 |
My mum was always telling me to stop reading. 
|   | Subject: 50 things to do before you are 12
Posted Apr 17, 2012 by  KB
This is a reply to this Posting.
| | Post: 82
|
I can imagine how that row went. 
"But Ma, in the economic and philosophic manuscripts of 1844, Marx said books are brilliant!"
Pretty much.
>I think the problem comes when you have too much of one and not enough of the other<
Good point KB.
I went to spending all my time locked away in my bedroom with the microscope and chemistry set and reading, also starting to write poetry..well there's not much to do in suburbia. Also built a radio with bits from the market.
Defo balance is needed..and kids needs taken seriously in terms of their personalities as well..not just what adults assume is good for them to be moulded into.
Difficult though, to make that* balance, if one's stuck in the middle of a city/town, with no access to the countryside or much in the way of outside activities, and of course when/where money is of an issue and so one can't just spend ten zillion pounds for the train fare to the nearest bit of countryside, just for a day out...   I'm so lucky where I was born, a kinda small town, near a larger city, by the beach, and the fens, with woods and countryside and farmland all about, but plenty of city/town stuff too not a million miles away... Most of my youth was spent fishing, by the sea, canoeing, hiking, cycling and just messing about over the river/marshes, woods and on the beach... and if not, it was solo activities inside, TV, books, making models, painting, early computer fiddling about with, drawing etc., etc.,   Though perhaps in some way, I see and now know those who were bought up in* big citys, and realise that they had a whole set of thigns I've never had and never will, museums, etc., gallarys, etc., but, then again, they've probably not done a lot of the outdoor stuff I did, ... 
Yeah and you can study in the field. I learnt a lot about insects from observing..especially ants...you see the ecosystem in practice. Also fossil collecting.
Museums and books are great..but you need the practical as well to bring it alive.
I like the sound of your childhood 2legs.
| | Subject: 50 things to do before you are 12
Posted Apr 18, 2012 by Mr603
This is a reply to this Posting.
| | Post: 87
|
"well there's not much to do in suburbia."
I grew up in suburbia too. With a cigarette lighter and some rocks, you can make a day of it.
| | Subject: 50 things to do before you are 12
Posted Apr 19, 2012 by Anancygirl
This is a reply to this Posting.
| | Post: 88
|
Not much to do in suburbia I remember liberating scap wood from building sites to build tree houses. I would set out with or with out friends to have all day adventures at 8:00 am and be back at dinner time. We got to be feral kids! My poor Mom, she so wanted a daughter who liked girl things; however ! I think there may even be support to advocate unsupervised play for offspring. I will get to let my granddaughter play in the wild woods, and enjoy all the freedom that I did in the dim dark past I.e. the early sixties. I did curse my daughter that she would have a daughter just like me my Mom did the same curse on me
I think that growing in the countryside is the best for a child.
So, more than a list of things... just "release the little beast" into the wild as often as you can, and they will know what to do.
Iīm sure my life would have been pretty miserable if my parents had emigrated to towns, industrial towns, as other relatives did in the 60s.
They stayed in the village. We had a self-subsistence economy: domestic animals and orchard, picking of what each season would offer for free,like wild mushrooms, almonds, asparragus and other edible plants. Also my father would bring some rabbit or hare. My mother made cheese and yoghourt...
I didnīt have toys, I remember myself always longing for a doll or a bicycle... but I had animals, and my favourite ones to play with, dogs. I also had the entire village and its surroundings to play with my friends. That freedom is joy of living.
I feel fortunate for having lived all that. I know that my passion for plants, orchards, nature... comes from that time. Childhood prints you for ever, for good and for bad. My balance is positive.
Having a walk in the countryside is one of the most pleasurable things for me. At some occasions, those walks have saved me from deep sadness.
| | Subject: 50 things to do before you are 12
Posted Apr 20, 2012 by Storm
This is a reply to this Posting.
| | Post: 90
|
There tends to be an idea that 'a perfect childhood' exists and that one size fits all. Often we assume this is countryside/outside based.
I was talking to a friend last night about cycling and she said...I had a bike when I was a kid but it was stolen. Best thing that ever happened to me...
It really made me think.
I can relate to your post Maria..aside from having any interest in dolls..but yes live animals and soft toys when I was much younger..I've still got them..a small wooly teddy, a grey and white cat and a panda...they are looking a bit past it though..
Itīs great you still have those toys Effers
I guess that you can evoque joyful feelings.
I have a box where I keep things of my daughter, since she was a baby. I think she will like to have it later.
I love toys, but Iīm never sure whether itīs because they are lovable or because of my lack of them. I get furious when my daughter mistreat her dolls...
::
Storm,
On idylic childhoods... I guess they have to do, in part, with what
you expect and what you get. What you expect is something that
may come from outside your family, so sometimes it can be really frustrating. For instance,Christmas was one of the most sad times for me. It was a relief to know that The Three Wise Men, were actually, my parents.
Living in a village may be also quite hard. Iīll spare you the details... What I said was that my balance is positive and that being in contact with nature is the best, for anyone, but for children, itīs still better.
| | Subject: 50 things to do before you are 12
Posted Apr 20, 2012 by Alfster
This is a reply to this Posting.
| | Post: 93
|
Kick a bobby in the balls...doubt whether you'd get a custodial sentence for doing that and it would be off your records before having to apply for any jobs...
Well fair's fair. If a bobby kicks *you* in the balls, chances are nothing will happen at all.
| | Subject: Posting Hidden
Posted Apr 20, 2012
This is a reply to this Posting.
| | Post: 95
|
This Posting has been hidden during moderation because it broke the House Rules in some way. You can find out more about moderation on h2g2 here.
Just started reading the NT and had to  at downloading a pdf for building a den safely.
We built our 'camp' on some derelict land and regularly had it smashed up by the boys. There was all sorts of junk about and I ended up whacked around the head with an iron pipe. Never did me any harm
| | Subject: 50 things to do before you are 12
Posted May 28, 2012 by quotes
This is a reply to this Posting.
| | Post: 98
|
A local man died whilst rescuing children on the weekend, and this was tagged onto the bottom of the story. The NT might suggest kids should do wild-swimming, but the police advise against it.
"A number of other water-related deaths during the spell of good weather have led to police warnings over the dangers of cooling off in open water.
The body of a 21-year-old man was found on Sunday morning in Caldecotte Lake, Milton Keynes, after he went missing while swimming the day before.
Detective Sergeant Ian Jarvis, the officer in charge of the case, said: "While it might be tempting to swim in lakes and rivers during this hot weather, there are hidden dangers under the water and so we would advise against doing so."
In further incidents, Nicholas Smith, 23, died after getting into difficulty while swimming near a waterfall in Linn Park, Glasgow, and a 22-year-old died while swimming at a disused quarry at Ballykelly, County Kildare, in Ireland.
http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16236287
Near where I grew up there was a large stream/small river, about 20ft across and 4ft deep in places. There was also a weir where the water pooled to about 100ft across and goodness knows how deep. The pool had an abandoned car in it and numerous shopping trolleys. This was the part where all our parents warned us not to go and where, it was rumoured, many kids had drowned.
Guess where the most popular part of the river was?
At the mouth of a river was a bridge where kids would jump into the shallows. The more foolhardy would dive in and everybody knew someone who had hit his head on the bottom (including my dad, who still has the scar). The authorities built a swimming baths with flumes and diving boards barely 100 yards away but yesterday, as I drove by, there must have been two dozen young boys jumping and diving off the bridge.
Seems to me the NT should have just published a list of 50 things that kids should not be allowed to do "'cos they're bad m'kaay" and it would have had the original desired effect.
|  | Subject: 50 things to do before you are 12
Posted May 28, 2012 by Storm
This is a reply to this Posting.
| | Post: 100
|
Teaching children to manage risk is important. There is an argument that we remove risk from children's lives to the extent that children don't know how to manage risks. When I went to New Zealand a lot of the playgrounds had gravel rather than bouncy surfaces and I didn't see anyone fall off the climbing frame.
When considering economic theory we talk about the concept of moral hazard; the idea being that people assume something is regulated and so don't consider the risks themselves. 'Oh look 204% return on a Nigerian investment bond- why not?'
I definitely think wild swimming needs to be carefully managed and discussed. I've been to river swimming clubs (such as the Farleigh and District club near Bath) which have idenetified safe swimming areas. There are also places I allow my son to swim supervised within his depth.
http://www.stowfordmanorfarm.co.uk/swimming.php
Please note that Not Panicking Ltd is not responsible for the content of any external sites listed. The content on h2g2 is created by h2g2's Researchers, who are members of the public. Unlike Edited Guide Entries, the content on this page has not necessarily been checked by a h2g2 editor. In the event that you consider anything on this page to be in breach of the site's House Rules, please
click here
.
|
