the wonder-room, april 2025
what kids who aren't screen-obsessed zombies do: some links
Dear fellow wonderer,
Welcome to April's cabinet of curiosities.1 This month we've been pushing back against the notion that kids are all screen-affixed zombies and talking instead about cool stuff they're doing away from screens.
And on that theme, some links!
I will forever be pointing you toward the work of Lenore Skenazy, author of the classic handbook Free-Range Kids, and her organization Let Grow, which promotes childhood independence. The Let Grow Experience challenges kids to come up with something they want to do entirely on their own--and to do it! How I love this video of kids doing their stuff.
If you or someone you know has babies or toddlers, this newsletter from Danielle at Ordinary Animals on not giving them a smartphone is fantastic--and a great way to help them become kids who play and do. Rather than shaming, the article offers solid reasoning, plus alternatives. For instance: just add water!
I've been thinking of all the stuff I did as a kid, both on my own and with friends. Often, ideas came from books--the flying lady show and playing Mirror Palace came from Betsy-Tacy books, my faves, and I learned from others, like The Reader’s Digest Book of Things to Make and Do, how to make Swedish pancakes and slam-books and fruit leather and game spinners and…
Another big inspiration was the classic ‘70s PBS show ZOOM. This Rebecca Onion piece in Slate lays out why it was so unique for its time. A show that encouraged independence and fun for kids, it really did seem to be run by kids, though it was obviously produced by adults. (Fun fact: as a kid, author and 2025 Guggenheim fellow Jonathan Lethem got his start when his submitted story made it on the show.) ZOOM was low-key and the projects were simple and do-able--check out this online exhibit of artifacts--and my friends and I tubotubally lubearned tubo spubeak Ubbi Dubbi and sent in our SASEs for ZOOM project cards. Inspired by the show, my best friend Tracy and I had a "yogurt party," including a mysterious tape-recorded invitation that we played when our friends answered the phone, but we got in big trouble with her mom for having the party without parental permission after we shrinky-dinked yogurt lids in the oven with no adults present. Oh, that smell of melting plastic...
Because I can never write a post about kid independence without linking something from play researcher Peter Gray, here's a good one about what kids learn from other kids when adults aren't around.
My kids didn't have ZOOM, but they had Klutz books, Klutz books on Klutz books. Here are some of the most popular ones from the '90s, of which we seemingly owned most, the clay one consulted most often. Previously mentioned best friend Tracy still has a little glass in her family room full of colorful clay marbles my kids made one Christmas. Although my third kid, the Gen Z kid, was not into making things, but loved making ideas, and was really into what he called "nifty facts," of which there are five intriguing ones about Klutz books at the end of that post.
Looking for photos of kids’ forts, I was dismayed to see mostly links for kits and plans for helping kids make forts. KIDS DON’T NEED HELP MAKING FORTS! JUST LET KIDS MAKE FORTS! I had to scroll way down to find this interview with David Sobel, an authority on kids’ fort-making. It lays out why fort-building is so important, and how we can support kids in their efforts—while letting them build on their own. And yes, it includes photos of actual kid-built forts.
I'd still really love to hear what the kids in your life are doing, aside from screens. Or creatively on screens! Or share links of other busy kids you've come across! In the comments here, or on the original post.
Treasure of the month: Remember how last month I mentioned “Story Time” for Caregivers, a reading series for caregivers with babes-in-arms--with books aimed not at the babies but the caregivers--offered by writer Nicole Haroutunian in Queens, and how I longed to bring such a series to the Bay Area? I’m working on getting this underway and I have the most perfect bookstore willing to help if I can get a lineup in place! If you’re a writer—or know a writer—with a book with a caregiving theme or thread who might want to share that book with an audience of caregivers and babies, reach out! The book doesn’t have to be a current release. I’m especially interested in finding local writers to plump up a monthly schedule, but if you’re not local and will be coming through on a book tour or otherwise, please let me know. Let’s make this happen!
Truly,
Patricia
AKA wunderkammer or room of wonder. More about this personal fascination in my first wonder-room.
Hey fellow shrinky dinker!
Thinking way back to my childhood we used to play with fashion plates, numerous board games like Trouble, Aggravation, Perfection (I was good at that one), Uno, Monopoly, Life, Operation. We made cootie catchers, which you know I am loving to make right now, played MASH (mansion, apartment, shack, house), two-square, tether ball, and also choreographed routines to songs by Shaun Cassidy or Captain and Tennille. We even made routines on swing sets before aerial dancing was a thing. Remember cat's cradle? I have a loop of yarn in my purse right now for the very thing in case I find someone who knows how to play.
My first home was at the top of a cul-de-sac and there were always kids outside riding bikes, roller skating, or looking for a game of tag. The home I grew up in during pre-teen to early-teen years was in a remote and rural Butte County town and we'd play Man Hunt. It was similar to Hide-And-Go-Seek, but only one person hid and the rest of the kids went searching for them at night, dressed in camo, where the entire neighborhood was the boundary.
We walked. We walked everywhere and even through people's properties to take short cuts. I remember walking a lot with friends at my side. We'd walk to the tennis courts at the high school and play for hours during the sweltering summers. We'd walk to the corner store for junk food and then hit up the movie rental place for these giant record-sized cd's.
Currently, I have a 14 year old student in my sewing class who shows up every week super-hyped about making something he saw on Tik Tok. I don't know if he's obsessed with screens, but I do know he spends a lot of his free time deconstructing clothes and upcycling them. He came to class last night with a commissioned project. He's altering a pair of his friend's jeans using African mud cloth.
Two of my homeschool sewing students are making things to sell at a craft fair. Two other students who happen to share a backyard fence and are besties, are sewing things for their lemonade stand. I love a good lemonade stand or a craft fair!
I do wonder how much free time kids these days get. I remember summer break lasted forever. Now everything whizzes by. I don't have time for boredom anymore. I wish more kids did.
Patricia, I JUST yesterday looked up the Betsy-Tacy books because I was thinking about how much they meant to me as a kid. I need to re-read. Also let me know how I can help bring "Story Time for Caregivers" to life <3