(no subject)

[auntiemeesh]

Hm, my DVD player seems to think we switched the clocks this week. Yet the internet insists we don't switch until next week. I'm going to assume the internet is correct on this one, and not run around changing all my clocks like a mad thing.

Yesterday was exhausting but mostly good. The first workshop wasn't what I was expecting and I didn't get much out of it, but I was really impressed by the Keynote Speech. I have to admit I usually don't pay a whole lot of attention to those (they're usually first thing and a bit too drone-y for my limited attention span). But this year the speaker was Cheryl Charles, and she had a lot of really thought-provoking things to say about reversing this trend of the past thirty years of being afraid to let our children play outside. She's a strong advocate of what she calls 'free-range play' - kids running around outside, interacting with nature. This isn't the same as being involved in afterschool sports or other highly structured things like that. She talked about the need for making sure children have access to green spaces, whether they be urban parks, rooftop gardens, or true wilderness. I was a free-range kid all the way, growing up, and it's kind of heartbreaking to see these kids now (and it's not all of them, but it's a lot) who never get closer to nature than a grassy field at the playground. Even worse to see the kids who don't even get that. The kids whose parents let them stay inside because it's easier than fighting inertia to get their kids moving, or who don't have the resources to get them out of the city and into fresh air on a regular basis. The speaker talked about several books, chiefly The Last Child in the Woods. I ended up buying that and one other afterwards. Now at least I have some good reading to look forward to.

Eta: Wow, lj is being cranky today. First it refused to post this at all, then it posted an older version of the post, that I had changed considerably. D'oh! So I have now gone back and fixed things, at least somewhat (I don't remember exactly what I had said before, darn it!).

Comments

[shirebound]

Yeah, Daylight Savings changed a year or so back, and now it's the second Sunday of March and the first Sunday of November (or something like that). But electronics built before 2007 or so don't know that!

[dreamflower]

"Free range play"? That's what's *normal" for kids. That's how *I* grew up. Todays kids have their lives sooo structured--there's no time or place for the kind of imaginative play that I remember so well.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

I noticed in the spring that my dvd player didn't change when it should have but didn't give it much thought. I suppose it makes sense, since it's four or five years old.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I had made mention of that in my post and then lj ate it. It's the way I grew up, out in the woods all day long in my early years and then later, riding our bikes to the green spaces almost every day, playing outside all day long in the summer.

I admit, we had an Atari, and I loved tv, but we were limited in how much we could do that, and our mom was really good about making us go outside all year long.

[ani-no-mouse.livejournal.com]

I remember seeing a note a couple of days ago that LJ was going to be cranky this weekend. It was posted especially prominently, though - perhaps they wanted to make all their users cranky, too?

It is really hard to imagine growing up without free-range play. I'm glad to hear there are people speaking out in favor of it!

[whtmtnwmn.livejournal.com]

Our library just got "Last child..." over the summer and it looks fascinating. Sad to think that there's a whole generation who aren't allowed to get muddy, grass-stained, and slimy from the great outdoors.

My folk told me to go play in the woods all the time, not worrying that I'd be kidnapped or offered drugs. It's a whole new world...
=(

[feaxede-steorra.livejournal.com]

Maybe your DVD player is European :-P We switched clocks this weekend.

[lyda-pearl.livejournal.com]

hip hip hooray for free range play. Odd that there has to be a new term for it...it used to just be play and everything else was structured activities.