Let Grow Blog

By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 3 minutes

These ROTC Students Are Learning More Than Leadership

The Junior ROTC students at Franklin High School in El Paso, Texas, are  learning to lead. But their teacher, Major Joseph D. Shamy, noticed something worrisome: “School in general wasn’t preparing...
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  • Let Grow Play Club
By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 10 minutes

Warning: Phones Are Making PARENTS Anxious

The moment a baby is born, a parent is too. There is suddenly a new (screaming) person in the world. But just as suddenly, there’s a new you, too. (Also...
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By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 3 minutes

How Risky Play Fights Childhood Anxiety

Maybe you remember a time you scared yourself as a kid. You climbed higher than you expected, or went further into the forest, or agreed to a dare. Believe it...
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By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 8 minutes

How Much Do You Have to Play with Your Kids?

Feel guilty because you don't love playing with your kids? You are not alone, and you are not a Grinch! Many parents -- and entire cultures -- feel the same...
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By Let Grow

Read Time: 1 minute

The Hero’s Journey (into a Grocery Store, at Age 11)

The "Hero's Journey" involves facing fear and risk to get to a goal. For one boy, 11, this meant asking an adult at the grocery store for help, despite his...
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By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 4 minutes

How to Diversify Your Child’s Potential

Our culture tells us to streamline our kids for college. But actually, we need to diversify their potential by allowing more time for quirky interests, not just "resume building."
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By Let Grow

Read Time: 3 minutes

Want Your Kids to Play More? Some Tips from Peter Gray!

Free play -- when kids organize their own fun -- is crucial for children's social development. How can we give our kids more free play? Peter Gray has some real-world...
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By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 4 minutes

“Independence Therapy” Could Revolutionize Anxiety Treatment for Kids

A child psychologist who had his patients do new things on their own, without their parents found that this "Independence Therapy" worked faster than traditional treatments for kids with a...
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By Let Grow

Read Time: 2 minutes

A Simple, Stunning Parenting Advice List from John Gray

John Gray wrote that men are from Mars, but also that "Children are From Heaven." In that book he provides classic parenting advice in list form -- and here it...
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By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 2 minutes

A Boy Fell, An Adult Hurried Over. Too Bad.

When a boy fell from the monkey rings, his dad ran over to comfort him. Sometimes, that's too bad.
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By Let Grow

Read Time: 2 minutes

An “Anxious Generation” Reader Lets Go!

A mom who read The Anxious Generation decided to take its advice and let her son, 6, ride his bike alone. Now he does it all the time! And you...
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By Let Grow

Read Time: 2 minutes

We Did NOT Write This Paragraph

"Just because kids aren’t allowed to do something doesn’t mean they aren’t capable." Sounds like Let Grow -- but it's The New York Times, now endorsing MORE CHILDHOOD INDEPENDENCE!
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By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 3 minutes

Anxious College Students Are Eating Alone in their Rooms. Let Grow May Have a Solution

Today's college students are so anxious, 40% won't even eat in the dining hall. What has made their social anxiety to acute? Maybe growing up with too few chances to...
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