Hanna Rosin’s excellent and in depth article looks at why a preoccupation with safety has stripped childhood of independence, risk taking, and discovery, without actually making it any safer. Rosin notes, most parents today remember their own childhoods as quite different from the way their children are growing up. Aware that she is not adverse to being a constant presence in her own children’s lives, Rosin takes her 5 year old son Gideon to ‘The Land’ – an adventure playground with a difference in North Wales – where children make the rules, parents are nowhere to be seen and fire making is an every day occurrence.

View Post View Link

Host Robert Siegel interviews author Hanna Rosin about the downside to parents micro-managing their children’s physical and emotional risks. She discusses the drastic change in parental supervision over a single generation and the effect it is having on children’s ability to grow up into healthy, capable adults. Contains discussion around ‘The Land’ – an adventure playground in Wales where children are allowed to light their own fires and are in full control of the typography without a parent in sight.

View Post View Link

Length: 8m : 09s

Subject Area: Risk, supervision

With many modern playgrounds becoming more sterile, overprotected areas of parent-directed play, children are less likely to be enthused, active or impressed with the idea of getting outside.
Now there is a movement to create play spaces that challenge kids physically and socially, putting children in charge of their own play. Playspace designer, author and speaker Rusty Keeler outlines the benefits of ‘adventure’ style playgrounds and why letting your children build what their imagination dreams up (without critiquing every move) may increase their creativity and improve their mental capacity.

View Post View Link

Blogger Michael Lanza, former Northwest Editor of Backpacker Magazine, created this blog with the simple mission: to offer stories, photos, and expert trip-planning advice on the world’s best outdoor adventures—including many that are great for families. Full of very experienced advice for your outdoor adventures including 10 tips for raising outdoors loving kids, 10 tips for getting your teenagers outdoors with you, and the author’s 10 rules for adventure travel.

View Post View Link