The Swamp (or, let kids be kids)
***
Well my dear ones,
Something my wife and I often discuss
is the change in the way kids now grow up,
compared to how we did,
and the change is not for the good.
Would you like to see a better world?
Me, too.
And it starts with the way we teach our children.
Here’s a great article from Miss Hannah Rosin:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/04/hey-parents-leave-those-kids-alone/358631/
“The Land.” I love the concept, and
I’d like to see it catch on here in the USA.
Let kids be kids.
Let them play.
Let them use their imagination.
When I was a kid,
we had a place like “The Land,”
and fortunately, it was right
behind the house we lived in.
If we cut through a patch of woods
beyond our backyard,
my sister and I would come to “the Swamp.”
Basically, it was a wide, shallow,
very slow-moving creek that meandered
between small islands of trees.
As kids, we thought the Swamp was awesome!
In the summer,
my sister and I and other kids
would build bridges so we could cross
from one island to the next;
and in the winter, we would ice skate
on the ice trails between the islands.
The Swamp.
I don’t think it ever covered more
than perhaps 5 acres at most.
But to a ten-year-old kid,
it was a place of mystery,
a place to be explored.
Over the years, we kids spent
many happy hours in the Swamp
with ZERO parental supervision;
our parents never set foot in the Swamp
because it was a place for kids,
a place for kids to use their imaginations,
a place for kids to be kids.
I hope you all had some place like that
when you were growing up.
And I really hope that your kids
and grandkids get to have a place
like the Swamp,
an electronics-free environment
where they can use the “props”
God provides in nature
to let their imaginations run free.
grace, peace, and love to you,
dave
Well my dear ones,
Something my wife and I often discuss
is the change in the way kids now grow up,
compared to how we did,
and the change is not for the good.
Would you like to see a better world?
Me, too.
And it starts with the way we teach our children.
Here’s a great article from Miss Hannah Rosin:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/04/hey-parents-leave-those-kids-alone/358631/
“The Land.” I love the concept, and
I’d like to see it catch on here in the USA.
Let kids be kids.
Let them play.
Let them use their imagination.
When I was a kid,
we had a place like “The Land,”
and fortunately, it was right
behind the house we lived in.
If we cut through a patch of woods
beyond our backyard,
my sister and I would come to “the Swamp.”
Basically, it was a wide, shallow,
very slow-moving creek that meandered
between small islands of trees.
As kids, we thought the Swamp was awesome!
In the summer,
my sister and I and other kids
would build bridges so we could cross
from one island to the next;
and in the winter, we would ice skate
on the ice trails between the islands.
The Swamp.
I don’t think it ever covered more
than perhaps 5 acres at most.
But to a ten-year-old kid,
it was a place of mystery,
a place to be explored.
Over the years, we kids spent
many happy hours in the Swamp
with ZERO parental supervision;
our parents never set foot in the Swamp
because it was a place for kids,
a place for kids to use their imaginations,
a place for kids to be kids.
I hope you all had some place like that
when you were growing up.
And I really hope that your kids
and grandkids get to have a place
like the Swamp,
an electronics-free environment
where they can use the “props”
God provides in nature
to let their imaginations run free.
grace, peace, and love to you,
dave