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 at Let Grow for a dose of what was once called “normal childhood” or “normal confidence” or just plain normal life, and enjoy the fact it is not out of reach, even in these anxious and overprotective times. The essayist is Nancy Fresco, author of…
Author: lskenazy
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 was cruel to other kids, had frequent behavior issues in class, and in the course of one week had three office referrals from three different teachers for his extreme behaviors. Other kids would label him a bully, but where they saw a bully,…
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 get the ingredients (that look spectacular) for dinner. There are tears and then — triumph! It’s not that American kids are so much less capable that kids in other countries, just that we act — or are encouraged to act — as if they are.…
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 — but instead of overpriced kale, there are kids selling everything from cooking classes to origami to weird stuffed animals. (Really weird — one kid chopped the heads off all her Beanie Babies and sewed them onto different Beanie bodies.) The kids learn how to make a budget and create something to sell, and then they learn how to get out…
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 simplest of terms, how to raise a scientist. (Or at least a kid who makes a mess!)
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 new book, “Everyday Vitality: Turning Stress into Strength,” she argues that satisfaction doesn’t come from “within” it comes from “with.” That is, engaging WITH people, activities, interests, obligations, even nature. Think about how much better you usually feel after taking a walk, or having coffee…
Google, “Hero, Age 5…” or 6, or 7, etc., etc., you will find a trove of stories so amazing you want to cheer and cry — and also scream: “SINCE WHEN DID WE DECIDE NO ONE UNDER AGE 9 CAN DO ANYTHING SAFELY ON THEIR OWN?” Kids’ brains, souls, smarts, bravery — all of that is building from Day 1. By age 5 — yes, 5! — developmental psychologists say they are capable of doing a whole lot on their own. And yet, many of those in charge of our lives, including politicians, police and child protection authorities, pull an…
This video is so inspirational! It doesn’t blame parents who moved to the ‘burbs. It suggests that getting kids back to bike-riding could be key to making them happier — and the whole suburb as well. Take a look! And more of my thoughts can be found at Let Grow by clicking here.
Wha…? Well, let me hasten to add that I’m talking about the folks running insurance companies in GERMANY. There, they have found that kids growing up with little chance to learn how to assess risk (because, in part, the playgrounds are so safe and boring) end up accidentally hurting themselves more often as adults. That costs insurance companies money! So their solution — based on research — is to have playground designers make exciting, even daunting equipment that requires kids to pay more attention to what they’re doing. This explains why some German playgrounds have installed climbing structures that are…
A reader sent in this list of her town’s trick-or-treat suggestions. None are egregious — but the length of this list is. COME ON. Somehow kids trick or treated for decades, if not millennia, without advice to plan the route in advance, make sure to always take along an adult, don’t trample the flowerbeds, carry a flashlight, walk don’t run, walk with your head up, don’t cut across yards, carry a flashlight and bring an EXTRA BAG in case yours breaks. We are exhorting children to act like middle-aged matrons. Worse — a list of TWENTY-FIVE tips turns a normal…