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: lskenazy
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.
Let Grow is running a Cardboard Challenge! Have your kids create something using a certain brown material, send us a photo, and they could win $500 — or two runner up prizes of $50 each. Not bad for an activity that gets them busy doing something creative and, hopefully, a room or two away from your Zoom calls/Twitter scrolling. For details, please click here. The deadline is Aug. 15. Good luck! And if they make a working spaceship, I’d like to reserve a seat. Really. Get me outta here!
Kids! Just click here for instructions on how to make your very own TV! TV. TV. It’s…like TikTok, but larger. With fewer talking dogs. Longer shows. And not as many people cooking whole meals in 60 seconds. And for a while there was a dial on the… Never mind. PARENTS: Click here for instructions on how to make your very own cardboard TV!
Kids drop out of sports because they aren’t having fun. There’s too much time, or pressure, or it simply is too similar to the rest of their day: More adult instruction. Let Grow’s content guru, Stacy Tornio, loved sports as a kid and is raising two athletic children. They moped when COVID put an end to their teams — but in watching the season haltingly start up again, Stacy had a revelation: Because all bets were off — no tournaments, no normal drills, no parents screaming in the stands — her kids were having MORE fun than before the pandemic.…