Dear fellow wonderer, Let me tell you two of my obsessions. One: kids’ quirky interests. Always, forever I’ve loved watching kids and seeing what lights them up. (More on why I believe these interests matter more than ever, below.) Two: time. The passing of it, the portals between now and then, how you can shoot [...]
Dear fellow wonderer, In the lead-up to writing you this week I felt a little bored with the topic I’d made for myself. I’d planned this month to be a sort of follow-up to last month’s theme of how focusing less on kids might be better for them. Part Two: How might focusing less on [...]
After they entertained themselves to exhaustion, 1996. Dear fellow wonderer, Recently I was at an event, chatting with some younger moms when one said, “My kids are never in their bedrooms alone.” Another mom asked if she was worried about unsupervised screen time. No, that didn’t seem to be the issue. The kids were about [...]
Dear fellow wonderer, Hi there! May was definitely a month of change for me. It was a month of having a big birthday and a month of deciding that I want to change things up in this newsletter. That heart-shaped disco ball turns out to be the perfect metaphor for all of it. This was [...]
My students, who must be pushing 40 now!
Dear fellow wonderer, Do you know how different public schools were 30 years ago? When I tell someone I’m writing a book about how much childhood has changed, about how much independence kids have lost, the person often assumes I’m talking about freedom out in the world, how kids can’t roam neighborhoods and play outside [...]
Dear fellow wonderer, Welcome to April’s cabinet of curiosities.1 This month we’ve been pushing back against the notion that kids are all screen-affixed zombies and talking instead about cool stuff they’re doing away from screens. And on that theme, some links! I will forever be pointing you toward the work of Lenore Skenazy, author of [...]
The plastic croissant kills me. Dear fellow wonderer, Are you as fed up as I am hearing about how kids today have been irreversibly damaged? That they do nothing but gaze brainlessly as screens? Let’s flip that script, shall we? Let’s talk about kids who are playing and making and messing around and acting like [...]