Articles

The Mars and Venus of Parenting

2009-07-06T19:08:00-08:00

Before we married our respective wives, Steve and I were bosom buddies. We were single Silicon Valley entrepreneurs with lots of points of view and friends in common. Today, we both have young boys, so we still share lots in common in our everyday lives. However, as it turns out, we’re the Mars and Venus of parenting. Steve’s boys swim on a club team and have numerous ribbons from competitions. My boys haven’t had a whiff of organized sports and don’t know how to swim. On the other hand, I make sure they play vigorously outside in our neighborhood every day. …

San Francisco Chronicle Article on my Front Yard, Camp Yale

2009-07-05T19:03:01-08:00

The San Francisco Chronicle ran a big feature article on my front yard and Camp Yale. Check it out on the Chron’s web site, sfgate.com. I’ll be writing a series of articles soon on the yard’s features, how we use it, and what we did at Camp Yale, but this article presents a pretty good overview.

Children Deserve the Promise of the Declaration of Independence

2009-07-04T05:42:00-08:00

[Note: I originally published this article last year around Independence Day. I’ll publish it every year until I start to get some screaming agreement from parents and/or kids. ; ) ] Children’s rights to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” are at a low point in America. Parents highly restrict their children’s freedom to go outside and play, both directly by limiting their ability to roam outside and indirectly by filling up their schedules with adult-led structured activities. Most schools have either eliminated recess or severely restrict it, and they also …

An Old Fashioned Capitalist Summer

2009-06-29T23:36:00-08:00

My kids are mostly free range in the summer. Other than two weeks in sleepover camp for the older two, they do basically nothing all summer long - well, actually they do quite a bit - but adults have little to do with it. Today, my 9 y.o. and her friend put together a lemonade stand. Each cup was “$.50.” However, the sign had very small writing in parentheses in the bottom corner saying “Or $.25 if you prefer.” They hoped that no one would notice the fine print in the bottom corner. They were equipped with my crystal pitcher (which I reluctantly donated b/c my daughter wanted a …

My Three Sons

2009-06-26T00:02:00-08:00

Boy #3 arrived last week on Tuesday, June 16. He was four weeks early, so he’s small and sleeps almost all the time, but he’s healthy. My wife Perla’s doing well, too. His name is Leonardo, but we’ll call him Leo. His brothers are very curious and excited about their new playmate, as you can see from the photo.

Playborhood Signs Go on Sale!!!

2009-06-17T16:24:00-08:00

Make a statement to your neighbors! Better yet, make a statement to potential neighbors considering buying or renting a house in your neighborhood! Tell them that you want your neighborhood to be a Playborhood by posting a Playborhood sign in front of your house. Press the big button in the right column to buy one (or two or three) today!

Video Games That Make You Run, Talk Face-to-Face, and Explore the Environment

2009-06-15T07:44:00-08:00

I caught a glimpse of the future of mobile phone games this past weekend at the Come Out and Play Festival in New York City last weekend, and I’m very excited. I played six “location aware mobile games” that made me run and walk like crazy, talk to dozens of people, and explore nooks and crannies of New York that I never would have seen otherwise. In other words, playing these games made me more physically fit, more social (face-to-face), and far more aware of the physical environment that surrounded me. This is the polar opposite of the effects of today’s video games on children, …

Making Digital Technology a Part of Outdoor Play

2009-06-12T23:49:01-08:00

Pretty much all of my colleagues in the movement to advocate outdoor play recommend that parents restrict their children’s digital technology activities. “Pull the Plug!” is their common refrain. I agree that large amounts of sedentary, solitary use of digital technology (e.g. hours sitting alone in front of a screen) is bad for kids, and takes away from time that they could be spending outdoors playing. However, as Don Tapscott points out in Grown Up Digital, digital technology is like air to children of today. In other words, it’s such an integral part of children’s lives that …

Childhood Summers are Dead. Let’s Bring Them Back!

2009-06-04T07:31:00-08:00

To those of us who think of childhood summers as carefree times for neighborhood fun, free of schedules and direct adult authority, children have no summers anymore. Sure, school still ends every June and the weather still gets hot (except in San Francisco ; ), but neighborhoods are no longer filled with children’s yelps and laughter on summer days. In fact, for the most part, they’re completely dead, as dead as they are during school days in the winter. Of all the unfortunate aspects of childhood in 21st Century America, this fact depresses me more than anything else. So for two …

Front Porches Make a Comeback - Will Neighborhood Socializing Follow?

2009-05-28T01:26:00-08:00

Until the last few decades, front porches and stoops were the fertile breeding grounds of American neighborhood life. When the weather was warm enough, families passed every evening there. Porches are the subject of fond nostalgic books like The American Porch. When my father and I recorded a video about his childhood of play, we started on his old front stoop. This was also the setting of Chaz Palmentieri’s wonderful play and movie, A Bronx Tale. Porches and stoops are a midway point between a family’s private life and its public life. While they’re on the private property of the …