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!
Author: lskenazy
“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…
“Even after weeks of staying home, my kids are just not interested in all the stuff we have. Let’s be honest. If a toy isn’t getting any action amid this distraction-free, stuck-at-home living, chances are it’s never getting touched again.” Liz Russell figures out what really engages and changes kids during the quarantine, and will stay with them forever. This was a lightbulb moment of an essay for me. Click here to read it.
Flour went through some dark days before COVID, shamed and shunned. But now? It is the hero of many, many kids-turned-baking fiends (and their ever chubbier parents). So as we like to say: Let Dough! Er…LetGrow. Read a sweet essay on how a non-baking family started making English muffins and donuts by clicking here.
Want to thank a teacher in your life (and, probably, your living room)? At Let Grow we have a bunch of fun teacher thank you cards you can print out or forward. Find them by clicking here!
Well, if you read the headline, you know what this Let Grow piece is about. Click here to read it — a thoroughly enjoyable piece about what can go wrong (especially snack-wise) when a 4th grade mom tries to make everything right.
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.
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.