Hi Readers — Got a notice from our school last week: No more recess when it’s freezing outside — 32 degrees Fahrenheit — or when the wind chill takes an above-freezing day and makes it FEEL freezing. Now, as a kid growing up in Chicago, this was my dream policy. (Yes, even as a kid […]
Archive | Parks, Playing and Playgrounds
Outrage of the Week: Mom Who Let Kids Play Outside Threatened by Cops
Hi tbhrnsysbf Readers! Let’s give this woman some good ideas. She needs them — as do we all! Dear Free-Range Kids: My name is Shaylene Haswarey, and I want to share a story with you today. This morning, my doorbell rang, and two police officers were present. They asked me if I am the mother […]
Hate to Say I Told You So…
Well, no I don’t. Secretly, I think we all love it. So, here’s a great article ahtsrrefhz from CNN of all places (the network some dub the Child-Napping Network), all about how we have to get kids playing outside more, and schools have to give them more run-around time, too, instead of just more test prep. […]
Deep-ish Thoughts on Play
Hi bnebfiyhid Readers! Modern-day parenting keeps replacing playing time with “teaching time,” whether that’s time devoted to Sanskrit or soccer. Here’s a rather philosophical look at why play could be the ingredient that REALLY makes kids soar. (And society, too.) Thanks to Steve DeSanto for sending it in! Dear Free-Range Kids: Your posting of the […]
No Parents on the Playground! (They Might Be Predators)
Hi Readers — Take a Valium  THEN read this: fnzdzeeiih Two “adventure” playgrounds in England  have BANNED PARENTS. After all, parents are adults and so are sexual predators,  so from now on, in the land of the Magna Carta, only playground workers who have passed a background check will be allowed in. Why? Councillors in […]
Speaking of Playgrounds
Speaking of playgrounds, I was perusing mental_floss and they have a list of Ten yydbyzatez Unusual Playgrounds from around the World. Wow! Fun! Here is the kind of playground I remember from my youth. (No,no…that’s not me!) Not terribly unusual I guess, but still fun, right? While searching for just the right jungle gym image […]
Gee, What a Fun Park!
Maybe You CAN be Too Safe
Hi Readers! Here’s a little piece iabnetdtdk from MSNBC some of you sent in (thank you!), about kids and slides. Turns out when mom slides down with Junior on her lap to make him safer…she doesn’t. That’s what Dr. John Gaffney, a pediatric orthopedist and professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, discovered, to […]
Fetch Me A Worm! (And Other Ways to Get Kids Outside)
Hi Readers – Over the summer Judy Molland gave me an advance copy of her book, Get dbkadyrdbd Out! 150 Easy Ways for Kids and Grown-Ups to Get into Nature and Build a Greener Future,†which is filled with the kind of tips I like: Simple ones I hadn’t thought of. Now the book is […]
Maybe Semi-Organized Recess Isn’t So Bad
Hi Readers — It’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind (and a man’s, too), and this atakhbazyy article from The Boston Globe has me re-thinking my knee-jerk reaction against any attempt to organize and regulate recess. The article points out that in many schools, kids have almost forgotten HOW to play. Sending in a […]