Free Range Kids has become one of my favourite blogs to read and I just HAD to repost this letter sent in by a 16-year old who was brought up by helicopter parents (the kind that are over-protective and constantly hovering). She offers some good food for thought.

After reading this, please go over to Free Range Kids and read some of their other articles…then subscribe to get updates by email. Homeschoolers or not, we need to have more faith in our children.

Dear Free-Range Kids: I wish I had been raised Free-Ranged. What parents don’t seem to realize is that when your parents are constantly hovering, it’s like being told No You Can’t every single day.

I am sixteen years old. I am sixteen years old, I don’t drink, I don’t even LIKE parties, and I have never even seen a real joint. I am a straight A student who is currently taking more college courses than a college freshman. I am also, apparently, too irresponsible to ride my bike to school. Or to my best friend’s house (which is about halfway down my would-be bike route to school).

I had this really odd realization the other day. I noticed that when I go bike riding with my dad, I tend to be less competent than when I go by myself. The days when I do my homework without being told are the days when no one is there to tell me to do it. When there is someone there to “hover” over me and make sure I’m okay, I become less capable. One time, while riding my bike, I went past the “boundary lines” for where I’m allowed to ride, and instead explored another part of my neighborhood (by the way, my neighborhood’s definition of “youth crime spree” was when a kid spray painted a p***s on a fence two and a half years ago). When I decided to head back, I was able to remember which streets I had taken without a problem. This took me completely by surprise.

I think what happens for a lot of kids is that when our parents keep denying us the chance to look after ourselves, we eventually stop trying, which our parents see and take as evidence that we’re not ready yet.

Lenore over at Free-Range Kids received a letter from an outraged mother who reports that some schools no longer allow their students to light bunsen burners for fear they burn themselves or their schools down. Where is this craziness going to end? Before you know it, we’ll have to wear helmets just to have the pleasure of riding in a car!

This cartoon says it all:

Courtesy of Care 2.

By Heshy Shayovitz, DivineCaroline

Doing everything with quality increases your chances for success, enhances your reputation, and saves you time in the long run. People typically equate quality with skill, but quality is a by product of time, thoughts and systems.

Here are twenty-one ways to assure quality in everything you do. See where you can apply a couple of these rules to your life. In a few weeks, review the impact.

The 21 points are:

1. Review Everything
2. Review Contributions of Others
3. Review Your Mistakes
4. Review Accomplishments
5. Control Your Task List—Don’t Drop Anything
6. Control Your Commitments: Just Say No
7. Control Your Understanding
8. Control Expectations
9. Control Yourself
10. Learn from Others
11. Learn Through Research
12. Learn Through Education
13. Relearn
14. Commit to Quality
15. Brainstorm
16. Envision Success
17. Be Proud of Your Quality
18. Solve the Problem, Not the Request
19. Think Big Picture
20. Don’t Wait for Deadlines
21. Exceed Expectations

Read full article here.

This lovely article was found on L#mce_temp_url#ifehack and I believe that it has a lot to teach us about children’s intentions when it comes to certain behaviours.

• When our children repeat a request for their favourite story to be read, it is because they have an innate interest in ‘mastery’.
• Discipline is another area in which children innately crave mastery.
• The best thing parents can do is to learn a simple methodology for discipline, get trained to use it and then apply it consistently.
• One can liken children’s feelings to the experience of hiking down a trail with very few trail signs or markers.

Read the full article here.

Naima, a good friend sent me several emails regarding television and I have to say I agree with most, if not all the points presented. I do believe in visual media, but uncensored programming and advertising seems to be a huge detriment in today’s society. As I look back to my own childhood, much of my bad behaviour could be attributed to the influence TV had in my life. From storming off to wherever when I got annoyed to yelling back at my parents and outright being disrespectful…I learned it all from watching other kids my age behave in such a way on TV.

I did NOT write the following, I’m taking this from an email circulating around the web. If anyone knows its origins, kindly contact me so that I may properly attribute the authors.

Almost half of U.S. kids spend at least two hours a day watching TV. While this may sound harmless enough, numerous studies have come out showing that TV is definitely taking its toll on American children.

For instance, a study in the April 2004 journal Pediatrics found that every added hour of watching TV increased a child’s odds of having attention problems at age 7 by about 10 percent. Those who watched for three hours a day between the ages of 1 and 3 were 30 percent more likely to have attention trouble at age 7 than those viewing no TV.

The notion that kids watch far too much TV is a no-brainer, literally. My strong recommendation is to minimize TV watching to no more than a few hours per WEEK, as a short attention span is only the beginning of the problem with TV. Here are some of the other negatives of kids watching TV:

• TV will change your child’s views and food choices
• TV will make your kids fat
• Make your kids more materialistic
• Cause your children to go into more debt as adults
• TV will cause your children to be more aggressive
• May lead to smoking
• Will increase your child’s risk of becoming seriously injured

Although you may be accustomed to turning on the TV to entertain your kids (or yourself), there are many other options out there. Here are 20 to get you started.

I’m happy to say that I do not own a TV. A small investment in a DVD player and my laptop are all that I need in order to expose my children to programming that I deem suitable, and to be rid of those terrible advertisements designed to affect their consumer choices. I know that many will disagree, but I am merely presenting one option among many. What do you think?