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…
Author: lskenazy
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!
Serious: The chart lists 20 things teens should be able to do before they leave home, like: Make a doctor’s appointment, pay bills, return something to the store… Silly: It looks like one of those “I Brushed My Teeth!” charts for 5-year-olds. That’s what makes it fun. You can download it for free. Click here!
That’s one of the jumping off points in the Let Grow Summer Journal kit for kids. If they’re like me, they’ll ignore the prompts and write a journal of everything that bothers them from now through college (Warning: Never read it!). But maybe your kids are more chipper. Either way, click this link for our free, download-able Summer Journal.
But it’s hard! In part, that’s because with three kids and so much chaos, it’s easier for her to just do things for the youngest (rather than letting him muddle through), so everything goes a little quicker and smoother. But in part, she confesses, she is also holding onto his childhood because he’s her last. An insightful, honest article by Katy Anderson. You can read it by clicking here.