ArcaMax

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood -- Queens, New York. I'm walking by one of the local elementary schools and slow down to watch the girls doing cartwheels at recess. Over and over, they practice -- proof that in free play, kids learn frustration tolerance and focus. That's why I'm such a fan.

I stop to watch another gaggle of kids ...Read more

Increased academic pressure and testing in kindergarten is bringing everyone to tears -- including the teachers.

When evolutionary psychologist Peter Gray wrote a piece for his Psychology Today blog about kindergarten teachers in Brookline, Massachusetts, protesting dwindling recess time and mandated 90-minute reading and writing blocks, he ...Read more

Got a mule handy? Great! Because I've been flipping through old parenting magazines I should throw out already, looking for valuable advice.

Instead, here's what I found: a list of items one article suggests you take along if you're traveling to, say, your brother-in-law's house for a long weekend with your baby:

--A portable crib

--A baby ...Read more

What a pervert!

Tuesday afternoon a week ago, a woman in Arlington, Virginia, saw a man taking pictures of some children and just KNEW what she was witnessing: A creep on the prowl for kids with his camera. Disgusting.

Quickly she alerted a security guard and, according to a subsequent police report, told him she believed the man was ...Read more

Two years and nine months. That's the age of the first child we watch going on an errand by himself in the new Netflix series, "Old Enough!"

How can someone that young possibly walk half a mile alongside a highway, cross a big street and navigate a supermarket?

Simple. He lives in Japan. In that country, parents proudly let their kids walk to ...Read more

If you're a parent, it's time to think summer safety ... even though it's only spring. That's safety tip No. 1: Plan ahead!

Summer safety starts at home and sometimes doesn't leave it for days at a time because, face it, it's just not safe out there. Especially in the summer!

But you can outsmart that sizzling season with these helpful tips ...Read more

I guess it shouldn't come as a big surprise that the mosquito looms large in Native American mythology.

Sort of like the mosquito looming large in my bathroom right now.

I just climbed on the toilet to try to kill it, but of course, it zoomed straight down, practically begging me to lunge for it, break my ankle and spend the rest of the spring...Read more

Colorado kids should be getting on their sneakers. Thanks to their state legislators, they will soon be able to play outside, stay home alone a bit, and enjoy some freedom without their parents worrying this could get them investigated for neglect.

On Tuesday, the Colorado Senate followed the lead of the House and passed the "Reasonable ...Read more

The signs on every playground in my city, New York, say this: "Playground rules prohibit adults except in the company of children."

Apparently, any adult who simply wants to watch kids at play could be a creep, so let's just ban 'em all. Trust has been replaced by disgust.

There was a case here a few years back when seven chess players playing...Read more

Think of the Talmud as the Jewish sort of Guide to Life, an ancient text written by rabbis chewing over the thorniest issues for hundreds of years. I mention it today because it's almost as if the Talmud writers understood what would happen if we watched TV or surfed the internet.

They knew it would drive us wild with worry. From the ...Read more

Not everyone shares my hobby but let me put it out there. It's grocery shopping.

Nothing I enjoy more. But if I'm tingling every time I wander down the cereal aisle hoping that Kellogg's just might have scored another home run like Krave cereal (basically, wafer cookie meets chocolate mousse meets "breakfast"), I can't help wondering who's ...Read more

Dale Farran spent a decade studying over 1,000 kids who went to a state-run pre-kindergarten -- and a control group of kids that wanted to, but didn't get in. She is shocked and dismayed by what she discovered:

By 6th grade the pre-K kids were doing worse all around: worse reading, math and science scores; more learning disorders; and more ...Read more