I’ll be on Fox & Friends tomorrow morning, defending Free-Range Kids as a sane, safe, happy, healthy way to raise children with some moxie! But maybe I won’t call it “moxie,” for fear of sounding 389 years old. Maybe I’ll say it’s a way to raise children with some solid “self-esteem” — which is also true. (As I like to say there’s a reason it’s CALLED “self” esteem…not “parent-assisted” esteem.) — Lenore
Author: lskenazy
Seven of the little rascals. Together, in Haverford, Pennsylvania. Going door to door, trying to gin up some cash with the cold stuff. Read all about it here. One brilliant neighbor realized how incredibly dangerous this was. After all, it was teaching children all sorts of terrible lessons like: Get to know the folks on your block. Be independent. Have adventures. So, naturally — like everyone who sees any child doing anything without an adult these days — he called the cops. In the cop’s defense — just barely — I will say that when he…
Hi! Lenore here, feeling it is time to weigh in on the Montana mom case still causing a commenting frenzy. This is the case where a mom named Bridget let her 12-year-old daughter and her daughter’s friend, both experienced babysitters, take their siblings, age 3, 7 and 8, to the mall. After a morning of shopping and lunch, the group went to Macy’s. The 12-year-olds tried on some shirts while the other three waited in the handbag department — the 3-year-old now in a stroller. When the 12-year-olds returned a few minutes later, all five of them were scooped up…
Here it is — ABCnews.com looking into the case of Bridget Kevane, the mom who trusted her 12-year-old daughter and the daughter’s friend to take their younger siblings to the mall. For which she got arrested. ABC found that most people felt support Kevane and believe the authorities overreacted, as do I. And a little later today I’ll post my thoughts on same. Meantime, here is the ABC piece. — Lenore
Great (slightly wordy) article on Psychology Today blog about how, with all our exhortations about “stranger danger” we are teaching our children “that the world is a dark and nasty place were everybody wants to murder and rape them…” The assumption of disgusting intentions has gone so far that the blogger, Helene Guldberg, author of Reclaming Childhood, had this happen to her at a local pool in England, where she lives: Today it is almost impossible in the UK to take photos of one’s children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews in public places – if they are surrounded by…
It’s no secret that parents worried about how their kids are going to do in kindergarten are willing to work hard to help them make the grade. But a new study reported in Connect with Kids shows that teaching pre-schoolers the academic stuff — letters, numbers, etc. — may not be the best approach. What is? Chores. Teaching them to listen to you, follow instructions and complete a task: According to a study of 379 children published in the ‘Journal of Personality’, kids who had more responsibilities at age five, were more likely to have better grades and better behavior…
And we wonder why so many kids sit home instead of frolicking outside. Check out this Rose is Rose comic by Don Wimmer (created by Pat Brady): zoom Thanks to Philip Robert, who runs a kind of folksy blog, for sending it to Free-Range Kids!
I wish I could say this is an area where I shine. It’s not. But I truly believe in the message of this article in today’s Wall Street Journal, Teaching Kids About Money the Hard Way: Have your kids take care of their own money — getting, saving, spending, even misspending it — gradually, starting as young as possible. The current case on campus (soon to be law for anyone under 21 who cannot show a source of income) is that credit card companies try to get parents to co-sign on credit cards. That means that if you child…
What happens when the fear of the incredibly rare crime of child kidnapping becomes so all-consuming that it overshadows any other considerations? Including common sense? Or even Googling? You get something like this: A school in England that holds a multi-school sports day every June — the highlight of the year, where kids compete and parents cheer — decides, for the first time, to ban parents from attending. That’s right: no parents are allowed to watch their kids. Why not? Here’s the rationale, as reported in The Telegraph: Paul Blunt, development manager at the East Beds School Sports Partnership, said…
Hi Readers — Here’s the latest outrage. Lia’s nature-oriented nursery school/kindergarten might not be for everyone, but it certainly is for some kids. Or at least it was. — Lenore By Lia Grippo My name is Lia Grippo. I am an early childhood educator with 20 years of experience. For the past 11 years, a large part of my work here in Santa Barbara has been taking young children into local wild spaces where we forage, track animals, climb trees, build forts, etc. For the last two years I have been running a small school that meets at my home…