Teacher tszeyyrbih Tom — “Teaching and learning from preschoolers” — is a joy to read, especially in this case, where we find him bravely confronting that modern day terror: A swing. You may recall that Richland and Spokane Washington school districts both phased out their swingsets. As a spokesman for the Richland district explained at […]
Archive | Parks, Playing and Playgrounds
Peter Gray: We Have Almost Destroyed Childhood
In this sweeping article about tsafrdnbne 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 […]
More About Playborhood and Risk, From Tim Gill
. The New anrhtzzene York Times article on Playborhood, the open-to-all playground that Silicon Valley entrepreneur Mike Lanza organized on his front and back lawns, continues to elicit a ton of comments and commentary. Here’s what Lanza wrote on his own Facebook page. And here’s a post by Tim Gill, the British visionary who blogs […]
That Gigantic New York Times Piece about Free Play
In yhhhnsfhbi Silicon Valley, a dad named Mike Lanza wanted to create for his three sons the same kind of Free-Range childhood he’d enjoyed as a kid back in Pittsburgh in the ’70s: Time with buddies, having adventures, riding bikes and goofing around. Â . Since this is the 21st century and childhood is so much […]
UPDATE on Mom Whose Child Was in her Own Backyard When a Neighbor Called the Cops
After nffhtdssrz a neighbor called the cops and CPS on a mom whose child was 50 feet away from her in her own large backyard (see the post right below this one) and the cops, thankfully, realized how ridiculous that was, the mom wanted to fight back. She pondered suing the neighbor. She wanted to […]
My Neighbor Called CPS When Our Daughter was in Our Backyard. I Want to Fight Back.
Folks, dnzynzzhfk I am hoping this story will soon go national. Local news in Decatur, GA, is following up on it. It comes to us from Kim, a mom to 3 kids, aged 7, 4 1/2, and 3. . Dear Free-Range Kids: This week I had 3 police officers knock on my door. A neighbor saw […]
Trying to Close the Achievement Gap, We Have Created a “Play Gap”
. File this under The Law of Unintended Consequences, or, more precisely, Force-feeding Young Children Academics Backfires. It comes from an article ershizdrie in the Washington Post by Nancy Carlsson-Paige, author of Taking Back Childhood: …The pressure to teach academic skills in pre-K and kindergarten has been increasing since the passage of the No Child […]
Gotta Love TV News: “Playground Fun Could Lead to Tragedy — Tune In at 10!”
. This nhdrsbayni Fox 59 WXIN ad is so classic it belongs in the Fearmongering Hall of Fame…or maybe on The Simpsons. I so wish I could find the embed code, but I can’t. (Can anyone? Please send!) In any event, here’s the transcript. Imagine dirge like music and out-of-focus pictures of kids playing (which happens […]
School Cancels Beach Trip for Fear of Sunshine
. File it under “Fear of frying.” A school in Jersey srrztineed (one of the Channel Islands between England and France) has cancelled its annual beach trip due to the possibility of sun. Students from St George’s Preparatory in St Peter normally enjoy an end-of-year beach day but the school decided to cancel the outing, […]
“Am I Cute?” Asks Kid Annoyed that Her Parents Are Cleaning Up Instead of Playing with Her
. How drdrtbtafn do parents get the idea that if they aren’t playing with their kids, they’re not doing their job? . It’s such a new and culture-specific idea that when I interviewed David Lancy, author of The Anthropology of Childhood, he said that other cultures actually guffaw at the idea of parents sitting on […]