Spring Evening

Apr 02, 2014 16:33

Last night was the first night of baseball practice for both older boys. We actually didn't know that Isaac had practice until his coach called at 4pm to apologize that his email announcement of practice hadn't reached us. The coach said he understood if Isaac couldn't make it. Happily there are two other boys on Samuel's team who live in our ( Read more... )

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emily25069 April 2 2014, 23:07:38 UTC
Awesome!

I have been enjoying the sunshine too. I spent quite a lot of time out there the last couple of days cleaning up the backyard and playing with Simon. When the kids get home from school they have been playing in the backyard and also taking bike rides. I have started to let the 3 oldest ride around the block...even if they aren't together, which is pretty exciting to them. Right now my kids are outside making pine cone bird feeders out of pine cones we found in the backyard and bird seed that was given to us.

I am still chewing on that article about the overprotected child. I thought I was finished digesting it, but there really is a lot to chew on. I remember playing like that as a kid even down to having my own secret hideout, which was a house in the woods by my house that actually had burnt down years and years before, but the basement was still intact. It had mattresses and sleeping bags in it, so I am guessing I was not the only person who knew about it, but I never ran into anyone there. Me and my friends did all kinds of things out of adult supervision.. we ice skated in a boggy field and ditches that froze over...basically anywhere that had ice enough to skate on.. we developed our hierarchy (of which I was at the bottom of sadly)..

The downside for me was mostly that I really didn't care to have much to do with the grown up people, including my own parents. If it didn't directly cause our attachment difficulties, it sure helped us stay detached.. being gone for hours and hours a day. My parents then felt like intrusions to the kids private world that we had. I have a hard time seeing how you could really balance that.. or maybe it just isn't an issue if the parents and children already have a good relationship. I dunno. But I am still chewing on it.

Have you checked out the Free Range kids website? I have a friend who loves that site and she has let her kids do things far earlier than I would feel comfortable..such as cross a busy road at age 9 (using traffic signs of course).. She takes her kids grocery shopping and sends them on "field trips" with a list and a time to meet back at the front. This is a big grocery store (Meijers. If you don't have those they are like a Super Walmart) and any kid 7 or older goes on the field trip. The youngest ones stay with her. She gets a lot of flack for it, but she thinks its important. She has also left all of her kids with the oldest babysitting. She is 12. 5 kids for a 12 year old is a lot, but I guess her daughter doesn't really know any different so it works out. Anyhow, I gotta say that she does really have good responsible older children who are pretty capable of a lot.

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