9 Minutes and 20 seconds of video you should watch:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/202

It's worth it.

Excellent video Martin,

Previous thread


-Blast

If you like this, pick up the Dangerous Book for Boys. It's got a lot of awesome and useful stuff. I gave copies to my nephew and neice for Christmas and they love it. (Apparently there's a version for girls now but I haven't checked it out. I'm still scared from my days in Brownies and Girl Scouts.)

Yessssss!

This world is dangerous!

And full of sharp pointy bits.


Yipppeeee!!!!!!!!!!!

There is now a book - "50 dangerous things". its on Amazon (no aff).

Anyone who thought about it for a short while could come up with as good a list, I guess. I'm curious to know what the other 45 are.

I'm really becoming fond of "experiential childhoods".

It wasn't long ago that my daughter was playing with some matches. We were really unhappy about this. We responded by showing her some youtube videos of christmas tree fires and some modestly disturbing pictures of burn victims. This was so that she could understand the gravity of the situation.

I don't remember my Dad being able to EXPLAIN a negative consequence as well as the EXPERIENCE. But videos are a close surrogate.

Anyway I do think that its a good idea to expose children to knives and fire sooner rather than later.

Thats why I'm wondering what the other 45 items are in the book... you can't learn experience. I want to know if the book has some good ideas for some modestly dangerous experiences for young children to work through in a controlled environment.

If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

I deliberately let the kids choose if they should expose themselves to falling - within limits, of course. If they managed above a certain height I would stand behind them as safeguard, preventing a potential deadly fall but not offering any assistance (I would lift 'em down if they got scared, though). It is somewhat special and proud feeling to see your 1 year old daughter manage a 6 feet ladder...


Traveling with these kids to the UK and US brought out some interesting cultural differences. All of the playgrounds we tried were excellent, with soft padded ground. I had really no problems letting 2-3 year old kids roam free in the apparatus labeled "above 5 years" or some even "above 12 years" (in principle, they've been doing that since they could crawl, but the smallest ones with some parental assistance). Falling 4-5 feet on soft padded ground is not dangerous, it's a healthy pedagogic exercise in physics and your own capabilities. I didn't get any negative feedback, but it was puzzling to watch some other parents or grandparents with their perpetual "careful, careful, careful" mantra and the way they would rush to aid with the slightest struggle, obviously afraid of the slightest fall.

Kids actually figure out pretty quick what they can and can't do. When they're up to it, they'll seek challenges that are just beyond what they did yesterday. Other times, they just do what they're comfortable with. The smallest ones will require some assistance to get down when they climb beyond their capabilities - they may not fall, but they suddenly get tired or otherwise feel the height and lack of control. Important lessons, if you ask me.


As for the fire and taking things apart - thank you for the inspiration! It's just a motivation for doing more of the things I love to do with the kids. My 5 year old already has a knife that he is incredible proud of, but he has to train and grow a bit before he can use it without closeup parental supervision. Yep, he's got knife scars already (of course our fault, not his)

My DW and I are amazed we lived through childhood without childseats, safety belts, biking helmets, elbow pads, knee pads, shoulder pads, IPOds, Cell phones, implanted GPS chips and kevlar underwear. The stuff we used as kids didn't come with warning labels, nutrional labels and an enclosed lawyer should you wish to sue anyhow.

Let kids be kids. Teach them right from wrong and more importantly, how to know the difference. The "nanny state" mentality isn't doing anyone any favors.

The book is "Ok" - some of the "dangerous" things aren't - at all, heck don't even fall under "Mildly uncomfortable" (for instance - how to European "air kiss" Hello

really? air kissing?

I was balking at the price of the book - $23.55 for only 133 pages, some of which were intentionally left blank for "my notes". As if.

I was already telling my wife it would have been better featured as a magazine article.

can you give me a heads up on any of the other "activities"? Although I can tell you the air kissing example alone has pushed me to "no buy".

Just take your kid camping a lot, and you've covered some of the better parts of the book without trying

I guess I just had this wayward hope that there might be some nuggets in there that I hadn't thought of myself.