Don't miss Darragh Johnson's article in today's Washington Post: A Kid's Reality. Here's a taste:
"It is secret worlds and fantastic possibilities. It is the upending of dining room chairs and stealing cushions from the sofa and erecting a fort whose back wall is a blanket and front door is a faded beach towel. No adults allowed, and the younger brother can play, too, only if he stays on hands and knees and barks like a guard dog."
In an online chat that accompanies the article, William Corsaro, a professor of sociology at Indiana University, takes some good questions about the interaction of video games, technology, overscheduled lives and building in time for free play.
I wish there was an easy way to zoom back in time and get a real picture of how children played before the days of TV and videogames - a picture that isn't colored by nostalgia or restricted to middle- to upper-class children. But I completely relate to the yearning for those bygone days of summer, when my best friend and I would roam the neighborhood by bike, spying on the boys, storming their forts, and writing in secret code. I know it may be hard, but I want to do everything I can to make sure my girls have the same feelings of freedom as they grow up.
1:17:53 PM 
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