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Play Club in schools
A growing number of schools run it through the Let Grow organization. Supervisors are present so that parents feel safe enough to send their kids, but they do not intervene, which leaves the kids to run the play themselves.
Libraries and rec groups
Libraries are starting to host free play, and some recreation groups are adding what they call the sandlot experience alongside organized sports: players show up and make up their own game.
Town planning
Town planners are working on routes that let children get to school by themselves and safe enough that parents will allow it, with bicycle paths, sidewalks, and pedestrian and cycling paths built over major highways.
Why does age-mixed play matter?
Psychologist Lev Vygotsky proposed that children learn best at the edge of what they can do alone, with help from someone slightly more capable. This is his zone of proximal development. In a group that spans several ages, younger children meet that kind of partner constantly, and older children practice leading and explaining. Vygotsky developed the idea in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s.
How did Let Grow begin?
Let Grow is a nonprofit founded in 2017 by Lenore Skenazy, Jonathan Haidt, Peter Gray, and Daniel Shuchman. Skenazy had become widely known for the Free-Range Kids movement after writing in 2008 about letting her nine-year-old son ride the New York City subway alone. The group's programs, such as Play Club, are built for schools to run.
What is an adventure playground?
The first adventure playground was opened in 1943 in Emdrup, a suburb of Copenhagen, on the idea of landscape architect Carl Theodor Sorensen. He had noticed that children preferred playing in building sites and junk yards to playgrounds with fixed equipment. Adventure playgrounds are staffed by trained adults called playworkers, who keep watch on safety but leave the play to the children.
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