I just finished reading what could be considered a perfect companion book to the Free-Range Kid movement, The Case Against Homework by Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish. Lenore has blogged about this before, and Sara’s terrific website stophomework is on Lenore’s blog roll. In a nutshell: Bennett and Kalish state that there is little or no correlation between homework given in elementary and middle school and increased scholastic achievement. And health professionals state very clearly that children should be outside PLAYING and not spending time indoors doing schoolwork. As a matter of fact, some of the actual homework “incidents” mentioned…
Author: lskenazy
Hi Readers — Hope you saw this piece in The Times: Disney is offering refunds to any parents who bought its Baby Einstein videos and found, to their shock, that watching shapes, songs, kids and colors on TV did not turn their babies into instant geniuses the way a name like “Einstein” might suggest. This mea culpa is a huge victory for the Campaign for Commercial Free Childhood, which got the Einstein folks to drop the word “educational” from their marketing materials a few years ago. This new refund is an even bigger deal, because now the company has to…
Hi! The Deputy here! My dad recently told me about a friend of his–this would be the 1940’s–whose mother told him to pick five schools he might want to attend. He chose the five, she told him to give the schools a ring to let them know he was coming for a visit, gave him train tickets and some spending money, and sent him on his way. Alone. He was…13. These were boarding schools we’re talking about! Let’s contrast this with some stories I have heard about today’s COLLEGE students. These are very reliable accounts, not urban myths, and so…
Good afternoon! The Deputy here; lucky Lenore is still in Spain! In the Sunday Styles section of the New York Times today, the headline reads, “Guardians of Their Smiles: It’s fun to post pictures online of baby’s first bath, but some parents wonder if it’s safe.” As the article points out, much of this fuss can be chalked up to “technopanic”, not reality. The article quotes David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. “‘There is this characterization of pedophiles using the Internet as an L. L. Bean catalog, but this is…
Speaking of playgrounds, I was perusing mental_floss and they have a list of Ten Unusual Playgrounds from around the World. Wow! Fun! Here is the kind of playground I remember from my youth. (No,no — hat’s not me!) Not terribly unusual I guess, but still fun, right? While searching for just the right jungle gym image on the internet, I found out that The Playground is a rather hot topic. There are books such as American Playgrounds: Revitalizing Community Space by Susan G. Solomon. There are blogs devoted to playgrounds. There are blogs that discuss playgrounds. And there is even…
Hi all! The Deputy here…I have the distinct honor of being Lenore’s guest blogger for several days because Lenore will be jetting off to Spain to promote the Free-Range Kid movement! Hopefully she’ll be sending in a few posts in between talk shows and tapas. ☺ I have been reading this blog for quite a while and am a big fan of Lenore’s message. I am also impressed with the thoughtful, compassionate, and often wonderfully funny responses from all of you. I’m rather new to the blogging world and your feedback during the next several days would be very much…
Hi Readers! I am off to Spain for a few days to give a talk in Madrid on Free-Range Kids. Specifically, on how to get kids back outside — a worldwide concern. In my absence (yes I”m bringing my laptop, but no, I’m not sure I’ll be on it 24/7 like I am here), I’d like to introduce our guest host for the next few days: The Deputy! She’ll be blogging while I’m trying to figure out how to use Euros in a pay phone. Hasta la vista! — Lenore
Hi Readers! Here’s a note I got from a reader and a note SHE got from her mom. The latter may sound very similar to the one in your own inbox. Dear Free-Range Kids: I received the email below from my mother. She is a professional worry-wart. I’m not sure her statistics are correct, any thoughts? (Signed) A Reader Here is what the Reader’s mother wrote: So tonight there were these statistics on TV by Polly Klass’s father, can’t remember his first name but he created a foundation several years ago after his teenage daughter was abducted in CA. These…
Even as our hearts sink with sadness, they go out to the family of Somer Renee Thompson, the 7-year-old whose body was found in a landfill. It is impossible to think of her story without feeling rage and anguish. It’s also a hard time to talk about the fact that her case, as searing as it is, is also exceedingly rare. That’s why it is national and, I hear, international news. That doesn’t make it any easier for her family. And it doesn’t negate the immediate urge to hold our children close. It just reminds us that we are lucky…
What a weird story: A Virginia man making coffee for himself in his own house — naked — has been charged with “exposing” himself because a mom and son passed through his yard on their way to school and saw him through the window. My question: Who’s more traumatized by this event? The mom, the kid or the guy just trying to make breakfast who made the news instead? I vote for #3. — (Signed) Lenore, who realizes this is not entirely a “Free-Range” issue, but also thinks maybe we shouldn’t assume our kids are ruined for life by every…