Author: lskenazy

Hi Readers — One of you just sent in the link to this amazing site: Streetplay.com, rhndberyat where you can find the basic rules for a ton of old-fashioned games, from jacks to marbles to the one that I always heard about but never knew what it was: Ringoleavio, which sounds like Hide & Go Seek meets The Green Berets.  I’m psyched to show my kids this site and hope that they’ll go try the games out,  even though, even here, this will require some prying them away from their electronics. — Lenore

Hi Readers — Here’s a little study I was just reading that said that getting teens to do more walking lowers their blood pressure. I guess that’s not a big surprise, but it is a nice reminder (to me, anyway, with a son about to turn 14), that walking should be part of his day. And maybe giving him a pedometer, as the article suggests, would goose him along. (You’d think that here in New York City, where we don’t have a car, he’d be walking his patooty off. But we are surrounded by temptingly convenient public transportation.) The study…

Hey Readers — Here is a wonderful little skit from Saturday Night Live. It’s not about kids, it’s about women. But the message works for both: Buy our safety device. Or live (if you’re lucky!) to regret it. — Lenore

Hi Readers! Well today a topic we’d discussed a little earlier (and earlier still)    has made the front page of The New York Times. “Forget Goofing Around: Recess Has a New Boss,” is about a recess assistant hired at an elementary school in Newark, NJ, where many of the kids had ostensibly been spending recess deliberately running into each other, or arguing, or banishing other kids to the sidelines. The Times mentions that the coach broke up a “renegade game of hopscotch,” making it sound as if she is outlawing all that is joyous about childhood. (So does the…

Hi all, the Deputy here for one more post.  Lenore will be back on Monday. We’ve talked a lot about the United Kingdom and their, well, obsession with rooting out pedophiles, or as they write, paeodophiles.  I think they finally, yes finally, have this problem really and truly licked.  Tim Black of Spiked-Online reports that the  “UK Home Office’s sex offender scheme is set to go nationwide.” His article is excellent and brings up a number of thoughtful points. Here is the link:  spiked-online And just to clarify, yes, this government plan is referred to as a “scheme”! Perfect!  Here’s…

Hi all!  The Deputy here.  Lenore is away for a few days and I am filling in for her. On mamapedia, the editors asked their readers to vote on this very, very dear to our free-range hearts issue:  Would you let your 4th grader ride public transportation without an adult?  Lenore is smiling right now… 148 readers voted.  Here’s the data: 98:  Hell, no!      27:  It depends…      22:  YES! I bet this is an excellent snapshot of our country as a whole re the Free-Range Kid issue.  Only 22 felt this way:  “I have no interest…

Hi Readers — From time to time I like to post  some of my recent tweets here, for those who are not (yet) Twittering away. So – voila, in no particular order: 1 -Whole NY Times story on whether Disney ousted anti-commercialism kids group from its Harvard home:  http://nyti.ms/9y4IV3 2 – New blog from KaBoom (playground advocates): “Play Haters.” Stories of classic grumps & spoilsports:  http://bit.ly/bNxgFI 3 – Best essay EVER on the way we react to any tragedy by creating new oversights we don’t need or won’t help:  http://bit.ly/cQcxth 4 – I kid(ney) you not! New study shows kidney…

Dear Readers — It is with terrible sadness I report the death of a woman at about 3:45 this afternoon on the New York subway…at the station my sons use to come home from school.  At that very time. My younger son, the famous subway rider, got there just as the cops were sending people out. His friend darted down to see the aftermath.  Apparently the woman had dropped her pocketbook, jumped down to get it, and got smashed by a train. The kid told my son: Don’t look. Aside from sorrow, I know this tragedy will re-invigorate some people…

Hi Readers! Wish I’d written this one! Some of the lyrics: Everything Is Dangerous by Tom Smith Your kid can get salmonella from his new pet turtle, Buckle your seat belt or through the windshield you will hurtle, You can choke on anything not bigger than your head, Everything is dangerous, so how come you’re not dead? … Make sure that your sunscreen is at least SPF 30, Don’t eat food in restaurants, the chef’s hands might be dirty, Gay men want your body and they can’t control their urges, Monks have secret messages they’re chanting in their dirges. Magnetic…

Hi Readers — Here’s a bit of a blog post by a mom from Ottawa. Read it and grrrr: I’m still a bit mad about this so if I sound angry, just know I am. Yesterday my neighbours complained about my daughter’s chalk drawings on the ground. The agent from our condo’s property management company said she’d had a number of calls about it….They told me to clean it off. I want [my daughter] to feel safe in a neighbourhood that is not known for its safety….Let her light up the street and show that there’s life here besides the…