Hi Folks! As you may or may not know, I give Free-Range Kids talks all over the place. This coming Tuesday, Oct. 9, I will be speaking at the Wellesley Mothers Forum in Wellesley, MA, at 8 p.m. Last week I was in Wyndham, NH, keynoting the New Hampshire Children in Nature Coalition — a great group of teachers, naturalists and government types dedicated to getting kids back outside, connecting with dirt, trees, bugs and everything else that kids have always (until just recently) connected with! Here’s a post-speech note I just got that made my day. – L Lenore,…
Author: lskenazy
Hi Readers! We’ve been talking about over-the-top “security” measures lately (including parents required to have background checks to watch their kids on field day, and parents not allowed to hold the door open at day care for other parents), but I do believe this reader’s Sunday school takes the cake (and several slices of pizza, and a gallon of ice cream, and all the milk). – L. . Dear Free-Range Kids: This past summer Vacation Bible School (VBS) was just plain ridiculous. In order to get my kids dropped off, I had to (in this order): – Walk them into…
Yes, Readers — It’s the day when even hovering parents and litigation-fearing administrators are encouraged to let their kids walk or bike to school! Here are the details as I run off to Windham, New Hampshire, where I will be giving a talk tomorrow at the Children in Nature Conference. It’s all about what happens WHEN we let kids go outside! If you’re up there — hope to see you. (After your kids have walked or biked today!) — L.
Hi Readers! A month or two ago I was interviewed by the website care.com rbnfiinbda about, of all things, my thoughts on “quitting.” Reading the Q&A over, I decided to post part of it here. This is an excerpt from a slightly longer piece over at care.com: What is your personal philosophy on quitting? I think quitting is underrated. While “quitters never win,” neither do kids forced to participate in activities they have very little interest in. Give them some space – and time – and they will probably find something they love and don’t want to quit. Have you…
Hi Readers — My gosh, a stranger entered a San Francisco Bay-area pre-school for less than two minutes and the school tells parents that just “luckily” he did not leave with a screaming toddler under his arm. Because usually that’s what usually happens? That’s why I LOVE the back and forth, below: The school reacted with overwhelming worry, then a parent named Mark Lakata took the time to write back and put things in perspective. Letting any institution sow constant suspicion makes the world a more rotten, paranoid place. Kudos to Mark for fighting back. — L P.S.…
Hi Folks! Over in England, parents at one school cannot attend their kids’ “sports day” unless they get (and pass!) a criminal background check. According to this dderdftrik piece in The Telegraph, the Isambard Community School is sorry, but, well, pedophiles could sneak from the fields into the school and start their pouncing. And so, with regret, yada, yada, yada. As one school official put it:. “At Isambard we take safeguarding very seriously…” So seriously, apparently, that the officials there have lost their minds. Really — has their nightmare scenario ever happened? Some predator pretends to be a parent and…
Hi Readers! I hope you will run and hide any copies you might have of “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” a poem that has apparently been corrupting young minds — and lungs — sinc3 1822. You’ll recall that in the poem, St. Nick is not without his vices: “The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, and the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath.” That’s right — Santa’s a smoker. Thank goodness a new version is coming out this year that will stem the tide of children drawn, zombie like, to that ever-more-popular hobby, pipe-smoking,…
Hi Readers — Maybe you remember this mom from a few years back. I sure do. And here’s what she and her family are up to now. — L. Dear Free-Range Kids: A few years ago you featured a story I shared of leaving my 3 month old in the arms of two perfect strangers (or potential child predators as some may call them!) at a Starbucks so I could use the restroom. Those two people were a mother and grandmother and it was quite a treat for them to be able to cuddle with a little baby for…
Hi Readers: How I love the Harry Potter books and their genius author, J.K. Rowling. I mean LOVE. So I hope this was just a silly little offhand remark Ms. Rowling made to a New Yorker reporter: “If Harry really had gone through everything he went through,” she says, “he probably wouldn’t be mentally healthy enough to survive anywhere, would he?” Um…clearly Ms. Rowling knows better than me (or anyone) what Harry is able to survive. But since he seemed to be so strong and resilient as a youth, I would hope he would continue to survive and thrive as…
Hi Folks! Here’s a hint that the tide is turning! In Singapore, excess tutoring, helicoptering and micro-managing has long been the name of the game, says this article in The Economist: Imagine, then, the surprise when the prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, launched an attack on tiger mothers in a speech in late August to mark Singapore’s national day. Most of his remarks celebrated Singapore’s success, as usual. But then he berated parents for coaching their three- or four-year-old children to give them that extra edge over the five-year-old competition. And he added: “Please let your children have their childhood…Instead…