Filed under: Creating Community, Guest Post, Uncategorized | Tagged: children outside, connecting, connecting to neighbors, create a camp, getting kids outside, kids biking, kids walk, local camp, making neighborhood safe, neighborhood, non-commercial camp | 9 Comments »
These Moms Created a Neighborhood Camp (And So Can You!)
One-Ninth The Freedom Kids Used to Have
The ecology of children apparently being less interesting than that of birds, there is little hard data around. We do have Mayer Hillman’s classic One False Move, a study of children’s independent mobility. It suggests that, in a single generation, the “home habitat” of a typical eight-year-old — the area in which children are able to travel on their own — has shrunk to one-ninth of its former size. Do not underestimate the significance of this change: for the first time in the 4 million-year history of our species, we are effectively trapping children indoors at the very point when their bodies and minds are primed to start getting to grips with the world outside the home.
Filed under: Bikes and cycling, Uber Safety, Uncategorized, Walk to School / Stay Home Alone / Wait in Car | Tagged: England, neighborhood, outdoors, outside, roam, Tim Gill | 72 Comments »
Notice It Wasn’t, “Wednesday Is Negligent Parents Day”
Hi Readers! This is from the blog, “Free-Range Kids in Film,” by Michael Alves. How I remember this commercial! — L.
“Anthony” Prince Pasta commercial. Not sure when this was filmed, but it seems like it is the late 60s or early 70s. It shows a school-age boy, Anthony, running home through the streets of the North End of Boston to get his dinner. He is alone. The streets are crowded, but he gets home safely. According to the article below, this spot ran for 13 years. I bet no one felt it was strange that a boy would be out by himself back then. — Michael Alves
And I’ll bet no one called the police if he didn’t run home. — L.
Filed under: Other Places Other Eras, Uncategorized, Walk to School / Stay Home Alone / Wait in Car | Tagged: cops, neighborhood, nostalgia, overprotection, police, Prince Spaghetti, walk | 50 Comments »
As Recently as 1979, A First Grader Could…
Hi Folks! Just saw this wonderful child development reprint, courtesy of writer Christine Whitley on a blog called ChicagoNow. She reprinted it from a series of books published in 1979, just one generation or so ago, called, “Your ___-Year-Old.” Each book provided a little checklist of the milestones the average blank-year-old would have reached.
So, for a six-year-old, in addition to having a couple of permanent teeth and knowing left from right, the book asks:
Can he travel alone in the neighborhood (four to eight blocks) to store, school, playground, or to a friend’s home?
What a reality check! Can we all pause to remember that the very thing that terrifies so many parents today — a simple walk around the neighborhood — was not something reserved for kids age 10 or 12 or 15 just a generation ago? It was something that first graders did. And presumably those first graders got some practice as kindergarteners!
So when parents gasp at the idea of their kids crossing the street, walking to school, or playing at the playground unsupervised (!), kindly remind them that this is not a mission to Mars we’re talking about, it is a mission the average 6-year-old could handle with aplomb back in 1979.
You might even add that this was back when the crime rate was higher then than it is today. Or just shut up about the crime rate and let it sink in that they are treating their whatever-year-old as less competent than a first grader. — Lenore
Filed under: Other Places Other Eras, Uncategorized | Tagged: development, incompetence, incompetent, neighborhood, overprotecting, playground, walk, walk to school | 353 Comments »
Passing the Popsicle Test
Hi Readers — How I love this post by Scot Doyon, “Smart Growth = Smart Parenting,” on a blog called PlaceShakers, which bills itself as “people, news and views shaping community.”
As you know, I think community is pretty much the answer to all our ills. The more we trust and depend on each other, the more confident we feel Free-Ranging our kids, the more fun we have in our lives, the more our streets teem with life and the less lonely we become.
Add to this the dawning realization on the part of city planners that when a neighborhood works for kids, it works for everyone else, too and you get why it is so important to try to build cities and towns that pass the “Popsicle Test.”
Popsicle Test? It’s simply, brilliantly this: A neighborhood “works” if it is possible for an 8-year-old kid to get a Popsicle on his or her own and return before it has completely melted.
That means the streets must be safe enough to cross and the housing close enough to retail. The kids must feel fine about walking outside, ditto their parents (and the police! and busybodies!). Once all that is in place, not only can children get around on their own, so can everyone else, including old folks.
Note, as does Kaid Benfeld in The Atlantic’s blog regarding the icy treat test:
…there’s no planning jargon in there: nothing explicitly about mixed uses, or connected streets, or sidewalks, or traffic calming, or enough density to put eyes on the street. But, if you think about it, it’s all there.
I’m also fond of the “Halloween test”: If it’s a good neighborhood for trick-or-treating, then it’s likely to be compact and walkable. My brother-in-law, who lives in a place that is anything but, drives his kids to the nearest traditional town center on Halloween. Quite a few parents seem to do the same thing by driving to my neighborhood.
As we have pointed out before: The presence of kids outside indicates a good place to live. And the presence of Popsicles? Even better. Which reminds me…it is snack time right now. — L
Filed under: Creating Community, Uncategorized | Tagged: community, Halloween, neighborhood, Popsicle Test, sidewalks, The Atlantic | 102 Comments »
Can’t Argue with Success
Hi Readers! First of all, thank you SO MUCH for the fantastic suggestions on how to help parents get over the fear of BLAME, in the post below this one. Here’s one response that I wanted to highlight because I hear you: We need success stories here, too. Enjoy this one! L.
Dear Free-Range Kids: *Other* parents’ ability to let go of that worry have encouraged me to do the same. A recent example: My 13-yo son is attending band camp, 2 miles from our home, for an hour a day M-F. Problem is, I tutor 2 days a week and am not available to get him there on those 2 days. A friend called and said her son (a friend of my son’s) was going to camp as well, but she babysits little ‘uns and the strain of getting them all out the door for 2 there-and-back trips was a bit much, and would my son want to walk with her son?
I wouldn’t have sent him on his own, because the guilt would have killed me! But with someone else? Why not try?
They have been walking it for almost 3 weeks now. A female friend has joined them, and then another girl came along 1 day, but her father followed them in the family minivan all the way there, and then home again later. (I don’t know whether to be amused or insulted!)
Funny thing is, the friend who “instigated” this venture has an older daughter who also went on foot 4 years ago, but Mom is taking flak for *making* her son do it, because he’s in a WHEELCHAIR. As if that makes him incapable. He’s traveling with 2 or 3 other people, never by himself, and she’s getting guilt-tripped because he’s in a WHEELCHAIR, and how could she MAKE him do it?! And get this, the other kids had to start riding their bikes to keep up with him (he does NOT have a motorized chair, BTW).
Last cool thing: Mom had to drop off a form and did it at the end of the day’s session so she could just give him a ride home. His response was, “Thanks, Mom, but I need to catch up with my friends.” How can you argue with THAT success? — A Mom in Illinois
Filed under: Creating Community, GOOD News, Uncategorized, Walk to School / Stay Home Alone / Wait in Car | Tagged: disability, inspiration, neighborhood, walk, walk to school, wheelchair | 38 Comments »
How to Start a Neighborhood Camp with Kids as Counselors!
- Five mornings for the first week of summer
- Older kids serve as counselors and design the activities
- A modest camp tuition gets divided up between the counselors
- Younger kids (age 4 – 4th grade) are ‘campers’
- Each day a different family or two adjacent neighbors ‘host’ (i.e., provide space and some adult supervision)
- Different activities each day — crafts, games, snacks and free play (e.g., water balloons, obstacle courses, lawn bowling, jump rope, sidewalk chalk)
- Great memories with neighborhood friends and the comfort level to inspire impromptu playdates the rest of the summer
Filed under: Creating Community, Uncategorized | Tagged: california, camp, neighborhood, Palo Alto | 26 Comments »
Nice Idea: Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt
Dear Readers: One of you dreamed this up and I lost your name!. Claim it if it’s yours! Meantime, maybe everyone can enjoy — or even organize — something like this for the local kids to get to know the nabe and each other!
Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt
- A tree with pink flowers
- A black car
- A squirrel (don’t get too close!)
- A pink house
- A cat
- A robin
- A scooter
- Tulips
- Forsythia!
- A bicycle
- A bug
- A big dog
- A small dog
- A friend
- A fire hydrant
- A person walking a dog
- A truck
- A green house
- A lawn ornament
- A dogwood tree
Rules
- Stay together
- Ask before taking a picture of a person (or their house, dog, etc., if the owner is outside)
- Watch for cars
- No fighting
- Stay in the neighborhood
- Have fun!
Filed under: Creating Community, Uncategorized | Tagged: community, game, neighborhood, scavenger hunt | 39 Comments »
Time for a Block Party! (Yes. Right Now.)
Hi Readers! The other day I got a note from a reader saying, “We need more GOOD news about Free-Raning.” And so, here we go! — L.
Dear Free-Range Kids: A few weeks ago you posted something that another reader did to create a sense of community. I’ve been meaning to follow up, but things in Wisconsin have been, umm, kind of crazy lately, as you may have read.
Anyway, I live in the sort of neighborhood where there a lot of
renters, and not very many kids. My husband and I have been bemoaning
this for years. There’s a younger child next door to us, and a family
w/ 3 kids about a block up, and that’s it within our 2 blocks.
Well, the mom of the 3 kids decided recently that she wants her kids
to know everyone w/in a 2 block radius. And so to facilitate that,
she decided to have a block party. In February. In Wisconsin. She
arranged for a landscaping company to push some of the snow into big
hills, got the street blocked off, told people what she was doing, and
it worked out really nicely. We had about 3 versions of chili there
(in crockpots, plugged into a surge protector on a heavy-duty
extension cord), cocoa in big thermoses, kids making snow forts, etc.
We weren’t able to stay for the whole thing, but there were people
coming & going for at least 4 hours. For a while I went back to my
house to work on our potluck contribution, and left my daughter out
there to play. After about 1/2 hour I heard a bang on the porch–she
had run home to get her sled–and she took great delight in running
home *by*herself.
So don’t let the weather stop you from getting to know your neighbors!
People might think you’re nuts, but they’ll usually show up to a
party… Erika
Filed under: Creating Community, Uncategorized | Tagged: block, friendly, neighborhood, neighbors, party, winter Wisconsin | 21 Comments »
Happy About a Lost Kid
Hi Readers! This nice note just in:
Dear Free-Range Kids: I couldn’t be happier! Tonight my 7-year-old daughter got lost in our neighborhood while riding her bike. She had two out-of-town cousins with her, and they wandered about one block further than she recognized (we’re new to the neighborhood). And then she did a very smart thing–she asked for help.
She found a couple sitting on their porch and asked them to help her find her way home. She knew her address and phone number, so they called us to let us know she was on her way back. I had a nice little conversation with the husband, and then his wife walked the three kids back to our place.
The kids were exultant: they’d gotten lost, found their way again, and made new friends! When my daughter got home, I congratulated her on being so smart. To make sure she was clear about boundaries, I asked what she would have done if they’d invited her inside, offered her cookies and lemonade “just inside the house,” and so on. She said that she would’ve said no, she just wanted directions home.
Now I feel even more confident about my daughter’s street savvy and the kindness of adults in my neighborhood. A Free-Range kid is a safe kid–a kid who makes it back home again! Best — Caitlin
Filed under: Bikes and cycling, GOOD News, Uncategorized | Tagged: lost, neighborhood, neighbors, stranger danger | 20 Comments »