What do kids with approximately 127 hours of free time a day, thanks to COVID, do? They get creative. They also seem to get out the X-Acto knives. (Yay!) We harnessed this kid superpower by holding a Let Grow Cardboard Contest, and are pleased today to announce our winners. Check them out by clicking here. […]
A study of 1,000 kids aged 13 and 14 in England found their anxiety levels dropped when in-person school closed. Reports the BBC: Researchers compared findings from a survey taken in October last year to answers given by teenagers in May this year. Both girls and boys recorded decreased levels of anxiety during that timeframe. […]
Good news, parents: If you let your kids wait in the car for less than 10 minutes on a cool day—doors locked and fan on—a caseworker and sheriff are actually not allowed to come to your home, threaten to take your children away, and strip search the kids. These very basic rights were just vindicated […]
You see them at the store and their kid is glaring, swearing, or possibly biting someone. (Maybe you.) Give those poor, beleaguered parents the benefit of the doubt. You see a kid waiting in the car a few minutes in front of the pizza shop, or pharmacy. Give those parents the benefit of the doubt. […]
We’ve got 5 food experiments over at Let Grow, and some are quite amazing. In one, kids learn how to transform liquids into edible “pearls”: Mix any kind of liquid (juice, chocolate milk, maple syrup) with unflavored gelatin, warm the mixture, and drizzle it into cold oil. This process will create tasty “pearls.” The young […]
A week ago, Tennessee’s Department of Education announced it was going to start conducting monthly “child well-being” assessments of every single kid under age 18 in the state. These could be by phone, email, or a knock on the door. On home visits, the so-called “well-being liaison” would be allowed to interview the children privately. […]
On this week’s Supervision Not Required podcast I talk with pediatric occupational therapist Angela Hanscom, author of “Balanced and Barefoot,” about the rise of childhood sensory and motor issues, and the amazing changes she’s seen happen when she gets kids outside, playing. (The story of a boy IN THERAPY because he so hated anything touching […]
A hugely popular thread on Reddit was prompted by a reader asking what do kids with helicopter parents look like as adults? The answers are illuminating, but here I must put in a word for the parents being second-guessed. While I am (obviously) in favor of parents giving kids more independence than most do these […]
Author/teacher/ship captain Kate Sundquist was home with her two sons, 6 and 8, when COVID hit and her merchant marine husband was at sea. Her story of feeling lonely and worried has a happy ending when the neighborhood started coming together to run errands and help each other out. You can read it here, along […]
I’d never even HEARD of “air plants.” Now at Let Grow we have a 1-min video on how to grow them. Guess what? No soil needed. Really. Just stick the plants in a container and spritz them every couple days. What an insanely easy way to get your kids into planting. Click here for instructions […]
