A study of 1,000 kids aged 13 and 14 in England found their anxiety levels dropped when in-person school closed. Reports the BBC: Researchers compared findings from a survey taken in October last year to answers given by teenagers in May this year. Both girls and boys recorded decreased levels of anxiety during that timeframe. In October, 54% of 13 to 14-year-old girls and 26% of boys of the same age said they felt anxious. When surveyed in May – several weeks after schools shut to most pupils and nationwide lockdown restrictions came into force – the proportion dropped to…
Author: lskenazy
Good news, parents: If you let your kids wait in the car for less than 10 minutes on a cool day—doors locked and fan on—a caseworker and sheriff are actually not allowed to come to your home, threaten to take your children away, and strip search the kids. These very basic rights were just vindicated the hard way: by a Kentucky mom in federal court. Holly Curry sued the cop and the caseworker, insisting that the day she was investigated for child abuse, the two authorities so wildly overstepped their bounds that they should not be afforded qualified immunity. In…
You see them at the store and their kid is glaring, swearing, or possibly biting someone. (Maybe you.) Give those poor, beleaguered parents the benefit of the doubt. You see a kid waiting in the car a few minutes in front of the pizza shop, or pharmacy. Give those parents the benefit of the doubt. You see a kid walking, biking, playing, waiting, doing something on their own. Give those trusting parents the benefit of the doubt. In a lovely essay, educator Mike Yates talks about how easy it is to judge. Read it by clicking here. And judge not.
We’ve got 5 food experiments over at Let Grow, and some are quite amazing. In one, kids learn how to transform liquids into edible “pearls”: Mix any kind of liquid (juice, chocolate milk, maple syrup) with unflavored gelatin, warm the mixture, and drizzle it into cold oil. This process will create tasty “pearls.” The young cooks can make a few different pearls and have a sibling, parent, or friend taste each one and guess its flavor. Sound so cool! I plan to try it, because I’d love to feed these weird globs to friends and family. Another one of the…
A week ago, Tennessee’s Department of Education announced it was going to start conducting monthly “child well-being” assessments of every single kid under age 18 in the state. These could be by phone, email, or a knock on the door. On home visits, the so-called “well-being liaison” would be allowed to interview the children privately. Did the state set any standards for what sort of person would be given kind of access and responsibility? Well, the liaisons had to be at least 20 years old, and they had to pass a background check. That’s it. The parental uproar that ensued,…
On this week’s Supervision Not Required podcast I talk with pediatric occupational therapist Angela Hanscom, author of “Balanced and Barefoot,” about the rise of childhood sensory and motor issues, and the amazing changes she’s seen happen when she gets kids outside, playing. (The story of a boy IN THERAPY because he so hated anything touching his feet is just incredible. Suffice to say, when he sees some kids splashing in the mud…things change.) Listen here! Photo by Olivia Bauso on Unsplash
A hugely popular thread on Reddit was prompted by a reader asking what do kids with helicopter parents look like as adults? The answers are illuminating, but here I must put in a word for the parents being second-guessed. While I am (obviously) in favor of parents giving kids more independence than most do these days, I also understand that we have an entire culture pushing over-protection as the norm. Target sells baby kneepads, schools require waivers for kids to play at the park across the street, lawyers sue when a kid falls off the slide — little is considered…
Author/teacher/ship captain Kate Sundquist was home with her two sons, 6 and 8, when COVID hit and her merchant marine husband was at sea. Her story of feeling lonely and worried has a happy ending when the neighborhood started coming together to run errands and help each other out. You can read it here, along with Kate’s nice list of “How to Help” ideas, like create a frozen meal swap, or decorate the outside of your home to spread some joy. How is this Free-Range? Your kids can be part of it all, bringing food to people, running errands,…
I’d never even HEARD of “air plants.” Now at Let Grow we have a 1-min video on how to grow them. Guess what? No soil needed. Really. Just stick the plants in a container and spritz them every couple days. What an insanely easy way to get your kids into planting. Click here for instructions and to see the video! (Bonus: You’ll also see how to make those sand layers. Apparently all you need is some different colored sand and a funnel.)
Here’s news you can USE: 5 Ways to Make Your Own Backyard Water Park (including genius idea: Water Balloon Pinatas!) Click here to go to Let Grow where you’ll find the instructions. Tomorrow will be a cooler day!