To be a kid today means to grow up in a culture constantly underestimating your creativity, resilience, gumption, and especially: your curiosity. The hallmark of this era is the assumption that all kids are dullards who would otherwise do and notice NOTHING, if adults weren’t there busily pointing things out every step of the way. Teach, teach, teach. Hence the term, “Teachable Moment.” As if kids don’t learn anything unless we are right there, making sure they squeeze every last educational drop from any everyday activity. If a kid falls in the forest, did they really learn anything? Not if…
Author: lskenazy
Readers — Over at Let Grow we are working to create a list of camps (day camps and overnight) that do not allow phones. If you know of any, please write the camp name/city/state in the comments here, or send it to to us at Camp@LetGrow.org. Meantime, read this story about a camp that gradually allowed phones. The author asked us not to use her name because she still loves her camp — but her heart is sore. Phones were banned at camp. At first. Dear Let Grow: I worked in New England at an all girls camp for years, as well…
Ever feel terrible for being so busy you have to “neglect” your kids? Read on! This story comes to us from Krista Whipple, who lives with her husband and three children in Southern Utah. She is a Montessori theatre teacher and graduate student working on her Master’s in School Counseling. She’s also an artist, writer, nature lover, and Free-Range parent: Zoom was eating my life. I’m proud to have considered myself a Free-Range/Let Grow parent from the very beginning. My kids have been helping in the kitchen since they were toddlers, and by second grade they could all do basic…
WE KEEP HEARING THAT YOUNG PEOPLE ARE INCREDIBLY DEPRESSED AND ANXIOUS. THERE AREN’T ENOUGH THERAPISTS IN THE WORLD TO DEAL WITH IT. SO WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING FASTER, EASIER AND CHEAPER. HERE IT IS! FREE, UNSUPERVISED, UNSTRUCTURED PLAY TIME! A study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that “Physical activity can help alleviate depressive symptoms in teens, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical trials.” How much physical activity do the kids need? “10 to 15 sessions of physical activity per month were linked to the greatest mental health benefits.” What kind of…
In 2018, Vanessa Elias launched Big Block Party Weekend in her hometown of Wilton, Connecticut. Her mission was to “build community one block at a time.” That inaugural weekend brought together more than 1,200 residents for approximately 40 block parties. The joy and benefits could be felt immediately and continue to grow. Wilton’s block parties are now a beloved annual tradition. Now Vanessa — a longtime friend, a proponent of play, a parenting coach at Thrive with a Guide — has released a free Block Party USA Guide to help us all organize block parties in our neighborhoods — starting…
The Surgeon General is right: Loneliness is a massive problem. It’s not just sad, it’s unhealthy. So let’s look at the quickest, easiest way to solve it, at least among kids. Get them playing. Really playing — organizing games, working through arguments, sometimes yelling, sometimes laughing — without an adult fast-forwarding through all of that. Playing is the most organic way to make a friend. As Let Grow co-founder Peter Gray points out: Almost by definition, when you’re a kid: a friend is someone you play with. Why the pricier option wins. But since play has been pretty much replaced by adult-run activities (and…
It’s like steak seasoning. The media takes a rather straightforward story and liberally sprinkles its favorite seasoning on it — a zesty mix of fear, hypothesizing, and cherry-picked “man on the street” interviews — and voila! A yummy story the public gobbles down. You can watch this process in action every September when a child is dropped off at the wrong bus stop somewhere in America (it happens!) and the kid finds their way home, unharmed. That would be a boring story if not for…steak seasoning, this one with extra hypothesizing! “Luckily, Xavier got home safely. But what if he…
Independence Day is every day for families in eight states, including four — Virginia, Connecticut, Illinois, and Montana — that passed a “Reasonable Childhood Independence” bill this year. “I’m really excited,” said Evelyn Hackel, a naval architect and mother of Elsa Hackel, age 12. She should be! When Elsa was 9 and walking home from the library in Falls Church, VA, the police knocked on her front door before she even got her coat off. They told her parents she was too young to be outside, alone. “There were four cops,” Evelyn recalls – more than had shown up when…
Maybe this will convince other moms not to make outrageous claims on TikTok. The Petaluma, California, “mom-fluencer” who claimed her kids were the victims of an attempted abduction in a Michael’s parking lot has been sentenced to 90 days’ jail time, 30 of which must actually be spent behind bars. On December 7 of 2020 – yes, a day that will live in infamy — Katie Sorensen called the cops. She reported that she’d been shopping at the craft store with her kids, 1 and 4, when a couple seemed to focus on them, and followed her out to her…
When it turned out that four siblings, aged 1 to 13, had survived in the jungles of Colombia for 40 days after their plane crashed, killing all the adults on board (including their mom), the world was dumbstruck with awe. How could kids that young be that resourceful? “My responses is: ‘They do this routinely,’” says anthropologist David Lancy, author of “Child Helpers: A Multidisciplinary Perspective,” and a number of other books about kids in other cultures. “They look after their brothers and sisters, including babies. They hunt. They forage. They build shelters.” They put us, in short, to shame.…