An icy wind stings my cheeks as I sprint from my warm Subaru to the front porch of a stranger’s home in my suburbanĢżneighborhood. I look between the milk delivery box and a patio chair and locate my prize, wrapped in a plastic grocery bag.

Back in my car, I pull up my phone, open Venmo, and send $30 to someone named Julia. I unwrap the bag and marvel at my loot: a purple and pink pair of girls rubber snow boots, dotted with a stylish flower print, in child’s size 12.

These are no ordinary bootsā€”they are a pair of . Parents everywhere, including yours truly, have come to appreciate the brand for keeping our kids’ feet cozy and dry on the coldest winter days. We also love Bogs’ extreme, eye-popping durability. In my experience, Bogs rubber-soled winter boots are virtually impervious to the highly destructive forces that a typical child can muster. Bogs can survive the harshest sandbox grit and cheese-grater-like playground equipment. Take a belt sander to the sole of your kid’s Bogs and the vulcanized rubber may still grip icy pavement.

I want to stress how unusual this is to all of the child-free readers out there. Should you someday welcome a small human into your life, then youā€”like meā€”may marvel at your child’s ability to immediately transform new apparel or footwear into thread-bare rags.

Bogs’ extreme durability creates a dynamic that fans of the boots know well.Ģż Your kid will outgrow his or her Bogs long before the boots wear out. Thus, you can sell them online when they no longer fit your kid’s feet and fetch a good price.

A thriving secondary market exists for Bogs on websites like Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. If you check out the “Kids’ Bogs” page on the , you will scroll past hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of used pairs for sale.

My wife and I began buying and selling our daughter’s used Bogs on Facebook Marketplace a few years ago. Our five-year-old is on her fifth pair. Here’s the thing: we’ve only purchased one pair new. The MSRP on a pair of Bogs kids winter boots is $85, but you can easily score a set with plenty of life left in them online in the $30-50 range.

For years I wondered whether this dynamic was hurting the company’s bottom line, since so many customers, like me, simply buy them from other parents.

I posed this question (does Bogs’ extreme durability hurt sales?) to Megan Vinton, Bogsā€™ senior director of product, during a recent phone call, and I got a murky answer: probably not, but honestly, who knows?

“We’ve never really analyzed the secondary marketplace that way,” she told me. “But the price that people can command for a used pair is pretty impressive.”

Vinton told me that the company has long known that used Bogs are sought-after items online. A few years back, she said, there was an internal conversation among company officials about creating Bogs’ own re-selling marketplace for used boots. But employees struggled to find the right e-commerce infrastructure and model to pursue. Plus, there was a decent argument that Bogs’ popularity on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace actually boosted the brand’s popularity. So the whole project was scrapped.

“We’re content and happy to let the online community of used sellers thrive,” she said. “So many people’s entrance to our brand is from word-of-mouth and community purchasing.”

Bogs Neo-Classic Solid Kidsā€™ Boots

Instead, Vinton said, Bogs has found ways to lean into its reputation for longevity. Each pair of Bogs kids’ boots comes with a name tag inside that has room for three different names. And a few years ago, Bogs started a program called . The company will cover the shipping cost for customers to mail their used boots to the Portland, Oregon headquarters. Employees will then freshen up the footwear and donate them to outdoor kids’ programs and preschools.

“We want to keep them out of landfills,” says Chris Enlow, the company’s head of sustainability. “Creating a plug-and-play method to give them to a charity is how we prefer to engage in re-circulating boots.”

So, why do these kids boots last so long, when a typical child may only wear them for one or two seasons? Vinton said that, years ago, the company committed to using the same durability standards for a toddler’s boot as for the ones it manufactured for ranchers and dairy hands. Employees lay vulcanized rubber strips by hand over a neoprene sock to construct the waterproof lower. The company seeks out the strongest rubber compounds that won’t crack after a year spent in the sun, wind, and rain.

The company applies its latest technology to all of its boots, not just the ones made for lumberjacks or ranch hands. The newest models are made from vulcanized rubber that’s injected into a hard mold to create a seamless sole and lower area. And yeah, your three-year-old nephew can stomp through puddles in rocket ship-emblazoned boots that are made this way

“You don’t want people saying ‘Oh, these boots used to last longer,ā€™ā€ Enlow said.

The lifespan of the pink and purple Bogs are far from my mind as I park in my driveway and hurry indoors. I find my daughter scribbling in a coloring book, and I slip her feet into the new boots to make sure they fit.

Then I step out of the way and let her gaze at the color scheme and the fancy flower print. It’s somewhat similar to the design of her older pair, which sit near near our front door, ready for me to post online.

“Good,” she says, and then returns to coloring.

Fred was the editor-in-chief at VeloNews from 2016 to 2021. Prior to that he was a regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and The New York Times. Fred is the proud father of his five-year-old daughter, Magnolia, whose feet are growing like weeds.Ģż

The post These Boots Will Last Longer than Your Child Can Wear Them appeared first on ŗŚĮĻ³Ō¹ĻĶų Online.

When I heard the news that a for reckless conduct after someone spotted her ten-year-old son walking alone less than a mile from home, the first thing I did was open Google Maps. I looked up the distance between my house and a nearby middle school that my six-year-old daughter sometimes walks to with a friend her age. They get a thrill from playing at its playgroundĢżwithout a grown-upĢżaround, and I relish the freedom of getting the house to myself for half an hour.

Still, I’m relieved every time I hear my daughterā€™s voice approaching our driveway after one of her mini-adventuresā€”which, according to my Google Maps search, spans less than half a mile round trip. My relief stems less from my concern that something might actually happen to her, and more from the possibilityĢżthat a neighbor or passerby might judge me to be negligent for letting her walk to a playground on her own.

Even before the story about the Georgia mom blew up the internet, Iā€™d heard similar reports: the Texas mom handcuffed and jailed overnight for making her eight-year-old home; the Maryland siblings by police for playing alone at a playground.

Each time one of these stories makes headlines, the American public loses its collective shit. People from all sides of the political spectrum are equally outraged, agreeing (for once) that helicopter-parenting culture has gone too far. The same comments echo across the internet: When I was a kid, my parents didnā€™t care where we were, as long as we were home when the streetlights came on! Or: When I was that age, I walked home from school and babysat my younger siblings!Ģż

The parents I know in real life are similarly supportive of giving our children freedom to roam, and horrified that we might get in trouble for it. One friend has printed out and laminated a ā€œā€ card for her eight-year-old to carry. If a concerned citizen tries to intervene, the child can present the card, which includes her parentsā€™ phone number and states that she is not lost or neglected.

My sister-in-law, meanwhile, told me that two of her kids, ages 15 and 8, were recently walking home from the library when a nice older woman pulled her car alongside them, begging them to get in so she could give them a ride home. The woman was so distraught over what she perceived as the kidsā€™ risky behavior that she thought asking them to get in a car with a stranger was better than letting them walk unsupervised down a familiar suburban street in broad daylight.

Though such lapses of judgement are well-intentioned, the chances of a child being either kidnapped or hit by a car are in the United States, and certainly lower than they were in the eighties and nineties when I was a kid. Yet in part because media reports tend to amplify violence and tragedy, such incidents can seem more common than they actually are, prompting some people to misjudge the risk of children acting independently.

Anecdotally, many of the people concerned by modern kids walking or playing alone seem to be who themselves had ample freedom growing up but may have watched too much CSI since then. My own peersā€”elder Millennials, mostlyā€”have absorbed plenty of articles of letting our kids manage risks and build independence, and many of us try to encourage such behaviors.

A 2023 sort of backs this up, finding that only 28 percent of Millennial parents are ā€œvery concernedā€ about their child getting kidnapped. The same study found that Black and Hispanic parents are far more concerned than white or Asian parents about their kids getting shot, which aligns with demographic trends of gun violence and underscores the fact that free-range parenting is a privilege of living somewhere relatively safe.

Personally, I worry more about the societal or legal repercussions of letting my kid roam the neighborhood unsupervised than I do about some stranger snatching her up. But what if my concerns are just as overblown as those of the lady in the car who tried to stop my niece and nephew from walking home? Lenore Skenazy, who coined the term ā€œfree-range parentingā€ and co-founded the childhood independence nonprofit Let Grow, emphasizes that itā€™s for parents to face legal action for letting their kids play outside or walk home aloneā€”so uncommon, in fact, that when it does happen, it becomes national news.

In other words, just as the risk of a child getting abducted is minuscule, so is the chance that someone will call the police if I let my six-year-old explore outside with a friendā€”especially now that more states are passing free-range parenting laws.

Parenting is inherently risky. The world is not and never will be fully safe. But instead of being influenced by stories of what could go wrong, maybe the best thing we can do for our kids and ourselves is to focus instead on all the things that are still OKā€”like my daughter, skipping up the driveway with her best friend, her cheeks flushed from cold and excitement, coming home just as the streetlights are turning on and Iā€™m pulling a hot dinner from the oven.

The post Why I Let My Kid Roam Free ŗŚĮĻ³Ō¹ĻĶų appeared first on ŗŚĮĻ³Ō¹ĻĶų Online.

Whenever we go on family vacations, my husband is obsessed with activities. For instance, we recently had a day where we went fishing in the morning, went to a museum in the afternoon, and had tickets for a show in the evening. We had one unscheduled hour after lunch, and he insisted that we use it to take the toddler to the pool. He said she needed to be ā€œactiveā€ because she had napped while we were fishing, even though she would have been fine playing quietly in the hotel room. The next day was gray and rainy, but he led us on a hike (I carried the baby and he carried the toddler), and then unilaterally decided to extend it partway through, but didnā€™t even mention to me that he was leading us on a longer route than weā€™d agreed on. By the time I caught on, both kids were exhausted and we were out of snacks, but there were still two miles left. Iā€™ll admit I was pretty crabby about it.

Iā€™d been up breastfeeding during the night and watched both kids in the morning while he worked out (Iā€™m a stay-at-home mom, so this is pretty typical), and honestly I hadnā€™t even wanted to go hiking at all, and was just trying to be a good sport. I would much rather have relaxed for the afternoon. I know weā€™re spending money on the trip and should make the most of it, but does that have to mean filling every possible minute?

I asked a group of friends about their family travel experiences, and several of them nodded in recognition when I shared your story. One family even has a term for it: ā€œDad Camp,ā€ referring to days filled with ambitious dad-planned activities that everyone else complains about. In their case, the term is one of half-endearment, a running joke as they all slog through, say, a desert hike in the scorching heat of the afternoon. Yes, itā€™s a gift to bring loved ones on adventures that they would never have considered alone. But itā€™s also a gift to consider their needs and energy levels; too much pressure can turn someone off an otherwise-fun activity forever.

Iā€™m sure your husband means well. I imagine he misses his family while heā€™s at work, and he wants to tell people at work about his vacation. He doesnā€™t know how exhausting it is to care for a baby and a toddler because he rarely does it himself, and when he does, itā€™s a novelty; he can tell himself that the reason itā€™s so hard is because ā€œyouā€™re better at it.ā€ I suspect that this dynamic is less about genderā€”that is, that itā€™s endemic to dads specificallyā€”and far more about parents who arenā€™t primarily involved in childcare having FOMO about spending time with their family, not realizing that their kidsā€™ stamina is more limited than theirs, and being oblivious about the degree to which their partner is working constantly and may need to rest, not hustle, when they get the chance. If your job is childcare, then traveling with kids . Is it wonderful? Absolutely! But itā€™s still the same work that you do at homeā€”just harder.

The solution here is pretty straightforward: if he wants to do ambitious things on vacation, he should either bring the kids with him while you have solo time (heā€™ll learn darn quickly about what happens when you run out of snacks), or spend more time on childcare in general, so that you have the energy to join in. Does he recognize that if you watch the kids the whole time he works, that means that he has more responsibilityā€”not lessā€”to watch them when heā€™s not working? Is it possible that his lifestyle hasnā€™t changed all that much since becoming a parent, so he hasnā€™t yet learned that you canā€™t do every single thing you want when thereā€™s a baby and toddler along? Iā€™m curious, after your hike, if he realized that heā€™d made an error in unilaterally extending the trip. Did he apologize, and promise to learn from the experience? Or does he still think that he did nothing wrong?

Vacations need to work for the whole family, not just him. If you watched the kids for part of the morning while he exercised, he should watch them for the rest of the morning, so you get time for yourself, too. When youā€™re breastfeeding, thatā€™s trickier, but he can still take the toddler with him. Maybe part of his workout could entail taking your older kid to a park and running in circles with her, or doing pushups with her on his back. Another option: a friend taught me recently about Baby Yoga, where you lie on the floor next to a baby and try to match and hold each pose they strike. Iā€™ve rarely been so sore the next day.

You could also request that you each plan alternate days of the trip. Are you exhausted from his activities? No problem. The next day is for lounging in a cabana. This way, you can achieve a modicum of balance.

Suggesting these changes may make him feel hurt, or defensive, but if he has a fundamentally egalitarian attitude toward family life, then he should come to understand the logic behind your requests. If heā€™s stuck in the 1950s and believes that childcare is a womanā€™s job, then he should still realize that you canā€™t magically generate extra energy when itā€™s all going toward your kids. In that case, ironically, you may be able to put your foot down more, pulling rank as primary caregiver to have the final say on what the kids (and you) are actually capable of enjoying on any given day.

And if someone reading this feels a flicker of concern about whether they, too, may be spearheading ā€œDad Camp,ā€ consider these questions.

1. Does your family want to do the fun and edifying things you plan?

A) Yes.

B) No, they say they donā€™t want to.

2. If your family says they donā€™t want to do the fun things you planned, what do you do?

A) Explain why theyā€™re wrong, then make them do it anyway.

B) Listen to their concerns, and adjust accordingly. This doesnā€™t always mean canceling your activities, but you might shorten them, and add or subtract other things from the agenda.

If you selected A for both, congrats! Youā€™re not a perpetrator of forced fun. And if you selected yes, youā€™ll be happy to know that thereā€™s a simple solution: listen to the people you love.

Blair Braverman writes our Tough Love column. Last month, she gave advice on how to know when to quit your thru-hike and what to do when you canā€™t afford your friend groupā€™s vacations.

The post My Husband and I Always Fight on Family Vacations. Whoā€™s Right? appeared first on ŗŚĮĻ³Ō¹ĻĶų Online.

Kitzsteinhorn, a 10,000-foot Austrian peak that sits in the Alps just south of Salzburg, is not considered a draw for serious mountaineers. But to a group of Ukrainian refugees who climbed it last August, as part of a summer camp hosted by the U.S.-based , Kitzsteinhorn symbolized hope.

Filmmaker and photographer Max Lowe documented his second trip to Healing Base Camp, a weeklong program for families whose lives were upended by the violence of Russiaā€™s invasion of Ukraine. A mix of talk therapy, art classes, and guided mountaineering expeditions, the camp is about building resilience. ā€œAll of these people lost someone far too soon,ā€ says Lowe, who is based in Bozeman, Montana. ā€œThereā€™s beauty in the fact that theyā€™re showing up here and learning how to move forward.ā€

Lowe first visited in the summer of 2022 for his documentary , released on Netflix in 2023. The film follows ten-year-old Milana and her grandmother Olga as they immerse themselves in camp activities. Milana, initially scared to climb, gains confidence throughout the week and eventually summits Kitzsteinhorn. Both she and Olga attended again when Lowe did. ā€œThe difference in Milana from the year before was remarkable,ā€ he says. ā€œShe pushed through everything and just really seemed like a changed girl.ā€

The post Building Resilience appeared first on ŗŚĮĻ³Ō¹ĻĶų Online.

Letā€™s be clear: The toys do not make the summer. Itā€™s the intention we as parents put into spending longer days outside with the kids once the school year ends that can make the season feel special. We can say, though, that the toys do make summer easier.

Gear thatā€™s designed specifically for kids and thoughtfully built with smart performance details can make or break your littlesā€™ first camping trip or hike, and make picking up a new sport a lot more fun. We vetted kid-specific bikes, clothing, surfboards, and adjacent gear to bring you the best bet to maximize summer fun.

At a Glance

• How We Test
• Meet the Lead Testers

All gear in this guide was tested by multiple reviewers. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. This supports our mission to get more people active and outside. Learn more.

Isle Nugget Surfboard

Sizes: 5ā€™4ā€

Pros and Cons
āŠ• Durable
āŠ• Works for kids and adults
āŠ— Removable fins are hard to get in/out

It is rare that a product fulfills the needs of both an advanced and beginner in a sport, but the Nugget managed that feat. With a soft exterior coupled with a rigid interior, this versatile board catered to all skill levels and kids from 40 pounds to adults of 180 pounds.

We taught two kids under 6 how to surf on this 5ā€™4ā€ quad fin soft top board last summer. Itā€™s an ideal longboard for littles to learn on and also proved to be a fun shortboard for adults. The Nuggetā€™s top features a 1.3 millimeter Polycarbonate ā€œskinā€ that gripped little feet without sticky wax and was burly enough that it showed little wear and tear after living under a big Douglas Fir for most of the summer. Adults were able to pump it down the line on heavy shore break thanks to the rigidity from two Fiberglass stringers molded into the EPS core.

Prevelo Zulu 4 Mountain Bike

Sizes: Zulu series has bikes ranging from 20-inch wheels (Zulu 1) to 26-inch wheels (Zulu 5)
Weight: 22 lbs

Pros and Cons
āŠ• Nimble
āŠ• Great transition bike for kids getting off-road for the first time
āŠ— Big investment for a bike a kid will grow out of

This fully-featured mountain bike has all of the pieces to make the intimidating (for kids and parents) transition from kiddo cyclist to kiddo mountain biker. The large 24-inch tires and front fork with 100 millimeters of travel proved key in teaching one eight year old how to trust a mountain bikeā€™s ability to absorb rugged terrain.

While the Zulu 4 was beefy enough to eat up baseball sized rocks, it still proved manageable enough for a sub 100-pound rider thanks to the aluminum frameā€™s low and narrow geometry.

Shredly Littles Shorts

Sizes: XS – XL

Pros and Cons
āŠ• Fast drying time
āŠ• Versatile
āŠ— Light colorways show dirt

Multi-sport days can be a key element of the alchemy of summer, but changing your kidsā€™ outfits between those sports can be a pain and ruin the momentum of a fun day. The secret to success is a versatile piece like Shredlyā€™s Littles Shorts.

These quick-drying shorts made from recycled polyester spandex became a go-to for all summer activities, from pool sessions, to long days at the beach, to mountain biking. The high elasticity in the waist and slightly baggy cut allowed our kid testers to move freely, earning a thumbs up from one five-year-old who wore the Littles during a pump track session and then right to gymnastics class.

CamelBak Kids Mini MULE Hydration Pack with Crux 1.5L Reservoir

Pros and Cons
āŠ• Smartly built for kid-specific carry
āŠ• Highly adjustable to grow with the kiddos
āŠ— Reservoir can be tough for kids to fill

Getting a kiddo of any age to stay hydrated during summer adventures is as important as it can be challenging. This recycled 200-denier polyester reservoir pack proved low profile enough that even sub 35-pound testers didnā€™t complain about lugging it around for multi-hour bike rides.

The sternum strap and stretchy body materials were adjustable enough that testers from 32-pounds to 90-pounds were able to dial in a comfortable fit. The Mini MULEā€™s main compartment holds a 1.5 liter bladder, which is plenty to hydrate kiddos for three to four hour adventures, and two exterior pockets hold a sun hat, snacks, and extras like a pocket notebook and colored pencil case.

The Mini MULEā€™s mesh arm straps, harness, and cushy, porous back panel proved highly breathable and produced no complaints from a five year old tester during a nearly hour long ride in 95-degrees.

Helly Hansen JR Marka Fleece Jacket

Sizes: 8-16

Pros and Cons
āŠ• Wide temperature range
āŠ• Highly breathable
āŠ— Light pilling after a few months of heavy use

This fleece made from two-way stretch, 100-percent recycled polyester covers a wide temperature range, making it a great emergency layer to keep in the back of your car for just-in-case moments.

It was a nice little comfort bump for five year old Jojo on nights that dipped into the mid-fifties and even proved enough over pajamas on a 42-degree early morning bike ride. Credit the medium-high loft coupled with the porousness of the fleeceā€™s exterior. Other smart design features testers loved: a supple chin guard to protect wee faces from the zipper, as well as a raglan sleeve and hyper-stretchy elastic cuffs and waist for freedom of movement.

Cotopaxi Kids Teca Half Zip Windbreaker

Sizes: XS-XL

Pros and Cons
āŠ• Highly packable
āŠ• Kangaroo pocket for storage
āŠ— Some testers became obsessed with constantly opening/closing the velcro kangaroo pouch

A solid kids windbreaker can be a lifesaver in a freak summer rainstorm but ¾±²õ²Ōā€™t worth lugging around if itā€™s bulky. Enter the Kids Teca Half Zip, a lightweight windbreaker that has everything an ambitious child adventurer needsā€”a face-hugging hood and a kangaroo pouch to stash snacksā€”in a package that weighs only 1.2 pounds and squishes down to the size of a tangerine.

Itā€™s not waterproof, but it kept one kiddo mostly protected from the elements when a sudden thunderstorm hit on a hike (the kid tester got back to the trailhead a bit wet, though she stayed warm).

Hoka Speedgoat 5 Kids Trail Running Shoe

Sizes: 3.5 Y – 7 Y

Pros and Cons
āŠ• Excellent breathability
āŠ• Sturdy support
āŠ• Fantastic traction
āŠ— Expensive for a shoe your kid will grow out of

Kids hiking and running shoes have a track record of being underbuiltā€”not the case with the Speedgoat 5 Kids. Jakob Schillerā€™s kids appreciated the burliness of this shoeā€™s durable rubber outsole and lugs while scrambling up myriad class three routes on hikes in New Mexico.

The woven mesh upper with 21 percent recycled polyester breathed well enough that the kiddosā€™ feet didnā€™t get too hot during nearly triple digit hikes, and the 30-percent sugarcane midsole hugged young soles with that lovely cushion that caused parent testers to fall in love with Hoka.

Patagonia Baby Capilene Silkweight Hoodie

Sizes: 3-6 months – 5T

Pros and Cons
āŠ• Excellent fit
āŠ• Well-designed hood
āŠ— Holds onto stink if not washed regularly

Keeping an infant shaded from the summer sun is no small feat, especially when youā€™re hiking or playing in the water. This UPF 40+ hoodieā€™s extra long drop tail hem, oversized sleeves, and three panel hood did the trick. The four-way stretch fabric (94-percent polyester 6-percent spandex jersey) was both pliable and supple enough next to skin that an 18-month-old tester wasnā€™t bothered by the hoodā€”and actually kept it onā€”for a four-hour excursion to Ashland, ORā€™s swimming reservoir.

Opinel No. 07 My First Opinel Folding Knife

Pros and Cons
āŠ• Kids-specific safety features
āŠ— Tough to clean

Camping trips and outdoor adventures are a great time to give your kiddo a little more agency over their day to day as well as take on new risksā€”like getting their first knife. Opinelā€™s My First Folding Knife proved sharp enough along the front blade to actually cut everything from kindling to cheese, was great for whittling, yet dull enough at the tip that it was safe for the littles to use after a little conversation around knife safety.

Our testerā€™s sample lived in Jojoā€™s pack all summer and she spent more time showing friends its safety features (like a rotating locking mechanism at the top of the handle) than actually cutting or whittling. Though it hasnā€™t seen extensive use yet, her parents agreed it was still a great investment.

Backpackerā€™s Pantry Three Cheese Mac and Cheese

Pros and Cons
āŠ• Easy way to pack in calories
āŠ• Long shelf life
āŠ— More expensive than grocery store Mac and Cheese

Childrensā€™ blood sugar can define a trip. Having quick and easy Mac and Cheese on hand felt like a super power on camping trips. Even our pickiest three-year-old testers did not turn up little noses to this tender elbow pasta and parmesan, romano, and cheddar treat.

The 510-calories per pouch packed enough of a punch that it could feed three young kids, and its 10-year shelf life meant that parents didnā€™t have to think twice about pulling it out of a camp box and whipping it up as hunger fueled meltdowns reached a fever pitch. Preparation requires just one cup of water and takes a total of 15 minutes. A note on allergens: it does contain eggs, milk, and wheat.

How We Test

• Number of products tested: 47
• Number of kiddo testers: 10
• Number of parent moderators: 5
• Age range of testers: 18-months to 9-years-old
• Temperature range: Low 40s to 106-degrees

We camped a lot to test kids’ gear and determine how each performed out in the elements last summer. Our cadre of ten child testers put in over 75 combined days camping in spots from the Northern Californian coast, to the rivers and woods of Oregon, to Penasco, New Mexico. We brought all the gear and notebooks, set the kids loose, then listened to what the wee ones had to say.

We depended on parents to coordinate the testing, but relied on the kids for performance feedback. Weā€™ve found that paying close attention to the childrenā€™s opinions about their gear while adventuring in the elements yields the best testersā€™ notes. Unlike most adults, kids are readily willing to display their displeasure and do not have any brand loyalty or biases.

Meet the Lead Testers

Category manager Joe Jackson has been testing gear professionally for ŗŚĮĻ³Ō¹ĻĶų for over a decade. He was the managing editor for gear guides past and was °æ³Ü³Ł²õ¾±»å±šā€™s longest running Gear Guy columnist.

Jacksonā€™s daughter Jojo, Josie, or ā€œThe Joj,ā€ has been testing gear for this publication since the day she left the hospital after she was born. She just turned six and can explain the performance differences between cotton and a synthetic next-to-skin layer to an adult in a meaningful way.

Jakob Schiller has been testing outdoor products professionally for as long as Jackson and was his boss at ŗŚĮĻ³Ō¹ĻĶų for two years where they bickered like brothers about gear. He is raising four children that come with him on most of his wild southwest-based adventures.

The post The Best Kidsā€™ Gear for Summer ŗŚĮĻ³Ō¹ĻĶųs appeared first on ŗŚĮĻ³Ō¹ĻĶų Online.

I gave birth to my first kid one week before Motherā€™s Day last year. Had you asked me then what I wanted for Motherā€™s Day, I would have said a pokĆ© bowl and a Mexican lager (or two or three)ā€”the things I had been craving most after nine months of deprivation.

As for gifts that would make motherhood easier, I had no clue what those might be. According to the Instagram posts I was being fed at the time, that list would have included a trendy leather diaper bag, aromatherapy candles or bath bombs, and a jumbo Stanley water bottle.

Now, 11 months into my mom gig, I know exactly what I would have put on my first Motherā€™s Day wish list: gear to help me and baby get outdoors. What made my first months of motherhood both easier and more pleasurable was doing what I loved to do pre-babyā€”with my new family. That included walks and then eventually hikes, road trips to see friends and family, SUP days at our local lake, and new activities like stroller-blading (more on that below).

Getting out the door with an infant and keeping them comfortable, happy, and fed is no small feat, even when youā€™re just headed out on errands. Throw in an outdoor activity, and you best be prepared. To any new, outdoorsy moms making their first Motherā€™s Day wish listā€”or to the thoughtful partners, friends, and family members wondering what to get the new mom in their livesā€”here are six products that made outdoor adventures with an infant not only manageable, but fun.

Some of these items are admittedly pricey, but in my experience, well worth the investment. Mom hack: You can find some of these bigger ticket items in almost-new condition on sites like , , , and Facebook Marketplace.

At a Glance

When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. This supports our mission to get more people active and outside. Learn more.

A Baby Carrier Built for Hiking

Ergobaby Omni 360 Mesh

There are a plethora of baby carrier options on the marketā€”from simple wraps best suited to toting infants around the house to versatile and burly carriers designed for more active pursuits. The Ergobaby Omni 360 Mesh falls into the second category.

This one-size-fits-all carrier accommodates a newborn from 7 pounds to a toddler of 45 pounds and has four carry modes (front-facing inward; front-facing outward; hip-carry; and back-carry). It also features mesh panels in the front for better breathabilityā€”key when youā€™re essentially carrying around a little furnace.

I started using the Omni 360 when our baby was around three weeks old with an infant insert (at 7 pounds and 19.5 inches long, he seemed to drown in the carrier without the insert). Getting the carrier on by yourself is a little cumbersome given the two shoulder straps, one back strap, and the main hip belt you have to buckle and cinch, but once you get it set up for your baby and your body, it becomes more intuitive. After one week of use, I had no issues getting it on and placing baby in it by myself.

And like a good backpack, all those straps and attachment points exist to take the load off your body, making the Omni 360 a great option for longer walks and hikes. I regularly carried our baby in it for 4-plus-mile hikes and experienced no pressure points, load shifting, or uncomfortable chafing.

An All-Terrain Stroller to Get Off the Beaten Path

Thule Urban Glide

We werenā€™t expecting to use the Thule Urban Glide before our kiddo turned six months old, since thatā€™s when heā€™d be big enough to safely sit in the forward-facing, upright position. But this stroller is so much nicer to push around than the other stroller we own that we bought the Thule car seat adapter and used the Urban Glide with an infant car seat from day one. (You can also buy a bassinet attachment for this stroller.)

The three large tiresā€”including a front swivel wheel that locks outā€”navigate uneven sidewalks, gravel and dirt trails, and grassy parks like a dream. While the Urban Glide is not as aerodynamic as the , which Thule markets as their jogging stroller, this model can also be used for jogging. It can even be used for stroller-bladingā€”aka, rollerblading as you push the strollerā€”an activity that Iā€™m going to take credit for inventing. Keep the speeds low and use the integrated twist hand break in the handle when going downhill, and youā€™ll have no issue keeping the stroller safely under control.

The only downsides to the Thule Urban Glide: price and bulk. Itā€™s an investment, but we found ours secondhand and in great condition for $400 on Facebook Marketplace. Itā€™s also heavy and doesnā€™t pack down as well as other, more streamlined strollers. The Urban Glide takes up the majority of trunk space in our Hyundai Santa Fe and doesnā€™t leave much room for other gear or dogs. On big road trips, weā€™ve started popping the wheels off (easy enough) and stashing the stroller in our roof box.

A Portable Sound Machine for Sound Sleep Anywhere

Roar Sound Machine + Speaker

Measuring roughly 5-by-2-by-1-inches, this rugged, waterproof sound machine-and-speaker-in-one is about the size of two decks of cards stacked side by side. This makes it much smaller than your average sound machine and even many portable, bluetooth speakers on the market. However, its diminutive size belies its power.

The Roar can blast noiseā€”either one of the three integrated sounds (brown noise, waves, or rain) or any other sound of your choosing when connected to a phone via bluetooth.ĢżIt also has an impressive 20-plus-hour battery life. But parents be warned: Do not let this thing run out of battery while in use. On a few occasions we went too long between charges, only to have our son woken up in the middle of the night by a loud, female voice declaring repeatedly that the device had ā€œlow battery.ā€ Unfortunately, thereā€™s no way to determine how much battery life remainsā€”thereā€™s no battery life indicator on the device, so you just have to be proactive in charging.

Thatā€™s the biggest downside to the Roar Sound Machine: it doesnā€™t have a user-friendly control panel. It only features five buttons (power, play/skip to next sound, and two volume buttons), and these rubber buttons are black, blending in with the rest of the speaker. This makes it almost impossible to see the control panel in low light (as in a darkened bedroom or tent). Iā€™ve learned to set the Roar to our desired settings before turning off lights to avoid fumbling with the controls in the dark.

Despite these shortcomings, the Roar Sound Machine + Speaker has become a must-pack piece of baby gear for any overnight trip or outing that will require a nap away from home.

A Thermos to Make Formula on the Go

Purist Maker 10 oz

Ģż

I used the 10-ounce Maker for coffee and tea long before I had a kid, but now I use it regularly to make my sonā€™s formula on the go. We learned early on that our kid was finicky about the temperature of his bottled milk. He liked it much warmer than room temperature, which proved challenging on high-alpine hikes in the colder months. At first, weā€™d premake his bottles at home the morning of our adventure, only to discover that by the time we fed him on-the-go, the milk had cooled too much. We finally wisened up and started pre-filling his bottles with formula and carrying hot water in the Purist Maker on our hikes, so we could serve warm milk on demand.

We love the small size of the 10-ounce Maker because it doesnā€™t take up much pack space, yet it holds enough hot water that we can mix it with regular water to fill two 6-ounce bottles of formula. Bonus: Purist makes three different types of lids that are interchangeable between their different thermoses. We like the Scope Top because it allows us to pour water into our sonā€™s bottles without spilling or letting much heat escape in the process.

A Cooler to Tote Babyā€™s Milk

Yeti Hopper Flip 12

I know Iā€™m probably preaching to the converted, but you just canā€™t beat a Yeti cooler when it comes to keeping drinks and food chilled. When I needed a reliable way to keep pumped breast milk cold on the go, this is the cooler I reached for. Any mom knows that breastmilk is liquid gold and you simply do not mess around when it comes to storing it properly to ensure not a drop goes to waste. The Yeti Hopper Flip 12 put me at ease.

It reliably kept its contents cool with two ice packs when I left it in a parked car for six hours during a summer hike. Just two gripes: The leak-proof zipper is burlyā€”too burly to easily unzip with one hand (and moms often only have one hand free). And like all of Yetiā€™s products, itā€™s crazy expensive. But you do get what you pay for: superior cooling and a bombroof design. If you just need a soft cooler to store a few bottles of breastmilk, the Yeti Hopper Flip 12 is overkillā€”Iā€™d size down to the Hopper Flip 8, which would be less bulky to tote around. But if you also want a cooler that will fit snacks for you, baby bottles, and potentially even your breast pump parts, the Hopper Flip 12 is a good size.

A Folding Seat for Trailside Pitstops

Crazy Creek HEX 2.0 Original Chair

We’ve owned a version of this Crazy Creek chair for more than ten years and it’s been a staple for camping trips and lawn concerts. Now, it lives in the storage basket of our Thule Urban Glide stroller for trailside pitstops with baby.

There’s a lot to love about this portable chair, from its simple, lightweight design that rolls up for compact storage to its adjustable straps that make dialing in your optimal reclining position a cinch. I’ve used it many times to nurse our son along the trail, and even for emergency diaper changesā€”simply unclip the straps to unfold the chair into a flat mat. It’s not the most comfortable of Crazy Creek’s folding chair options, but it is the most lightweight and packable, making it a winning choice for moms on the go.

A Versatile Picnic Blanket

Coalatree Kachula Blanket

My mother-in-law gifted this versatile blanket to us right after our son was born and it’s become our go-to for outdoor picnics and playtime. Coalatree bills the Kachula as “the Swiss army knife of blankets,” an apt description for this blanket that can be converted into an emergency poncho via an attachable hood and pack into itself to become a travel pillow. Fully unfolded, it measures 50-by-72-inches, making it plenty big for two adults and a baby to sprawl out on.

I love that the top fabric (made from fully recycled materials) is a soft brushed nylon flannel that doesn’t irritate baby’s sensitive skin when he’s rolling around in just his diaper. It’s also water resistant, so you don’t have to stress about spilled liquids or baby accidents. My one gripe: the ripstop nylon bottom of the blanket is great for resisting snags, but it’s prone to sliding around on grassy hillsides.

The post What Adventurous Moms Really Want for Motherā€™s Day appeared first on ŗŚĮĻ³Ō¹ĻĶų Online.

Dear Sundog: My wife and I are climbers who now have a baby and a toddler. Weā€™ve started to get back into climbing and take the kids with us to a nearby climbing area. Sometimes we go with other parents so we can share childcare while the adults are climbing. We get a lot of dirty looks and even some comments from others about how our kids are disturbing the peace. But we canā€™t always coordinate with other families, and of course climbing takes two people, so we canā€™t climb and watch the kids at the same time. The best solution appears to be bringing our nanny who usually takes the weekends off but could be persuaded to come with us on the weekend, but Iā€™ve never seen or heard of anyone doing this, and I wonder why not. ā€”Kids For Climbing

Dear KFC: Never would Sundog suggest that some enthusiasts give up their passions merely for having procreated. The mores of yesterday in which children stayed in childrenā€™s places (usually with the wife) have all been obliterated, especially since the pandemic. People take their kids to bars, fancy bistros, even the goddamn symphony. And I can empathize. Parenting in America these days can be lonely: most of us donā€™t live with or near extended family that makes up the ā€œvillageā€ upbringing thatā€™s been part of humanity for millennia. Parents are reminded that just about everything is dangerous: see the legally required merchandise like bike helmets and car seats that didnā€™t even exist when we were children, and the risk-of-death labels on everything from plastic bags to peanut butter to five-gallon buckets. A brief flicking through cable news assures us that strangers should not be trusted; people donā€™t know their neighbors; all of which results in a generation of parents understandably afraid to let their kids out of their sight. So I commend you, KFC, for dragging your kids to the cliffs, because unless youā€™ve cracked the code of truly Ģżwho will watch your kids for you, then the well-known alternative is staying home or at the playground which gets unbearably dull pretty quick.

But I fear you may be taking a good instinct a bit too far. When your kids are old enough to climb, then by all means take them. But when they’re still toddling, they seem a danger to themselves and if theyā€”like 100 percent of small childrenā€” make a lot of noise, then they’re also a nuisance and danger to other climbers. If you absolutely must expose the kids to climbing, take them to the gym. As for your babysitter idea: if youā€™re fortunate enough to be able to afford a trustworthy nanny for a whole day, then by all means hire themā€”and leave them at home with the kids. Who knows, maybe mom and dad will find a place for a quick roadside bivy in transit to the crag.

To review, here are some places that are good to take toddlers and babies:

• Ski resorts
• Cross country skiing
• Floating class-I rivers
• Climbing gyms
• Any outdoor concert, regardless of genre

And here are the places you should not take them:

• BASE jumping
• The opera
• Congressional hearings
• Backcountry skiing
• The crag

And just to show that Sundog ¾±²õ²Ōā€™t just some kid-hating grouch who wants them out of my sight, let me weigh in on a hotly-debated question that you didnā€™t ask: should I bring my kid to the brewery?

I give a whole-hearted yes. Consider that the brewery may provide the deepest sense of contentedness the parent has experienced since the birth of the child. The parent is drinking alcohol. The child is…somewhere, out of eyesight, out of earshot. The brewery has generously provided a fenced outdoor enclosure, perhaps even toy bulldozers and a sandbox, harmless banjo players picking tunes that cause the child to dance about and donā€™t include obvious obscenity or ideations of violence. Ya gotta just let Dad gulp down his mosaic hop IPA or whatever. Those things are strong. They make him feel good. This is how they do it in Europe, I heard that somewhere. Celebrate.

Readers respond: Should hikers blast music on the trail?

The issue with amplified music is more akin to overly bright lights beaming into my eyes or trash left behind. These are impacts that dramatically impact mine and others experience and dramatically changes the environment. No one has that privilege without group/community consent. There are several alternatives to listen to electronic music without forcing me to participate without my consent. Itā€™s a clear invasion of privacy and disregard for the other.

The solitude of the landscape exists for all of us, not him, not any single specific person.
Second, we all have freedoms, but those freedoms are restricted when their exercise harms others. The right for me to wave my arms ends before I hit someone’s face, right?
People who blast their music are destroying the silence for everyone. They are doing temporary damage to the environment. They make it difficult or impossible for others to enjoy the experience they came for.

Has it occurred to you or the person who asked this question, that perhaps hikers were blasting music because they were in an area inhabited by bears or other animals? Blasting music is a great way to make your presence known to others who live there. especially other animals who will tear you apart when surprised or when they feel threatened.

Got a question of your own? Send it toĢżsundogsalmanac@hotmail.com

The post Should We Bring Our Nanny to the Crag? appeared first on ŗŚĮĻ³Ō¹ĻĶų Online.

Last spring, among the usual elementary school reminders about theme weeks and illicit peanut butter snacks (WE ARE A NUT FREE CAMPUS!!)Ģżan email popped up that gave me pause. My kindergartner would be weighed in school, it said, and I could click on a link to opt her out.

It gave me the ick. Iā€™d paid attention to young women like Mary CainĢżand members of college cross-country teams speaking out against weigh-ins and body shaming in sport, and how the practice damaged their mental and physical health. Thatā€™s different from a kindergartner stepping on a scale then running back to recess, but I know how little minds absorb everything. I didnā€™t want my daughter to think her school cared about her weight.

Neither, it turns out, did our home state. In January 2022, Californiaā€™s Department of Education suspended the body mass index reportingĢżit had required since 1996 as part of a fitness test. (BMI, calculated from height and weight, is often used as a proxy for body fat composition.) The state also axed collecting several movement-based measurements that, along with gender, height, and age, had been used to give kids ā€œfitness report cards,ā€ citing concerns about mental health, accessibility, and gender equity. Every measure, except overall participation rates, was put on hold pending the outcome of a large study the state commissioned to explore potential best practices for school fitness testing.

Then, in March 2023, the California Department of Education dropped a skewering school fitness testing as itā€™s been conducted for the past 25 years. In the report, experts in fitness, adaptive physical education, body image, and gender identity rejected the nationā€™s leading fitness evaluation. And so California became the first state to seek an answer to a simple and important question: What is the point of fitness testing?

Today, more than 10 million kids in over 20,000 schools across the U.S. take a test called annually. Itā€™s been Californiaā€™s official assessment since 1996. Itā€™s also used in New York City, the countryā€™s largest school district, and itā€™s the official assessment of the Presidential Youth Fitness Program, the current iteration of more than six decades of federal initiatives targeting youth fitness.

Created by the Cooper Institute, a Dallas-based health nonprofit, the test is made up of various activities like a one-mile run, pushups, and the sit-and-reach to determine muscular strength, endurance, and flexibility, and aerobic capacity. Thereā€™s also a weigh-in component to measure body composition through BMI, and it is this measurement, in particular, thatā€™s most often used to shape public policy, influencing everything from city-wide free school lunch programs to the length and number of movement breaks kids get throughout the school day.

The main idea behind the testing, says Dr. Weimo Zhu, who is on the advisory board for Fitnessgram, is ā€œwhat you measure is what you get.ā€ Fitnessgram benchmarks, called ā€œHealthy Fitness Zones,ā€ are national standards set by age and gender, and are meant to inspire kids to be active.

ā€œThe standard ¾±²õ²Ōā€™t to punish the kids,ā€ Zhu says. Itā€™s to tell them if they need to take action to improve their health and fitness. Without it, he argues, kids wonā€™t know the goal behind being fit, implying that maintaining a certain BMI range, strength, aerobic capacity, and range of motion, is the goal.

But in the decades since Fitnessgram was first implemented, the scientific understanding of BMIā€™s relationship to health has progressed, and American culture has changed. Instead of physical measurement, many educators and politicians have become more concerned with inclusivity and kidsā€™ mental health. ā€œWeā€™re focused on making sure schools are safe and inclusive for all kids,ā€ says Cheryl Cotton, Californiaā€™s deputy superintendent of public instruction.

Cotton also noted that the final concern triggering Californiaā€™s legislative report involved BMI, school weigh-ins, and mental health. ā€œA lot of researchers at universities across the state and the nation were really digging into the issue of body shaming.ā€ Those factors put fitness testing in California legislatorsā€™ crosshairs.

Fitnessgram standards, the lawmakers believe, arenā€™t inclusive. The Cooper Institute is in the process of incorporating the Brockport Fitness Assessment, the most widely used fitness assessment for kids with disabilities, into its evaluation. But as of November 2023, the Fitnessgram test provided no benchmarks for those students. The test defines different Healthy Fitness Zones for girls and boys, but not for nonbinary kids, an issue that catalyzed Californiaā€™s study after the state passed the Gender Recognition Act in 2017, allowing residents to identify as nonbinary on state documents. (New York enacted a similar law in 2021.)

In 2018, California asked The Cooper Institute to provide performance standards for nonbinary students, and the Institute partially complied. ā€œWith a push, Fitnessgram added a nonbinary option,ā€ Cotton says, but it wasnā€™t equitable. Students who chose nonbinary would get a personal score, but couldnā€™t be included in annual reporting because the Institute wouldnā€™t create nonbinary benchmarks. Instead, the Institute published a position statement from their advisory board asserting that results are most accurate using sex at birth, though teachers or parents could decide which gender identity would be most appropriate. (When reached for comment, Fitnessgram shared a statement with ŗŚĮĻ³Ō¹ĻĶų reiterating this position.)

In 2005, a landmark reportĢżtitled Preventing Childhood Obesity was published. It was commissioned by the federal government and edited by a former CDC director; the report has been credited with launchingĢżannual student BMI assessments nationwide.

Around the reportā€™s debut, the language surrounding national interest in kidsā€™ fitnessĢżshifted. It already had morphed in the seventies from concerns about military preparedness toward general health and disease prevention. But now, in a rejiggering of combat jargon, fitness was becoming a weapon in a war on obesity.

Instead of fighting foes abroad, school health and fitness programs would prepare kids to tackle fatness, the ā€œ,ā€ as itā€™s been dubbed in studies and scientific papers. BMI became public healthā€™s favored metric used to do things like monitor and adjust kidsā€™ health and fitness programs across the country.

The state of New York has the nationā€™s most robust BMI monitoring program, which was created in 2007 and operates through a partnership between the school system and the stateā€™s public health department. State law requires that 50 percent of all public schools in New York conduct surveys annually. New York City runs its own BMI monitoring program, separate from the stateā€™s, using Fitnessgram BMI data.

Around the same time, several states including Massachusetts, Texas, West Virginia, Florida, Maine, Arkansas, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, also passed laws requiring BMI recording in schools. Other states gather childhood obesity information via phone or mail surveysĢżor through local health programs, such as those . Or they rely on for a glimpse into youth obesity trends.

But in recent years, scientists have found substantial evidence that childrenā€™s BMI is a poor predictor of future healthā€”and even of current . ā€œEven in the ā€˜overweightā€™ category, itā€™s not necessarily predictive of poor metabolic health,ā€ says Dr. Hannah Thompson, an animated Berkeley professor who explores how youth physical activity can improve health. ā€œCardiovascular fitness is.”

Kids are naturally intuitive eaters, and ā€œwe disrupt that with messaging that weight equals health,ā€ says Alisa Dodds, a registered dietitian and senior lecturer at Loyola Marymount University. Forming strong social connections, regular movement, and eating a variety of foods, she says, are behaviors associated with positive long-term health outcomes. ā€œWeight is not a behavior.ā€

Itā€™s also not linked to , nor has measuring BMI over the past two decades . (At best, itā€™s at which child obesity is increasing.) Weight is highly correlated with genetics and socio-economic status, two things kids have no control over.

Meanwhile, kidsā€™ mental health has emerged as a primary concern, a crisis the pandemic exacerbated and that social media can fuel. In 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics declared kidsā€™ mental health a national emergency, noting that suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth ages 10 to 14. As of 2020, guns, cars, and drug overdoses are the top three leading causes of deathĢżin kids under 20, with heart disease and chronic respiratory diseaseā€”two issues often brought up in relation to high BMIā€”in eighth and tenth places.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the very act of weighing kids in school can harm their mental health. Thompson served as an expert panelist in the California study and also as a researcher on a 2021 study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, that found that elementary and middle school students who had been weighed in school were less satisfied with their bodies than those who hadnā€™t been weighed. Itā€™s another point in a spate of recent studies challenging BMIā€™s relevance to overall health.

Exercise is part of the solution for improving mental health. In some cases, it can be at treating depression, and itā€™s a powerful . Daily exercise is , memory, and concentration. There are many compelling reasons besides body size to justify school fitness programs. Nevertheless, Fitnessgram published in 2020, doubling down on body composition as a vital metric, even as Californiaā€™s researchers and legislators were questioning its utility.

ā€œPE is not supposed to impact BMI,ā€ says Thompson. ā€œThe whole idea of physical educationā€”apart from recess or other physical activity opportunitiesā€”is to help younger students build the foundation and skills to go on and be active later in life.ā€

My kindergartner wasnā€™t, in fact, going to be weighed in school as part of state fitness testing, but for our local health department. Itā€™s used BMI since 2007 to track the effectiveness of several school-based health initiatives, including a garden and nutrition program, and morning exercises. I met with administrators to ask them to stop the weigh-ins, showing them that our state had suspended BMI reportingā€”and every other metric associated with Fitnessgram testingā€”out of concern for kidsā€™ mental health, pending the results of the legislative report. They were open to using a different metric to guide their programming. But they couldnā€™t think of one.

Every expert I talked to, from epidemiologists to physical education teachers, is in favor of some form of fitness testing, because they use the metrics to design programs, evaluate their efficacy, identify areas of need, and track student progress. Public health departments run on metrics. Fitness tests are, ā€œfor lots of states, the only source of state-wide data we have on youth health,ā€ Thompson says.

BMI data from Fitnessgram testing in New York City allowed researchers to link socioeconomic status with weight. Fitnessgram data also has helped researchers see that kidsā€™ aerobic fitness tends to decline from lower school to high school. And when physical education programs stop testing, says Fran Meyer, executive director of the Society of State Leaders of Health and Physical Education, teachers and administrators can lose accountability for ensuring kids get that active time. ā€œThe focus on fitness diminishes,ā€ she says, when progress canā€™t be measured.

But when the goal of physical education is to instill a lifelong love of movement, progress ¾±²õ²Ōā€™t just physical. Itā€™s not a math test, with a clear right, wrong, and class average. Test design must be sensitive to the fact that a kidā€™s body exists at the intersection of many factors, including culture, genetics, mental health, and socioeconomic status. Not every kid is motivated by comparison. Not every kid has the same opportunities for safe movement outside of school, or easy access to nature and whole foods.

So, California set out to reassess the point of physical education and school fitness programs. Only then could the state identify appropriate measurements for its students, ones that take into consideration the complex nature of health and the varied resources available to individual children.

Fitnessgramā€™s advisory board believes itā€™s put together the most accurate, comprehensive measurement of student fitness in a way thatā€™s simple enough for schools to execute routinely. The California report, however, calls for measuring individual performance over time rather than comparing results against national standards. It also proposes eliminating BMI in favor of objective measures of aerobic capacity and cardiovascular fitness.

ā€œCardiorespiratory fitness is far more predictive of mortality than BMI,ā€ Thompson says, though she couldnā€™t immediately come up with a simple way to gauge it. And simplicity is key when assessing thousands of wiggly kids.

Expert panelists cited in the California report suggested using wearable devices, like a FitBit, to more directly measure cardiovascular fitness, like VO2 max (the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during exercise). Wearables can also approximate allostatic load, the amount of chronic stress in the body, through heart rate variability, the variation in the time interval between heartbeats. These metrics are not all perfectly inclusive, and take more time to gather BMI, but theyā€™re a promising start.

ā€œHealth interventions can be done without using weight-loss as a goal,ā€ Dobbs says. ā€œItā€™s about being aligned with health-promoting behaviors versus a number on the scale.ā€

New York City is considering cutting their BMI programā€”the most comprehensive in the countryā€”entirely, Thompson says. The move would signal that health officials are ready to move on to something different, though that may notĢżhappen soon. ā€œWe are always reviewing our processes to determine whether they are the best way to assess and promote student health, which is what weā€™re doing now,ā€ a representative from New York Cityā€™s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene wrote in an email.

In California, legislators will review the fitness testing report and decide if theyā€™ll move forward with recommendations, like allotting money toward developing the stateā€™s own accessible and equitable test. ā€œAll of this work ties into that inclusive conversation, not just around physical fitness testing,ā€ Cotton says, ā€œbut around our curriculum, and making sure our teachers understand our kids and have evidence-based strategies to really support them.ā€

Meanwhile, Fitnesgramā€™s 12-member advisory board continues to meet annually in an effort to improve the assessment, an act that shows measurement is not static. Fitnessgram can change. What metrics will reign supreme in the next chapter of kidsā€™ fitness ¾±²õ²Ōā€™t yet clear.

ā€œItā€™s a huge challenge,ā€ Dr. Weimo ZhuĢżsays, of motivating kids to become lifelong lovers of fitnessā€”and of finding the metrics that best promote that journey. ā€œWeā€™ll keep working on it.ā€

The post School Fitness Testing Is a Nightmare. Should We Get Rid of It? appeared first on ŗŚĮĻ³Ō¹ĻĶų Online.

ā€œThe easiest way to turn your kids into geniuses by the time theyā€™re seven is to front load huge amounts of experience, including dangerous experience.ā€ This is the advice of, the writer and educator who is perhaps best known for his compulsory schooling. For Gatto, one of the ominous signs ofĢż ā€œwell-schooled kidsā€ is that they are easily bored, afraid of being alone with their own thoughts, and in constant need of affirmation from authority. To avoid this outcome, Gatto recommends that parents ā€œchallenge their kids with plenty of solitude so that they can learn to enjoy their own company, to conduct inner dialogues.ā€ The bit about turning kids into geniuses is less about molding our progeny into mini Mozarts than it is about nurturing a desire for adventure that is inherent in all children. Gatto, again: ā€œAfter a long life, and 30 years in the public school trenches, Iā€™ve concluded that genius is as common as dirt.ā€ He is fond of an anecdote from Richard Branson: the billionaire founder of the Virgin Group claims that when he was four years old, his mother once kicked him out of the car miles from home and told him to find his own way back.

Iā€™m going to assume that many parents would be a little hesitant to repeat this experiment. Those who want to nudge their children towards being more independentā€”but want to avoid awkward conversations with the cops about why their four-year-old was rambling around solo on the interstateā€”might be drawn to the ā€œā€ initiative. Founded by Ginny Yurich, a Michigan-based writer and homeschooling mother of five, the project, which quotes Gatto , is based on the uncontroversial premise that todayā€™s youth spends too much time staring at screens and would benefit from more unstructured outdoor play. After witnessing the miraculous effects of the latter on her own children, Yurich started a blog in 2013 to chronicle her familyā€™s al fresco exploits. The concept eventually evolved into a movement, which challenged families to spend 1,000 hours outside each yearā€”an average of 2.7 hours per day. Yurich has since developed it into a business. Thereā€™s an selling branded backpacks, water bottles, and T-shirts. Yurich has and the account has nearly 700,000 followers. You can buy an app for $3.99 to track the time you spend frolicking in the great outdoors, away from the influence of your phone.

Iā€™ll admit that my first reaction to the idea of thousands of people fastidiously logging every moment they spend outside was that the incentive felt kind of silly, if not contradictory. Is it a sign of civilizational progress that weā€™ve gamified the idea of going for a walk, or having a picnic in the park? But as a parent of two young children in New York City, I also spend a fair amount of time fretting about my kidsā€™ limited exposure to nature and engaging in absurd negotiations to get them out the door. Isnā€™t that exactly what’s going on here, only scaled up for the general public?

Of course, exposure to nature and time spent outside are not necessarily the same thing. A quick perusal of the 1,000 Hours ŗŚĮĻ³Ō¹ĻĶų website implies that the ideal we should be striving for involves forests, lakes, and other such scenes of pastoral blissā€”not so much the asphalted glories of the big-city playground. But when I reached out to Yurich and suggested that her movement seemed geared towards families with easy access to nature, she pushed back and insisted that the concept was ā€œlocation agnostic.ā€ She noted that, while there are always pros and cons to any location when it comes to getting outside, big cities often have the benefit of ā€œwalkability.ā€ Whatā€™s more, the relative close proximity of friends could be a strong motivator for getting kids out of the house. As for the recreational opportunities in urban spaces, Yurich says that: ā€œThe asphalt urban playground is an absolute blast. It includes freedom, fun, challenge, friends, full-spectrum light, breeze, thrill, insects, chirping birds, and so much more.ā€

Thereā€™s certainly room for the unexpected: when my son was three he accidentally pricked his finger on a discarded syringe while playing hide-and-seek in our local park, which resulted in me having a long conversation with a New York University infectious disease specialist about the odds of him having contracted some horrible virus. This was also an experience with a hint of danger, though perhaps not the kind of experience that Yurich and Gatto would have had in mind.

I romanticize my own childhood, which was spent communing with forest spirits in the ±«°ł·ÉƤ±ō»å±š°ł of central Germany and included endless hours of unstructured recreation, back when that was just the default way that people dealt with their kids, rather than a marketable parenting philosophy. For better or worse, I was very comfortable being alone with my own thoughts. It helped that I was an only child with a large backyard and low threshold for self-amusement; I spent hours lobbing crab apples into the air and trying to skewer them with homemade spearsā€”a clear sign of well-adjusted prepubescence.

Since that is my basis for comparison, I canā€™t help but worry that my city-bound kids (aged one and six) will grow up somehow spiritually bereft, destined to turn into neurotic adults because they didnā€™t spend quite as much time in their formative years getting stung by bees, or whittling rudimentary ordnance out of sticks. These concerns are compounded by my inevitable awareness of those Edenic towns in other parts of the country where access to the outdoors constitutes a significant part of that intangible thing we call quality of life. (Call it an occupational hazard of working in outdoor media.) I spend more time than Iā€™d like to admit envying what I assume is a vast population of supremely even-tempered children in, say, Telluride, or some hamlet in the Adirondacks that hasnā€™t yet been ruined by yuppies like me, where robust preschoolers are surely splitting firewood by hand.

All of which is to say that I understand the parental anxieties that have fed the popularity of the 1,000 Hours ŗŚĮĻ³Ō¹ĻĶų movement. This enthusiasm, I suspect, comes as much from a generational paranoia about the increasing ubiquity of screens as from a belief in the wholesome effects of nature play. My fellow cohort of young-ish parents and I are the last generation that experienced childhood in the prelapsarian era before smartphones and the internet corrupted everything. (I find myself constantly toggling between thinking that this kind of panic mentality is exaggerated, and thinking that, no, actually, there is something genuinely sinister about the way that my one-year-old daughter covets my phone.)

Thankfully, thereā€™s an easy cure for overindulging in the back-in-my-day mindset: I find it helps to remember that my own father grew up on a farm in post-war Austria. In his own telling, he spent his entire summers outside, sleeping in an alpine cabin and wearing the same disgusting pair of lederhosen every single day while he fished for trout in mountain streams. (Talk about romanticizing your youth.) Compared to him, my own boyhood was impossibly sheltered. And I still like to think that I turned out only moderately deranged.

Itā€™s a useful reminder that we should resist the notion that thereā€™s some kind of hierarchy of outdoor experience, at least when it comes to our kids. But I agree with the general ethos that we should embrace whatever version of nature might be available to us. As Teddy Roosevelt, another famously self-mythologizing outdoorsmanĢżallegedly once said: Comparison is the thief of joy.

Over the past several years, my son and I have developed a ritual where we go to Coney Island at least once in early summer. Weā€™ll thrash around in the wild Atlantic before being beckoned by the lights of the boardwalk, the humid energy of a June carnival at dusk. Itā€™s hard to think of any outdoor play venue where your thrills are more predetermined, more structured, than the amusement park, but Iā€™d like to think that that counts, too. Not that Iā€™m keeping score.

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