Who says we’re treating our kids like snowflakes? Oh wait. Dear Free-Range Kids: You’re the only one I can complain to (I’ve tried bringing this up at the school, but have been told it’s for student safety)! It has been raining on and off today, no thunder or lightning. We just got an email outlining the procedures to dismiss the nearly 900 kids from my son’s elementary school. Lenore here. The boldface is mine: Good Afternoon Parents, . Our weather has been unpredictable today. We are anticipating that we might have to alter our afternoon dismissal due to the…
Author: lskenazy
Kids age 6 are old enough to walk themselves to school, Spanish officials are telling parents. A seven-community experiment begun there in 2010 has been hailed as a success by researchers who say that allowing first graders to walk without adult supervision “builds their self-confidence.” According to this piece in The Washington Post by Rick Noack, the experiment was created to counter the pan-European decline in kids getting themselves to school: Surveys show that the share of German 6-year-olds who walk to school alone declined to 17 percent in 2000 from 91 percent in 1970. Figures from the United Kingdom…
If you’re a kid in Beaverton, Oregon — the actual Niketown — you may wonder why your mom never says, “Go to the library.” Maybe it’s because mom has something else to do today other than stare at you. Here is the Beaverton Library’s Rule #2: …[T]he adult/caregiver must supervise the child during the entire library visit by keeping them within their line of sight. If a child under 10 years of age is unattended and an adult/responsible caregiver cannot be located within 5 minutes, library staff will call the Beaverton Police Department. I guess if kids want to read,…
The song “Calling All Angels,” a hit from the group Train, has been watched on YouTube 16.7 million times, so far. It’s a moody, rain-falling, leaf-blowing song, but the bleakest part goes like this: And I’m calling all angels I’m calling all you angels When children have to play inside so they don’t disappear If you watch the video, those lines are at 2:16. Note how the child outside…disappears! Does Train really believe that children who step outside DO disappear? I realize the song is not meant to be instructional, or even factual, but it’s sort of like singing, “When…
In this sweeping article about the importance of free, non-adult-lead play — the kind of playing most of us remember doing, like, all the time as kids — psychologist Peter Gray does not mince words. The Boston College psychology professor and author of Free to Learn (as well as the author of one of the most popular psychology textbooks used at Harvard and elsewhere) writes: The famous developmental psychologist Jean Piaget (1932) noted long ago that children develop a more sophisticated and useful understanding of rules when they play with other children than when they play with adults.With adults, they…
“To avoid tragedy” the Gloucester Township, NJ, police department is warning parents: Do not let your kids eat unwrapped candy! Do not let your kids eat unwrapped candy! Do not let your kids eat unwrapped candy! Really — look at the “safety tips” below. It’s diagnosable OCPCD: Obsessive-Compulsive Poison Candy Disorder. And by the way, Gloucester Townshipians, you might want to remind the cops that, um, no child has ever been poisoned by a stranger’s candy on Halloween. So kids can “avoid tragedy” AND eat unwrapped candy till they vomit (from too much candy. Not poison). This is from the…
Sometimes you gotta think outside the trick or treat bag. So kudos to the National Reform Sex Offenders Laws organization for tackling the persistent, unfounded myth that sex offenders lure trick or treaters to their doom on Halloween. To help America move beyond this zombie-like fear that refuses to die, the organization is challenging the media to find even ONE case of a registered sex offender preying on a trick or treating minor. Just one. Ever. This challenge is in the vein of Prof. Joel Best’s decades’ long hunt to find any child who had been poisoned by a stranger’s…
Reprinted by popular demand (popular in my apartment, anyway) comes this piece of mine about Halloween. Just as I believe that all sorts of new educational products, courses and mandates migrate from the world of special needs (what is Gymboree but early intervention?), new fears migrate from Halloween to the rest of the year: Fears of predators, poisoners, kids as pedestrians — and all the awfulness that can occur if a child eats a sugary snack. HALLOWEEN IS TOO SCARY If you want to see something really scary on Halloween, come to my home about 9 p.m. I’m letting my…
This piece comes to us from Sam Flatman, an outdoor learning specialist and an Educational Consultant for Pentagon Play. Sam has been designing school playground equipment for the past 10 years and has a passion for outdoor education. He believes that outdoor learning is an essential part of child development, which should be integrated into the school curriculum at every opportunity. Should We Shelter Our Children From The News? by Sam Flatman Is the world really such a horror show? With fresh reports of terrorist action hitting our TV screens each week, the media would have us all believe that…
At a lecture I was giving yesterday, one parent asked a good question: What if you WANT your kid to go knock on a friend’s door to play, or ride their bike around the neighborhood…but the kid shows zero interest? That reminded me of a story told to me by a Washington Post reporter. Her son was 8 at the time, and one afternoon the carpool picked him up, dropped him off at home and drove off. But… The house was locked. It was a day the boy was supposed to stay at school. Somehow the carpool mom didn’t know…