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• Clay Aiken ain't no fruit

  Far be it from me to imply that Clay Aiken is anything less than muy macho. But, you know, there have been those nasty rumors, which led to threats of a lawsuit from his devoted fan base, who are known as the Claymates. (Really. They call themselves Claymates, and one of them tried to sue Clay over rumors that he was homosexual. Don't you feel normal now?) So perhaps -- and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with this, you know -- Clay's recent actions are fueled by a desire to "butch it up, Mary" as the saying goes. First: he impregnates a woman. This is a clear sign of masculinity. I mean, try doing that if you're... Read More... Posted Jun 03 2008, 04:00 PM by Brett Singer with | with no comments Filed under: boy, news, Sex, pregnant, paparazzi, family, play, daddy, American Idol, baby daddy, gossip, anger, rumors, parent, TMZ, girl, son, Brett Singer, broadway, idol, clay aiken, spamalot, woman, david foster, it's a boy, people magazine, impregnanted, seacrest, friend, AOL, lady, claiken, male, jaymes foster, fameclaiken, artificially, having a son, spermalot, inseminated, musical, actor

• Breaking News: Clay Aiken might not be the father

  Could the whole "Clay Aiken can impregnate a woman without even touching her" news be a big fat stinkin' lie? The Calgary Herald is reporting that "several people close to" babymama Jaymes Foster are denying claims (clayms? Nope, not going there) that Aiken is the daddy. One Of The Signs Of The Apocalypse TMZ first reported that Aiken had artificially inseminated Foster, the sister of record producer David Foster, going on to say that, "Clay is a lot more than sperm -- we're told he will have an active role in raising the child." The story was picked up by roughly 12 million media outlets. BUT one of the so-called sources is denying... Read More... Posted Jun 03 2008, 09:30 AM by Brett Singer with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: boy, news, Sex, pregnant, paparazzi, family, play, daddy, American Idol, baby daddy, gossip, anger, rumors, parent, TMZ, girl, son, Brett Singer, broadway, idol, clay aiken, spamalot, woman, david foster, it's a boy, people magazine, impregnanted, seacrest, friend, AOL, lady, claiken, male, jaymes foster, fameclaiken, artificially, having a son, spermalot, inseminated, musical, actor, not the dad, b. j. cook, bj cook

• Goodbye Recess; Kids Don't Need Play

  An essay from the latest issue of Greater Good magazine talks about the disappearance of childhood play, and while I had heard all about kids sitting in front of their TVs or computers all day or kids getting roped into adult-led activities that will eventually earn them a spot on the PGA tour or get them into Yale, I was surprised to see recess was being axed at school after school. Recess. Kids can't even have a half hour during a 7-hour school day to burn off some steam? Is that what we've come to?   Read More... Posted May 09 2008, 10:29 AM by Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: play, development, smart kids, receess, dumb parents

• The Serious Side of Play

  I kept waiting to get my pat on the head this morning while I was reading the New York Times Magazine cover story on taking play seriously. I just knew I'd be congratulated for not overscheduling my children. The author was certain to conclude my kids' preschools were excellent choices -- devoid of any emphasis on academics and early reading and Suzuki violin classes as they were. But no pat. No congratulations. Likewise, no admonishments or wagging fingers that my children aren't being adequately enriched. What I learned from the piece is that there's still so much to learn about play -- why kids (and other animals) do it, what the benefits of play are, whether a lack of play harms, and whether totally undirected play is better than directed play (there's no evidence that it is!).   Read More... Posted Feb 17 2008, 06:01 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: research study, New York Times Magazine, play, child development, playing, NYTimes, importance of play

• Recess Should Be Work, Not Play

  Remember recess? At my school, recess was survival of the fittest. Or get out of their way. I avoided the ever-present game of dodgeball, and avoided getting kicked in the head by someone on the monkey bars, the people with perpetual blisters on their hands. Instead, with my other geeky friends I caught ladybugs or picked blades of grass or peeled twigs. Boy, recess was so much fun!  But now, some nosy adults want to step in and manage recess. No longer a semi-violent, Lord-of-the-Flies free-for-all, recess now is going to be a "golden opportunity to boost children's fitness"! Read More... Posted Sep 25 2007, 01:11 PM by Karen Murphy with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: kids, play, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Sports4Kids, recess

• Does Your Kid Have "Nature Deficit Disorder"?

  My favorite time of day is Story Time, where as a family we read a chapter from a book together. I mean, I read it. And because I'm the reader, I get to choose, and I learned long ago to please myself in this process. Right now we're reading a book about a family living in WWII-era Washington D.C. Ooh, sounds boring, huh? Actually it's quite good, and what I like best about it is that the family of five kids is largely left to its own devices most of the time, roaming the neighborhood or simply playing outside somewhere. I'm reminded of my own childhood when kids pretty much did the same: after breakfast you went out and came back for lunch. We walked to the candy store, to the toy store, to the pool, or we rode our bikes everywhere. We were outside all day. Weren't you? Read More... Posted Aug 26 2007, 01:15 PM by Karen Murphy with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: kids, television, play, nature deficit disorder, outdoors

• Let's Ban Academic Preschools: Kids Should Play

  I get a little sick inside when I hear about preschools that send homework home for three-year-olds. Homework? I think homework is ridiculous in first grade, let alone preschool. Since when did we decide to take the fun out of childhood? Kids in preschool should be allowed to play. Period. That's how kids learn, in case anyone forgot this. They learn through play: experimenting, trying new things, building their own minds. Through play they learn how to learn. Drilling kids this age on numbers or the alphabet gives them no long-term advantage, and in fact can just take the joy right out of learning. Learning for kids should be a joyous discovery, not a tedious rote drill. Read More... Posted Aug 10 2007, 12:28 PM by Karen Murphy with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: kids, preschool, toddlers, play, homework, academic preschools

• Adults Like to Play With Each Other, and Not THAT Way So Get Your Mind Out of that Gutter!

  Where I live, the only people playing on sports fields are usually under 5 feet tall. Their parents sit on bleachers or mill around at the edge of the field, talking to one another and sporadically yelling things at their kids. Wow. What a great time (yawn). Which is why I was so amazed in my recent vacation in Vancouver to see adults actually playing at a city neighborhood park. With one another! There was a large soccer game going on, mainly 20- and 30-somethings, but also some amazingly buff-looking 50- and 60-somethings, all playing together and seemingly having a wonderful time. There was also quite a lively game of cricket going on just down the field, and the whole park would resound with a roar whenever some apparently good play was made (the whole thing was a bit mystifying to me). But still...adults, playing. Together. And looking like they did it regularly, not just on annual beer-soaked occasions. Read More... Posted Jul 10 2007, 10:36 AM by Karen Murphy with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: games, vacation, play, soccer, kick ball, scavenger hunt, ultimate, frisbee, cricket, didge ball, parents who play, adult play, Vancouver

• Why You Need a Custom Wood Swing Set

  The house I grew up in had two rusty swings with splintery wood seats, next to a sandbox that my brother and I instinctively avoided because all the neighborhood cats instinctively didn't. That was it. If we wanted more, we went to the school yard next door, which mostly we didn't. Nobody had anything better and nobody missed it. But now! Ooh, play structures! Castles! Swinging bridges, eagles' nests and sky walks! Let's get our kids everything we never knew we needed when we were kids, shall we? You know, to make up for our own bleak love-starved childhoods? Yeah, I'm being ironic, because I do think these are really cool. Which is why I spent hours several summers ago painstakingly staining the wood that comprised  our own play structure, which STUPIDLY did not contain a swing, I mean, whose stupid idea was that? OF COURSE kids need swings, who would assume they didn't? Oh. Me. That's right. Because it's what I chose out of the endless number of semi-custom permutations available in our swanky wood play set thing. Read More... Posted Jul 09 2007, 05:38 PM by Karen Murphy with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: kids, play, wooden toys, playing outside, play structures, swing sets

• Scientists Play With Toys; I Want to be a Scientist

  When I was about 14, I was convinced I was going to be a research biologist. That occupation had everything I was looking for in a job then: I could work completely alone and wouldn't have to talk to or interact with anyone, perfect for my budding Goth persona; I could do "science stuff"; and I could probably play with test tubes and all. In short, the perfect job. But now I've found a better one: researchers at the University of Cambridge are using kid's toys to try to understand the evolution of weather patterns and the magnetohydrodynaics (huh? I dare you to say that three times fast!) of spinning stars and planets. Yeah, they're using, like, tops and stuff to learn about, uh, weather. And that other thing, magne-, magne-, yeah. That. (I totally would have KICKED ASS as a scientist!) Here's what they said about it: "Understanding the behaviour of spinning toys can teach us a lot about some of the fundamental principles of dynamics...Scientists take toys seriously." See? They totally want to play. Can you blame them?  Posted Jul 07 2007, 08:10 AM by Karen Murphy with | with no comments Filed under: play, science, scientists, Cambridge, weather, magnetohydrodynaics

• The Kids Need to Have Fun Too

  I know this has come up before, but are our children having enough fun? Between the playdates, sports practices, music lessons... I know they are all supposed to be fun, but kids need free time. Even Slate says so. This article also stresses the need for facilitated play and the need for kids to direct their own play. It is tough as a parent to find that balance. We need to teach our kids the basics - the ABC's, how to share, how to count, and these things take attention, but at the same if we spend all of our time talking to/at them, they won't be able to develop their own sense of imagination or their individual personalities. Add to that wanting to make your child cultured or having them excel at a particular sport or instrument... how do we find the right equilibrium? Posted Jun 22 2007, 04:08 PM by Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: kids, Slate, play, fun

• Does Pooping While Playing Count as Multi-Tasking for Kids?

  When it comes to focus, I admit, I am not the best mama role model. I can't get through an episode of American Idol without IMing and I even (gasp) get up every few minutes from Play-Do to refresh the old in-box. I need the radio on while I drive and motherhood has made a master at putting on make-up while wiping a tush and talking on the phone to my single friends who actually wait for their mascara to dry in between coats. We all know that if we did one thing at a time, our kids would never get to school, we'd never answer work emails and we would really never see the outside world. So is all this multi-tasking modeling the reason our tots are engaging in several activities at once, causing marketers to the mini-set to pump their fists and awkardly slap high-fives across cubicles? Are our kids natural over-stimulators or is multi-tasking a new skill set for the toddlers on up? A report to media folk reveals that kids two to ten spend 25% of their time engaged in two or more activities at one time, justifying massive cross-platform marketing to kids into their tweens. Whether it will make your kid the greatest Dora consumer of all time or a highly successful VP of some type-A corporation, your precious child's ability to build and knock down a massive Lego tower while simultaneously filling his diaper without flinching shows mad skills. And maybe, you can pat yourself on the back for that. Posted Apr 20 2007, 01:04 PM by Jessica Ashley (Sassafrass) with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: play, consumerism, multi-tasking, marketing to kids

• Blurring the Lines Further: Parents Who Play

  There's been a lot of talk lately about the new wave of parents who have been termed as 42 going on 22.  It's really gotten me thinking, that and a little piece I read about snow tubing.  Are you familiar with snow tubing?  I went once several years ago with The Ex and our then 6- and 2-year olds.  It was too cold out for 2, so I stayed indoors with her while Daddy and 6 had lots of fun.  I got to go down the slope on a tube that day exactly one time, and I can tell you now that it was exactly the most fun thing I had done in probably 15 years. Read More... Posted Feb 05 2007, 02:14 PM by Karen Murphy with | with 10 comment(s) Filed under: parenting, play, snow tubing

• Do Playgrounds Need "Play Workers" to Guide Imagination?

  When I was young, the local playground was ruled by the Lava Monster. The monster lurked in the sand, eager to gobble up little boys who fell off the metal-studded wooden structures. When I grew tired of the monster, I stored him away in my imagination, locked him tight in a make-believe world that also included endless supplies of Charleston Chews and large-breasted women. My friends and I didn't need adults to guide us, to "show" us how to pretend -- we just did. Today's kids might not be so lucky. Dad in Progress offers a great breakdown on what could be a scary, helicopter parent-esque emerging trend -- playgrounds guided by adult "play workers" whose job it is to be the freaky guys in yellow caps who stalk your child at the playground. Er, I mean open up new avenues for imaginative play. Read More... Posted Jan 17 2007, 11:51 AM by Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: children, kids, games, culture, Playgrounds, Imagination, playtime, play