Instead of screens today, why not… play with sticks? We love Pooh sticks, but our best-ever stick game is, of course, Fly! Fly is the kind of game you can play anywhere, anytime because all you need are a few sticks and just yourself. Of course, it’s a lot more fun with a friend, but,…
Weekend Rewind | Screen freedom
A quiet little revolution has been happening at my place since the turn of the new year and quiet is the operative word. We are completely screen free from Sunday until Thursday each and every week. The only exception to the rule is computer work for parents or using the computer to put music on…
Summer sunshine
We’re back home today after two weeks of retro-fun down the coast where I grew up. Every time we’re down there I have the same thought, “I wonder if I’ll ever live here again?” Maybe I could live here: Or here: This would be my view from the top balcony: It’s impossible not…
Why playing in the streets matters
You can’t move these days without having to battle through the waft of nostalgia that lingers everywhere. We parents grew up in Utopia, you see. Booted out of the house at sunrise, we were left to independent-play in the streets, connect-with-nature and forge new friendships with kids across a diversity of socio-economic backgrounds … or…
Minecraft party games (do not try this at home)
If you’ve read the first part of the Minecraft party wrap-up, you’ll already be aware that this Minecraft party was chaos on wheels. In fact, it was chaos without a helmet on wheels. Let me recap. 12 ten year old boys. 1 massive bonfire. 18 different sugary treats on offer. 1 hour of daylight. 2…
25 things to play outside at home
One of the best posts I’ve read about outside play is this one by Trish at Little Eco Footprints (one of my favourite blogs).* Like Trish’s little girl, my kids don’t need a lot of ‘stuff’ to have a good time in our backyard. They spontaneously put together the coolest stuff – like a sundial,…
Down in the mangroves
Kids get hurt a lot. They do a lot of physically bizarre things that result in injury. Walking, for instance, seems challenging for many. Others fall off their bikes, off trampolines, out of trees and, in some noteworthy cases, moving vehicles. My Cappers gets hurt many times every day. She is one of those children…
The children of the Latch-Key Kids
The title of this post makes it sound like some horror movie set in some forgotten cornfield. Nothing good ever happened in the corn. I digress. I have a theory (yes, another theory) about helicopter parents. This may seem like another digression (seriously, when did anything good happen in a movie after the lens panned…
What should we really be afraid of?
As we settle into the January holidays, I seem to be seeing more and more posts from parents who are so protective of their children that they won’t even let them play in their own front yard. They seem to want to protect them from… life. I’ve previously written about ‘free-range Tsunamis’, so I think…
Free-range Tsunamis
[Image] You’ve no doubt heard of Lenore Skenazy of Free-Range Kids. I love her. You know how sometimes you’re absolutely sure of the rightness of something. When I heard about Lenore’s quest to give her kids some independent breathing space, I just knew she was right. She’s right that children deserve independence. She’s right that being…