Inspiring Video!

Hi Readers! Even as the school board in Saratoga grudgingly allows kids to bike to middle school if they follow a bunch of rules, a bunch of kids in Orlando, Florida just decided: Let’s ride! Here’s their story and a great video of them — especially if you like Bob Dylan soudntracks. As the accompanying [...]

Give the Gift That Keeps On Giving (Hint: Not the Bratz Kids Snap-On Swimming Mermaid)

Hey folks — swing over to ParentDish, my new gig, if you want to read, “The Greatest Gift of the Season: A Free-Range Childhood.” And happy holidays, while we’re at it! — Lenore

Overprotecting Gone Mad: Kids Finally Allowed to Bike to School, BUT…..

Hi Readers! Remember that case  in Saratoga, New York, where a sixth (now seventh) grader wanted to ride his bike to his school — with his mom, even! — but the district forbade it? Well guess what? The district poobahs have now “backpedaled,” as this clever Times Union article put it. But they did it [...]

Go Easy on the Anti-Microbial Soap, Says New Study

Hi Readers! I know, I know — there are probably another zillion studies that contradict this one, and there’s a danger in being whipsawed by every new “discovery” but as this one SO dovetails with the Free-Range outlook, who could resist? Voila: THINK AGAIN ABUOT KEEPING THE LITTLE ONES SO SQUEAKY CLEAN RESEARCH SUGGESTS THAT [...]

Some Parents Aren’t Ditching Their Maclarens — Despite Recall

Oh do I love this piece, Recall Rebels: Moms Fess Up to Using Recalled Maclaren Strollers, on ParentDish. (And not just because I’m about to start writing a weekly post for that site. Yay!) The piece is all about parents who, strangely enough, managed to keep some perspective after Maclaren recalled about a million trillion strollers [...]

Why Kids Don’t Play Outside Much Anymore

Hi Readers — This is an article about a  BBC show debuting today the examines how “Stranger Danger” changed the way kids play.  Sometimes I wonder if “stranger” and “danger” didn’t rhyme, if things would be different. It’s such a catchy phrase, it almost sounds as if “stranger” and “danger” always went together. But I [...]

The Babies Are Coming!

Hi Readers — I don’t know anything about this movie, “Babies,” except that one of you sent a link and it looks mind-bogglingly brilliant. Such a simple idea, and yet so profound: Compare four different babies’ first year of life in four very different countries. And what a lovely trailer. If any of you know [...]

Outrage of the Week: Wings “Too Dangerous” for Kids to Wear in Nativity Play —

You know, every time I get one of these stories, a reader-angel earns her wings — in this case, a gal named Chrissy McKnight. The story she sent hails from nervous ol’ England, where a Catholic primary school has banned kids from wearing angel wings because the “health and safety of the children is paramount” and [...]

No Grinning in the Yearbook! Kid’s Photo Deleted

This is just plain weird: A San Antonio girl who made a goofy, open-mouthed grin for her yearbook had her photo deleted by school officials who said, “No one should look happy in high school! Well, that’s not what they actually said. They said the picture was inappropriate, yada yada yada, and that it was [...]

E-Z Bake Electric Chair! (And other bad toys)

Hi Readers! Perhaps you remember that my one of my other gigs is running the humor contest in my favorite news magazine, The Week. Thought you’d like these results — and just in time for Christmas! THE WEEKN CONTEST: BAD TOYS Recently, the ball was inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame — really! — [...]