My kids had a great time playing this weekend. At the recommendation of a friend, we tried a new playground. Granted, we had to drive a little further than we normally do, but the results were well worth it. At this new playground, guess what we found – kids! And plenty of them. Often times, [...]
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This week the New York Times ran an article about Admongo.gov, a media literacy campaign aimed at 4th through 6th graders (In a World of Ads, Teaching the Young How to Read Them, April 27th). After reading the article, and checking out the website, I was moved to write the following letter to the [...]
With Earth day events happening this week and this weekend, it is the perfect time to plug open-ended, imaginative play. For children, the simplest toys are the best toys. Usually, this translates into being good for the environment as well. With just a little imagination, empty yogurt containers become musical instruments, toilet [...] Incredible. Inspiring. Energizing. Those are just a few words to describe the 7th Annual Consuming Kids Summit in Boston this weekend. Hosted by the unflagging Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (you may remember they were forced out of their home after taking on Disney and Baby Einstein), the success of this summit is testimony that [...] It is easy to feel small and powerless when corporations like Disney bully and try to silence watchdogs and advocates such as Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (see story in yesterday’s NY Times). The small staff at CCFC works tirelessly on a small annual budget of $250,000, protecting childhood from corporate encroachment, yet have been [...] “THE BRAWL BEGINS AT WWW.BAKUGAN-VIDEOGAME.COM,” reads the enticing invitation. “WIN A BAKUGAN VIDEO GAME AND NINTENDO Wii!” Driving in the car last week, one of my sons declared, “Mom, I learned about a new dot com today. Bakugan dot com. You can watch videos and play games.” I paused, then asked, “Where did you learn [...] Yesterday the Toy Industry Association announced its nominees for the Toys of The Year Award for 2009. It is the tenth year of these awards. From their press release: “The TOTY Awards celebrate the creativity and innovation of the toy industry and the products on the ballot represent this year’s ‘best of the best’ as [...] The good news is that Common Sense Media has changed their recommendations for toddler Halloween costumes. Yea! I wrote to the editor today and heard back quickly. She agreed that Harry Potter and Star Wars (PG and PG-13) were not good ideas for toddler costumes, and thanked me for pointing out their mistake. She made [...] Outstanding news this week from Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood – BusRadio has shut their doors! If you’ve never heard of BusRadio, excellent! If you have, then you know they were making money exploiting kids riding to and from school. Talk about a captive audience! I had the chance to listen to some of the [...] The folks at Baby Einstein are at it again – manipulating parents into buying products that are downright bad for babies. The American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended no screen time for children under two years of age. And a well publicized study out of the University of Washington established that babies who spend [...] |
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