Hi Readers : You read it here first! Free-Range Kids is officially declaring Saturday, May 22 — the weekend before Memorial Day — the very first, “Take Our Children to the Park… And Leave Them There Day.” What?! Just that. If our goal is to get kids back outside (it is), and playing together (it is), and for parents to relax (it is), and to start creating community again (it sure is!!!), then “Take Our Children to the Park… And Leave Them There Day” is a great first step. Across the country — what the heck, across the world —…
Author: lskenazy
Hi Readers — Here’s a nice little story. Nine-year-old Richard “Rashad” Scott came upon a lost, crying 5-year-old and flagged down a police car, in the rain, to help them both. Good work! And how great to read a story that reminds us: Most of us, even youngsters, want to help, not hurt. — Lenore
Hi Readers — The Wall Street Journal was wondering that very question. Especially since Finnish school doesn’t start till age 7 (no pre-k! no k!) and there isn’t a lot of homework. The resulting article, by Ellen Gamerman, is pretty fascinating — and envy-provoking — but here’s the nicest Free-Range paragraph: Once school starts, the Finns are more self-reliant. While some U.S. parents fuss over accompanying their children to and from school, and arrange every play date and outing, young Finns do much more on their own. At the Ymmersta School in a nearby Helsinki suburb, some first-grade students trudge…
Hi Folks — Got this question over the transom (well, Internet) yesterday. Got me thinking/humming/blogging! Dear Free-Range Kids: I’ve been thinking about “Let Me Fall” and wondering what other songs might be out there that speak to the Free-Range Kids movement, on both the serious side & more lighthearted ones. Might be a fun question to pose to your blog! I just looked at my “Believe in Me” playlist I put together. Maybe some of these? Visions of a Sunset Imagine Cole’s Song May It Be Beautiful Boy Rainbow Connection Bein’ Green The Last Unicorn Steward of Gondor (“Home…
Hi Readers — This is just an odd one: Some parents made postage stamps with their young daughter’s picture on them to stick on invites to her birthday party. Then the parents had some of the stamps left over, so they used them to mail their bills. Some nut saw one of the stamps, noted the family’s return address and dropped the parents a letter saying that by putting their kid’s picture on a letter, they were ASKING SOME CRAZY PERSON to do “GOD KNOWS WHAT.” Seems to me they were asking a crazy person to drop them a crazy…
Hi Readers — Here’s a great post from Amy Wilson, whose book, “When Did I Get Like This? The Screamer, The Worrier, The Dinosaur-Chicken-Nugget-Buyer, And Other Moms I Swore I’d Never Be” just came out this week. Congrats, Amy! You can follow her on Twitter (amywlsn), visit her blog, check her out on Facebook, or order her book. And in meantime: You can enjoy her article right now! How Did This Happen? By Amy Wilson I did not think that I would be a worrying mother. I thought motherhood would be when I finally relaxed. As the oldest of six…
Hi Readers — Just got alerted to this ad and service, BeenVerified.com. It allows you to do a background check on anyone, from the comfort of your own home. Check the guy you met online, check your mortgage broker (make sure it’s not Alan Greenspan), check your electrician — yes, a guy on the ad says he’s going to do just that. And of course, check anyone AT ALL who ever has ANYTHING to do with your kids. As the pregnant lady in this spot says, “No stranger comes around MY growing family without a background check.” Really? Not the…
Hi Readers — Here’s the latest “help” on the way for kids threatened by those terrifying thugs: community gardeners. In Denver, people can rent small plots on school grounds to grow what sound like “victory gardens.” But now — after 25 years of this program — suddenly anyone who plants on school property is required to undergo a criminal background check, or get out. Said one participant, quoted by the Denver Post’s Mike McPhee, “Where did we go so wrong that if you potentially have contact with a child you have to have a background check? ” Where indeed? That…
Hi Readers — Those of you who have read my book know there’s a chapter called, “Fail! It’s the New Succeed!” The idea being that when we let kids fail, they learn that it’s not the end of the world and this is a great lesson, even though it’s very painful (for parents. And kids, too, I guess.) So here’s a fantastic Wall Street Journal column by Sue Shellenbarger timed to coincide with all the rejection letters high school seniors are currently receiving from the colleges of their choice. Warren Buffet, Meredith Vieria, Tom Brokaw — they all had their…
Hi Readers — I got this note the other day and found it very intriguing. You may, too. It’s about two issues that affect how we think about kids and freedom ! Dear Free-Range Kids: These thoughts have been swirling around my mind. 1. Have you noticed that “anything can happen” is the new code phrase for “s/he could be kidnapped” but people don’t like to spell it out? I’ve started pushing people into telling me exactly what they mean and then giving them a lecture on the real risks in life (as non-sarcastically as I can manage, but that’s…