Where have all the children gone?

Afterreading this http://playborhood.com
I did my own informal watch. I drive to work approximately 25 minutes and on this trip I glanced back and forth when I passed houses. I looked for swingsets. I passed probably 10 or 12. Some I know are there and see all the time some were set further back and yet until I started counting them it never occurred to me that I have NEVER seen one kid on those swingsets.
The drive I take is the same route I have taken for years on and off. I pass beautiful homes with those nice wooden swingsets in the back. Some just have a single swing in a tree for a toddler and with the exception of one birthday party I saw a few years ago which consisted of a moon walk I never see the kids outside.

I do see them walking in town on their way home from school with back packs in tow. They are in groups heading off the bagel store for an afterschool snack and are probably middle school age and high school.
I see the smaller kids at the park when the weather gets nice and we head to our local park for climbing and sandbox digging but never do I see kids riding their bikes furiously down the street or playing in their front yard.
There is an advertisement in the magazine, "Wondertime" for the children's TV show, Clifford. A little girl is peeking out from a tree and behind her is The Big Red Dog and the caption reads, You could tell her about the big outdoors or let her experience it"
I am reasonably certain that a better way to experience the big outdoors is to actually go out in them and play and not watch cartoon animals doing it for you.
That might just be me though.
I can say however, that I do see 2 kids who play outside whenever it isn't really cold or lightening out.
I let my kids play in the rain in the mud , dig for worms climb trees.
The sad thing is it's just us.

From Amelia Bedelia to Henry Berg.....

you may recognize the Easy reader confused easily character of Amelia Bedelia. She is the housekeeper who mixes just about everything up that is asked of her. When asked to put out the lights, she literally brings the light bulbs outside for some air.
The early books by the original author, Peggy Parish are silly and and fun to read. Johanna loves them. I tire of them easily but they do make her laugh.
Within their silliness there is a lesson of homonyms/phones and Johanna loves to point them out. The later books written by her nephew miss the mark sometimes as they seem to be trying to make point or prove a school of thought. In Amelia Bedelia the bookworm it seems the author is trying to teach kids to love to read instead of just having fun at the library with Amelia Bedelia.
I grant him a little slack though b/c he did keep the character alive after his aunt, Peggy Parish dies. He was never a writer and only wanted to keep the books alive.
Now that is an easy reader that kind of has me as the teacher. I do the reading Johanna learns and recognizes homophones/nyms and since the books were written ad illustrated by 2 different people over time Johanna tries to figure out who the author or illustrator was based on comparisons.
So that's a lot of learning in one style of book and we certainly don't stick to one style.
However, I was surprised when I picked up an easy reader at the library titled, The Man who loved animals.
I started to glance through b/c Johanna loves animals and the titled sounded like something she would enjoy.

As I started to read I was compelled to keep reading b/c this was not some silly easy reader with the same words over and over.
This was simple book with simple language but it was factual. I sat there in the kids section while my kids colored and *I* learned about Henry Berg.
I had never heard of him but he is the man who created animal and child protection laws. He founded the ASPCA and created laws against beating both animals and children.
When I read it to Johanna I do edit out the part where people used to drown puppies for a dime but I leave the rest in.
We read about how people worked horses too hard and Henry berg made water fountains for the horses in the street. We see an illustration of people being shocked when Henry Berg tells them , "they get thirsty too"
Johanna's favorite part though is when Henry Berg gives the kids puppies and kittens and says, "Kids have the kindest hearts and make the best pet owners"
So as I have been promised by all the homeschooling books..we are all learning together.
Stay tuned for how I learned to make paper boats!

or they could sit at a desk!

These are my kids learning about bees. We saw the inside of the hive which includes the cells and the honey comb.
Mike brought the hive home for the kids dissect and they had a blast.
In the flood pictures you can see the paper boats that we (read, "I") made and the kids floated them out in the gigantic puddle that rose up in front of the apartment.