We’ve got it all over at Let Grow — instructions for the paper airplane folding and, if kids feel like it, a way to run a science experiment, too. (All free, of course.) COVID is making us all both totally 21st century (all socializing online) and 20th — or even 19th — century at the same time (a return to paper, scissors chalk, paste, board games and yeast). Click here for the paper airplane stuff.
Author: lskenazy
They’re at home, you’re busy, they’re bored: A perfect storm. Suddenly kids are doing all sorts of things on their own. Send us a photo of them being newly independent and you could win $500! Five runner-ups will win $100. Click here for the details at Let Grow. Deadline is Sunday night, April 19!
Fortnite, watch out! Let Grow’s have five games “your kids” can play with a penny. My kids are out of the home but now I cannot stop my husband from playing the penny-stacking game. OCD or Quarantine Crazy? I heard from another friend that he and his 12-year-0ld son are now pitching pennies. Click here for the games. And Happy Easter/Passover/Curve-Flattening. – L.
My piece on The Washington Post’s op-ed page should calm some parents — even those whose kids seem to be wasting every moment. It begins: “How do you not helicopter parent in this environment? Ideas????” This email from a friend said it all. With so many schools closed, playgrounds off-limits and parents working at home — or wishing they were working — we really are in four-question-mark territory these days. What is a parent to do? Here’s a thought: Give up!!!! Yes, even smushed together with the kids 24/7, there is simply no way a parent can be hovering, helping…
“Ask Lenore” is a new-ish feature over at Let Grow, and this week, I address the worry about the long-term effect of this awful episode on kids. Hint: I’m pretty optimistic, and so are the experts I spoke with. Check it out by clicking here! Photo by CottonBro at Pexels.
This is a banner year for seed companies — guess why. I live in an apartment in NYC so no victory garden for me. But Let Grow’s content director, Stacy Tornio, has some real-world tips for anyone with a little bit of land and maybe some kids interested in being able to pick their own strawberries, cucumbers, or something else good and want to…let grow, as it were. Click here to read some basic instructions. I’m rooting for you! – L.
Kids 5 to 17 can enter our Let Grow Independence Challenge. The first week — this week — we have an essay contest (deadline: April 12). The week after that, a photo contest. And the final week it is — what else? — a video contest. We want to see what kids have started to do on their own, thanks to the strange brew of unstructured time, quarantine, and distracted parents. First prize: $500! And we’ll have five runner-ups of $100. So click here and get the kids started!
Now can be the time your kids become more independent. We have a free Independence Kits with ideas and a poster and such that you can download, over at Let Grow. Click here!
Kids and dirt. It’s a classic combo that has fallen out of favor, like peaches and cream. (Something I’ve never actually eaten — have you?) But when kids don’t get enough dirt and all its microbes into their system, the system is too clean for comfort. It needs a dose of dirt to boost the immune system. Over at Let Grow we’ve got a piece that explains all this, so click here to read it — maybe while you send the kids out with a shovel. (Just keep their friends 6 feet away.)
Gary Karlson is a master teacher — so “master” that he is now an assistant principal. But last year, when he was still teaching third grade in a Title 1 school, he invited us to meet his incredibly sweet students who had done dozens of independence-building Let Grow Projects throughout the year — from teaching a sibling to ride a bike, to learning to make tortillas, to fashioning an “amphibious vehicle.” Below is our 2-minute video. And now here is Gary’s first blog post for us, about the absurdity of considering “soft skills” as educational also-rans. As he…