“Thanks to the pandemic, children have been stepping up to the plate—and sink, bike, lawn mower and toilet brush. Sprung from their super-busy, let-me-do-it-for-you-honey lives, they’re becoming the kids they might have been if they’d been born a generation or two earlier, back when parents seemed to expect more of kids independence-wise and less of them achievement-wise.” That’s what I wrote in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, taking a look at how this year’s Mother’s Day is different from last year’s, because this year a whole lot of kids have started doing things on their own. For instance, one mom told…
Author: lskenazy
This flow chart, created by University of Virginia Psychology Professors Jim Coan and Daniel Willingham, is just plain terrific. “Could a child do this alone?” asks the chart. Then let ’em! “Could a child do this with some instruction?” Then let ’em. Etc. etc. Check it out — print it out! — by clicking here. And don’t forget — if you want some ideas for giving your kids more independence, here is our free Let Grow Independence Kit!
These “cards” are really an excuse for kids to interview their moms and shower them with the ultimate gifts: attention to mom’s quirky uniqueness, gratitude, and offers of help! Here you go — click here! (Mother’s Day is SUNDAY!)
Parents, kids: Fear not the silica gel pack. Sure it says DO NOT EAT and THROW AWAY. But you should only follow one of those rules. Instead, save the packs and use them a whole lot of ways: Place them on the car dashboard by the windshield to keep it from fogging up. Phone dropped in puddle? Place it in a sealed plastic bag with silica gel packets. Kid can use (not eat!) them for projects, too. Check out Let Grow’s ideas for both generations by clicking here!
At least for some kids, yes, being flung from the stress of a super-structured, super-supervised existence is having a calming, life-expanding effect. I discuss this amazing phenom in this Big Think article, including six short essays by kids themselves, and also in this interview with Bored Panda, the pop culture site, where I note that kids are suddenly experiencing an explosion of free time: And while some of it is spent in distance learning, most of it is free-form, which means…it’s videogame time! Three hours later, it’s still videogame time! But at some point, even that gets old…
What expression does — did — your mom use all the time? What skill did you learn from her? What does (or did) she encourage you to do? These are great questions for any mom and child, whether the kid is 5 or 50. And if you click here, you can print out a very attractive little form with those questions and some other good ones. My guess is you or your mom will keep it in a drawer for longer than almost anything else (except your cloves. I have my mom’s McCormick tin still pretty full of…
“When I was 17, I was in a serious accident and had to be home for months. Looking out at our boring backyard, I daydreamed a plan for my life. It became a blueprint.” So writes Holly Korbey in a lovely piece at Let Grow. There are different kinds of daydreaming, of course, and some don’t get you to a good place. But literally having the time to daydream opens kids up to a different kind of vision of themselves and the world. It can be transformational, as it was for Holly. Anecdotes AND research bears this out. Click here…
I realize that sounds kinda nuts — why are we asking PARENTS to show us their KIDS being independent? Who, after all, is better at making videos? Mom or little Ava (who’s 5)? But legally we can’t ask anyone under 13 to do anything. So go document your children doing something new on their own, thanks to scads of quarantine time, and enter the short video here — like, literally by clicking here — at the Let Grow Independence Challenge! Deadline is Sunday night, April 26. First prize is $500!
“The most difficult part was persuading our children that they had the freedom to make anything they wanted,” writes mom Anam Ahmed at Let Grow. (Click here!) …Like most kids, my children live prescheduled lives (at least they did in “the time before”). At school, someone tells them when to play outside and when to sit in circle time. Someone tells them what to eat for their lunch and how they should share with other children they have just met at the park. Then someone tells them when it’s time for creative play and when they need to get in…
At Let Grow, a wise mom named Kate Sundquist admits that while her kids were already good at playing, they certainly weren’t good at filling hours and hours of free time, playing by themselves. (Read the piece here.) So she her and boys created a schedule. “While these routines might seem restrictive or even the opposite of independence,” she writes, they aren’t. “If they give your kids the scaffolding to work independently during the day, you’re doing something right. Not only are you encouraging independence, but you’re actually letting them put it into practice. Plus routines are a regular part…