Hi Readers — Here’s a note and a plug from a Free-Ranger across the pond who has come up with a new way to lure kids outside. His name is Daniel Raven-Ellison, he lives in London and he’s a “geography activist.” As such he’s a founding member of The Geography Collective — a partnership of geography teachers, academics, artists and explorers. Their goal? To get kids adventuring again and learning their way around, so they become curious, clever and bold. To find out more about Mission Explore, click here, and to find out more about the Geography Collective itself (which…
Author: lskenazy
Hey Readers — It’s summer, and I’m re-reading, as I do every summer, my very favorite book: “She’s So Funny: 1,768 of the Best Jokes from Women Comedians,” edited by Judy Brown (who seems to have done a lot of funny books). I have actually gone through and checked off my favorites, and — thanks to a rapidly aging brain — each summer they tickle me anew. And suddenly I thought: Hey, why not tickle YOU, too? (Figuratively, that is.) So here are some of my faves and, where possible, a link for the funny ladies, too. Enjoy and we’ll…
Alas, readers, not my own interview with him. But Reason.TV caught up with Doctorow outside of some pub in London and asked him about many things, including his books (my older son LOVED “Little Brother”) and boingboing (a site that brought early attention to this blog), and, most saliently for us: “The War on Kids.” The problem, according to Doctorow? Fear. Fear OF kids and fear FOR kids. Of course that excessive fear FOR kids is the kind I concentrate on. In fact, today I was at the supermarket and asked a mom why she had her son in one…
Hi Readers — I got both these letters today and felt that together they make the point: We must start letting men know we TRUST them around kids. Thinking the “worst first” of all males is not only insulting, it is damaging the fabric of our society, pulling men away from their age-old jobs of protecting and mentoring. (Yes, women fulfill those roles, too. But the more the merrier!) “You like kids? You must be a creep!” is a weird, paranoid, Nancy Grace-induced attitude. No one’s saying we should be naive about child abuse. But to have child abuse top-of-mind…
Hi Readers — This guest post really got to me. Maybe because I’m an American Studies major from way back, I love thinking about what our modern day artifacts say about our culture and psyche. Today’s author, Mary O’Connell, is the director of LifeWays, an early childhood center in Milwaukee, and she noticed a new item that has become a must-have in preschools and wondered: Why this? Why now? Before I present her essay, let me add that she and Cynthia Aldinger wrote a new book, Home Away From Home: LifeWays Care of Children and Families, all about bringing a…
Hi Readers — I think a lot of us have been in “stranger danger” situations like the one described by Renee Jacobson, a teacher for 20 years, below. Her blog is called “Lessons from Teachers and Twits,” and it’s a twit that she learned this particular lesson from. — Lenore HEY LADY: I AM NOT A CREEP! by Renée Schuls-Jacobson I was in the epicenter of suburbia, standing in a Target store, holding up two bathing suits, and feeling a little indecisive. A little blond-haired girl who couldn’t have been more than three stood in her bright red cart while…
Hi Readers — Here’s a letter from a 22-year-old paramedic in Queensland, Australia, where folks, too, seem to suffer from the modern-day problem I call “Worst-first thinking.” What I mean is: When an adult and a child interact, onlookers often assume the worst, first. Like so — Lenore Dear Free-Range Kids: So, it was a training day the other day. For lunch we decide to meet at the local park. Picture this: a dozen paramedics, six ambulances, a few assessors all sitting around a park enjoying our lunch. A mother comes up with two small children. A crew (one…
Hi Readers! Here’s a feisty post from Ellen Seidman, a New York mom whose blog is Love That Max. She’s also hoping to win a blogging contest at Parents Connect, so if you like what you read, go vote for her here. (Hey, why not help each other out?) Onward! — Lenore WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU MAKES YOU STRONGER by ELLEN SEIDMAN The other day, I was Twitter-ing with a mom of another kid who has special needs, and she asked me how protective I was of Max. I wrote, “Not very. If his NICU experience didn’t kill him, nothing…
Hi Readers — Here’s a letter from Korea (where my book was just published in translation!). What’s upsetting is how parental paranoia seems to be creeping around the world, like a virus. — L. Dear Free-Range Kids: I’m an elementary/middle school English teacher in South Korea, arguably one of the safest countries in the world. Here, kids work very hard, spending almost all of their time studying in school and in private academies. However, what little free time they have is entirely their own. It’s not unusual to see older kids and young teens (10-16 year olds) out on their…
Hi Folks — Here’s my ParentDish column on the sexualization of hugging. Ugh!!