By Let Grow

Read Time: 1 minute

Want More Recess? Cut and Paste This Letter!

Great grandma Joanne Ward of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, read Let Grow President Lenore Skenazy's column about the fastest, cheapest child therapy — FREE PLAY. Then she emailed us this worksheet filled...
By Let Grow

Read Time: 4 minutes

Shocking Results of a 10-Year Study of Pre-K

Dale Farran, a researcher who spent a decade studying over a thousand kids who went to a state-run pre-kindergarten -- and a control group of kids that wanted to, but...
By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 3 minutes

Johann Hari on The Let Grow Project: “Amazing!”

Johann Hari is author of the bestsellers "Chasing the Scream" and "Lost Connections." His YouTube videos have been watched tens of millions of times. And now he has a new...
By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 2 minutes

New Therapy for Depressed and Anxious Teens: Start Doing MORE on Social Media

Social media gets a bad rap for making kids (and everyone else) anxious and depressed: Is everyone else having more fun? Going cooler places? Happier with their lives -- and...
By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 2 minutes

Finns Find that The LESS Time Boys Spend in Physical Activity the WORSE Their Reading Ability!

When boys get less time to run around, they do worse on reading and math. That's the conclusion of a study done in Finland -- FINLAND! Land of way more...
By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 6 minutes

How One Family Got Their Young Kids to Start Going Outside On Their Own, Unsupervised — Without Freaking Out The Neighbors

The other day we asked readers to tell us how they're giving their kids more unstructured time, something that many families are eager to do. Here's one really helpful response...
By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 2 minutes

High School Coach Sued after Freshman Ruins Ankle Sliding Into Third. Seven Years Later, the Trial Begins. Is This the End of Youth Sports?

Enormous kudos to Steve Politi for writing such a gripping story in NJ.com that my heart is STILL pounding. It begins: John Suk sits with shoulders slouched and his head...
By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 2 minutes

This is Heavy: The Possible Connection Between Witch-Hunting in History and Mom-Blaming Today

After yesterday's post, about a mom being charged with child abuse after her 3-year-old son died in a freak escalator accident (as if all accidents can be prevented, as if...
By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 3 minutes

Heartless and Pointless: Mom Now Charged in Death of 3-Year-Old Who Fell Off Escalator at Airport in Freak Accident

What a horrible, horrible tragedy -- times two. Jiterria Lightner and her three kids, 4, 3 and 2, were at the Charlotte Airport on their way home from a trip...
By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 2 minutes

Children Are Becoming Less Active in Their Elementary School Years, Ages 6 to Age 11. We’d Like to Hear Your Solutions

It's no surprise, perhaps, that kids are becoming less active once their school years begin. But it is a surprise that in the Oreo creme filling years of life --...
By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 3 minutes

Why Are Young Americans Today So Much Less Trusting Than Older People Are?

Maybe it was always thus -- that the older you get, the more trust you develop. That's the most positive spin we can put on a new Pew Research study...
By Lenore Skenazy

Read Time: 3 minutes

Could the Recent Decline in Children’s Reading Skills Be Due to the Decline in Free Play?

This letter wondering if the decline in reading skills could be linked to a decline in plain old playing comes to us from Barbara Chutroo, a social worker and dance/movement therapist...