I just realized that I’ve been doing this Free Fun Fridays thing for over a year now. Not quite 52 posts of it, as I wasn’t too regular at first, but still quite a number of posts.

This week’s suggestion I can’t believe I haven’t made before. Read together.

With younger kids, you can read to them. If they know the story from having it read so often, encourage them to fill in the lines by pausing at points you think they know.

Take turns reading with older kids. It can be sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph or page by page, depending on what you think will work for your child’s skills.

I’ve been reading posts at the Free Range Kids website for a while. The writer has a lot of really good points about letting your children have a lot more freedom than many parents are currently willing to allow. You may even remember hearing about Lenore Skenazy a few years back. She’s the mom who let her 9 year old ride the New York Subway alone. The world out there isn’t quite so scary for kids as the media would have you think, after all.

I just found out that her book came out late last month. I’m betting it’s a great read. No, I don’t have it just yet.

If you’re not sure you’ll like the book, start out by reading the blog. You’ll get a feel for the parenting philosophy and decide if it’s something you need to learn more about.

The reader reviews so far are every bit as good as I’d expect for this book. That is, enthusiastic. I’m sure people who like it less will come around, as many parents can’t stand the thought of giving their kids this kind of freedom. But if you want to teach yourself to not give in to your own fears as a parent, it might help.