Can You Please Come Talk to My Class…But Not Look at Anyone?

Hi Readers — Here’s a note from puzzlemeister Eric Berlin, author of The Puzzling World of Winston Breen. Read it and peep. Er…weep: I’m an author of middle-grade novels, and as such I have a lot of interaction with elementary school kids. I’m glad to say I haven’t often come in contact with the kind of paranoia [...]

Message in a Very, Very Safe Bottle

Hi Readers! Here’s a cool story from the Press-Telegram in Long Beach, California. Can you spot the ridiculous safety precaution? Betcha can! Long Beach pupils’ message in a bottle gets a reply — 10 years later By Kevin Butler, Staff Writer LONG BEACH – In 1999, a third-grade class at Mark Twain Elementary wrote letters [...]

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 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 out [...]

Jaycee’s Story and the Yale Bride Who Was Murdered

Hi Readers — After the terrible story of Jaycee Dugard’s abduction and 18-year imprisonment came to light a few weeks ago, the media was on fire with reminders that our children are NEVER safe on the streets and anything like this could happen at any time on any unchaperoned trip to school. You’ll recall one bit [...]

Zingers Needed

Hi Folks! I know, I know — I should have a million by now: Stunning repostes with which to parry fearmongers, who always have “rigtheousness” on their side, as if THEY care and WE don’t. (E.g., “But even if we save ONE LIFE isn’t it worth it?” — a very hard line to respond to [...]

Mom & Son Bike to School. State Trooper Awaits!

Hi Readers! In defiance of a policy that seems to forbid biking to the local grammar and middle schools in Saratoga, New York, a mom and her middle school son did just that last Wednesday.  That is, they ignored “a phone call placed to students’ homes by school officials, asking parents not to allow students to walk or [...]

Support Safe Routes To School!

Hi Readers — To see  a line of cars snaking up to the door of school on a sparkling  fall day is disheartening,  especially when those cars disgorge perfectly able-bodied little kids who live just a few blocks  away.  But sometimes the problem is not parental hysteria. Sometimes, it’s that there are no crossing guards at a busy street, or [...]

Big Media Weekend for Free-Range Kids!

Welcome readers of the New York Times, New York Post and National Post – Free-Range Kids is happy to see you! Here are the articles you may have seen in your papers: The New York Times: Why Can’t She Walk to School?. The New York Post: Childhood Stalled (about moms dragging big boys into the little [...]

Outrage of the Week: Boy Scouts Forbidden to Carry Pen Knives!!

Readers — This one is so utterly insane I’ve been saving it all week as just the thing to shake us up all weekend. (Why we should spend all weekend shook up by the insanity of pop culture, I don’t know. But somehow, it just feels right.) Anyway, here it is, from Times Online in England: Penknives may [...]

What’s So Strange About This Article?

To me — everything. Here it is. It’s about a 12-year-old, new to the neighborhood on his first day of school, who missed the bus home. He and his friend started walking, apparently got lost (the reference to Fred Myer is a local grocery), and pretty soon the entire town — police, Boys & Girls Club, everyone [...]