| As I read this piece, I thought a lot about how my childhood differs from my sons'. Our school playground in my tiny Western Pennsylvania town consisted of broken concrete, metal bars, a few swings. Compared to the playgrounds my sons grew up with, mine was dingy and dangerous. But I also lived in an area of wide open spaces, woods and farms that allowed me to disappear for hours on adventures, sometimes with friends, sometimes with a book or journal. I had a childhood filled with space to imagine and create and play. Growing up in the city, my kids had less of that — but not when it came to the playgrounds we discovered. A giant form that I first thought was just a fun climbing net connected to a slide is actually shaped like an elephant. It took me forever to realize it, and when I did, my kids were astonished I hadn't known it from the start. That, right there, connected me immediately to this story. Our children need to have a space to learn, to grow, to play. To argue and get hurt. To imagine and thrive. The playgrounds of the past (I can still feel that school nurse scrubbing the gravel out of my skinned knee with what I swear was a wire brush!) don't fit with today's world. Our children can tell us that, and they have. Read on to see what it means to be a child today and how their play spaces matter. And the art! Oh, the art here of drawings children made that were turned into real play structures. What a dream.
Speaking of outdoor play, we have this piece about the fires and smoke and how we parents can manage. And it's early yet, but you can come on over and ask questions of our parenting advice columnist, Meghan Leahy. She'll answer as much as she can July 12 at 11 a.m.
Have a wonderful weekend, all. I hope it's a long one as you celebrate the Fourth. | New York Times best-selling duo Mac Barnett & Jon Klassen deliver perfectly paced, wry stories that entertain children and adults alike. Shape Island, based on the book characters, is now streaming on Apple TV+. | | | | | |
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