trying to get ever more traction! – L.
Samantha Boardman is a psychiatrist, professor, mom, author of Everyday Vitality AND an executive board member at Let Grow. We brought her in because of posts like this, snatched from her blog, Positive Prescription (which I highly recommend!): According to a recent paper published in the Journal of Positive Psychology, many parents assume incorrectly that teaching their children that the world is a bad place is best for them. In fact, 92% thought that seeing the world as safe to very safe will not prepare their children to navigate the world. Many parents expressed the belief that their children would benefit by…
A dad whose 6-year-old wanted Nutella for her pancakes on a recent Saturday morning made a deal: I’ll drive you to the grocery if you go in by yourself and buy the stuff. This is about a straightforward an activity as can be and I posted the dad’s brief write-up of it over at Let Grow. In ANY OTHER ERA this would seem about as weird as publishing a post like, “Dad allows child to eat sandwich.” Or, “Child manages to open door, exit house.” BUT BUT BUT… Today we expect SO LITTLE of kids when it comes to real…
Oh ye of icy hearts, beware! This little girl in China is going viral not just because she is so sad and sweet, but also because she could put Socrates to shame! (Or at least get him to assign less homework.) Hers is a cry heard ’round the world. Let’s hope some schools and parents take heed! And note: I DO think the video is authentic, but the ending inspired just a soupcon of suspicion.
This graph, from a suburban elementary school, represents what after-school club kids chose as their first choice. There were a bunch of options like chess, music, art — all of which I had my own kids enrolled in at some point in their childhoods. But as you can see from that big, green wedge on the left, the most popular option of all DOES NOT INVOLVE ADULTS TEACHING KIDS ANYTHING. The big green wedge represents the kids hoping to join The Let Grow Play Club. Instinctively, the kids know they want — NEED — time WITHOUT someone older and…
Chopping, hopping, shopping, sewing, mowing, going, GROWING! Check out the winners of this year’s Third Annual Let Grow Independence Challenge! It continues to surprise me just how much kids CAN do and how little we LET them do. This video shows how competent (and helpful, happy, proud ‘n’ persistent) kids can be. “When adults step back, kids step up!”
Folks, here are the descriptions of Let Grow’s two, FREE independence-fueling initiatives for schools. IF YOU ARE A TEACHER, ADMINISTRATOR, SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST, HOMESCHOOLER, or PARENT of a school-aged child, please consider downloading our implementation guides and getting started. The kid you save may be your own. At the bottom of this post you’ll find videos of these initiatives in the real world. — L The Let Grow Project: Students get the homework assignment: “Go home and do something you’ve never done on your own before. Walk the dog. Make a meal. Run an errand…” When the child succeeds, everyone is…