Hi Readers — I was just going to tweet this, but it’s such a cool story, I’m providing the link here. ebafszsnid A high school in Naperville, Illinois is holding gym class first period for some kids who struggle with academics. The idea is: Switch on the body and the brain switches on, too. And […]
Archive | Parks, Playing and Playgrounds
ANNOUNCING MAY 22: “TAKE OUR CHILDREN TO THE PARK…AND LEAVE THEM THERE DAY”
Hi Readers : You read it here first! Free-Range Kids is officially declaring Saturday, May 22 — the weekend before Memorial Day– the very first, “Take tdiibffisi Our Children to the Park… And Leave Them There Day.” What?! Just that. If our goal is to get kids back outside (it is), and playing together (it […]
Fun and Games — Literally
Hi Readers — One of you just sent in the link to this amazing site: Streetplay.com, rhndberyat where you can find the basic rules for a ton of old-fashioned games, from jacks to marbles to the one that I always heard about but never knew what it was: Ringoleavio, which sounds like Hide & Go […]
Recess Coaches: Good Idea?
Hi Readers! Well today a topic dfhybfhrta we’d discussed a little earlier (and earlier still)Â Â has made the front page of The New York Times. “Forget Goofing Around: Recess Has a New Boss,” is about a recess assistant hired at an elementary school in Newark, NJ, where many of the kids had ostensibly been spending recess […]
Up With Boredom!
Hi bakyyidhti Readers! The other day I wrote a column on ParentDish called, “Just Chute Me.” I was saying — I thought — that we really do not have to play with our kids. We have to love and nurture them, yes, but unless we are really psyched for a game of CandyLand or make-believe, […]
Condo Won’t Let Kids Play Outside
Hi Folks — Sometimes the inbox brings a little symmetry. Here’s nyrafskyra a story one of you sent in about a condo association that can’t stand kids running around “from yard to yard” making “unacceptable noise.” Perhaps children should be taught to use their “indoor voices” outdoors. But then here’s a story, also just in, about how […]
Dear Mrs. Obama: We Can’t Fight Obesity Without Going Free-Range
Hi Readers: Here’s an almost perfect opinion ntredykari piece by Dan Haley in Sunday’s Denver Post about how Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” program is a great idea — get kids outside, exercising more — but it’ll never work. At least, not until we start a Free-Range Revolution (not that he calls it that): …first we need […]
These Kids Have Balls!
Or at least they want them: Two Ottawa fifth graders have started a petition to be allowed to PLAY WITH BALLS ON THE PLAYGROUND. The principal banned balls during the winter, because, she told the CBC , “They’ve  got snow stuck to them, they’re frozen, often there’s pebbles on them and they’re flying through the […]
This Story Will Make You Blubber (No, I Could NOT Resist)
Dear neihsfkzbs Readers: Here’s a nice story — and an ice story, too: Real boys build real igloo. I know — it’s too bad that this kind of this is so rare it merited a write-up. But that snow reason not to celebrate (with bad puns)! — Lenore
Gym Class Humiliation Can Cause a Lifetime of Inactivity
Hi Readers! Bad gym teacher = bad life. I KNEW it. And now, that’s what this fykbteinsy cool study by Billy Strean, a professor in the University of Alberta’s  Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, has just confirmed: “A lifelong negative attitude toward physical activity can be determined by either a good or bad experience, […]