I Let My Kids Walk to the Library On Their Own
If you are a fan of kids — or kids’ spelling — you will love these reflections by three siblings who got to walk to the library on their own. This story comes to us from Holly Grant. She and partner Lenny are teachers raising their kids in Syracuse, New York.
Hi Let Grow! Mom of four in an urban neighborhood. The library is about half of a mile from our home. My 8 year old son insisted on me letting him walk to the library. I let [him] go with his siblings. Here’s what happened in their own words:
“I am 9 years old. My siblings and I walked to the library by ourselves. First we had to talk it over with our parents. We were going to check out books about Scottish Clans, dragons, sharks, and horses. The librarian helped me look at the shelves, but there weren’t any books that interested me. Then we walked home. I want to walk back and find a book about something else.”
“I am 8 years old. I walked to the libary with my sisters. It was Fun! the libaryin help me pick out a book of sharks. I read half of it when I got home. I have to return it by April 19.”
“I am six. I woct to the librarey with Josie and Henry and I got jragin books. I woct home and I red it and I love it. It wos a blast and next time I will get mor books. Maby we will stop by and we will get ice cream.” — she then asked if her siblings could walk her to a friend’s house for a playdate next weekend 🙂
I told my 93 year old neighbor about their adventure, and she said to me, “You have to let them grow.” Her comment reminded me about that time I saw Lenore speak at Sphere Summit Summer 2023 and thought to share.
Warmly,
Holly Grant
Want your child to start doing new things — like walk to the library on their own? Download our free Independence Kit. It’s a “home version” of our “Let Grow Experience” for schools (also free!).
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Good for them! This sort of thing was once so normal that nobody thought anything about it. The sooner we can get back to that, the better off kids will be.
I love their reflections! Inspired by a 1000 hours outside podcast with Jonathan Haidt that led me to this site, we let our kids walk to the library by themselves last week, and they loved it! It brought me a lot of joy to see how proud they were to have been given the independence. Ours are 8 and 6.
So sweet!
In our town, the public library does not allow children under the age of 10 to come without an adult. But when we lived in Utah, the age was eight and our library was about a block from our elementary school. My kids (5th and 3rd) would walk over after school and hang out there. It was great!