By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 3 minutes

Don’t Treat Nature as a Snooty Museum

Is there a “right” way for kids to play in nature? A mom dropped us a note to say: At my son’s pre-k, he and another boy were picking leaves...
By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 3 minutes

Stop Turning Every Parenting Moment Into a Pop Quiz

Parents Magazine's "5 Ways to Support Your Child's Preschool Curriculum" is not just annoying; it is WRONG. So, is the whole idea it’s pushing: Kids are dumb as dumplings and...
By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 4 minutes

Is Peace of Mind for Parents Even Possible?

Here’s the wise note from a mom who remains anonymous – and a little nervous. This, she notes, is the human condition. It’s a condition that cannot be changed, even...
By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 4 minutes

What Kids Learn When We Let Them Bicker

My theory: One reason parents/teachers/adults are spending so much time hovering over kids is that they are spending so much time hovering over kids.  What I mean is: It’s a...
By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 2 minutes

Child, 5, Cooks for Whole Family (And Becomes World Famous)

Just how capable are kids? Super capable. Astoundingly capable. Unbelievably capable – when they're allowed (or required) to rise to the occasion. So, from time to time, it makes sense...
By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 3 minutes

3 Pieces of Advice for the Mom of a Scared 4th Grader

From time to time, we get asked for advice on when to let go/let grow. Often, the query involves a difference of opinion between husband and wife. But the issue...
By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 4 minutes

To Fight Anxiety, A School Unbuttons Recess and Boosts Independence

About a month ago, I visited the Strelitz Academy in Virginia Beach. Wow! Everyone in the elementary school is doing The Let Grow Experience, so there were paper trees in...
By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 4 minutes

THE 10 WORST LET GROW STORIES OF 2024 – AND 4 REASONS FOR GREAT HOPE!

It’s not the end of the year without an end-of-the-year reckoning, is it? Here is our list of the 10 worst Let Grow stories of 2024, and reasons for hope....
By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 4 minutes

How Boring Playgrounds Stifle Play

I live in New York City. It’s green enough for me. But when I saw the work of Sharon Danks, CEO/founder of Green Schoolyards  America, it became obvious that most...
By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 5 minutes

LOSING TRACK OF YOUR KIDS SHOULD NOT BE A CRIME

Brittany Patterson had to take one of her four children to a medical appointment, and her youngest son, 10-year-old Soren, was going to come with them. This was a few...
By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 3 minutes

How to Fight the Obsessive Fear of Unlikely Dangers

Inside Out 2 gave kids a way to picture anxiety. For parents, all you need is this classic Modern Love column, “A Marriage Stressed by Obsessions and Compulsions.” In it,...
By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 4 minutes

HOW HELICOPTER PARENTING GOT MORE INTENSE

You can’t find a better explanation of the rise of helicopter parenting and how, when, and why that morphed into “intensive parenting” than this New York Times podcast from about...