screen-free childhood

Posts about raising children with less technology and more hands-on experience

White Noise Machines for Babies: 6 Common Myths, Sorted by the Actual Research

· July 8, 2026

A sound machine arrived with the diaper bag from a friend from the prenatal group. It was already set to what I can only describe as active tarmac. I left it on for a week before I started wondering what, exactly, I had plugged in six inches from her head. She’s two now, and we … Read more

What a Wooden Bear Teaches Hands That a Screen Never Will

· July 3, 2026
sensory learning for toddlers — two-year-old sitting in carved wooden bear lap drinking from pink sippy cup

There is a carved bear in a mountain town we pass through, taller than I am, sitting forward on its haunches with its front paws curled like armrests. It’s carved from a single trunk, stained a deep amber-brown, flanked by a pair of carved birch trees so the whole thing reads as a forest scene, … Read more

I Let Her Sit in the Mud. Here’s What I Talked Myself Out Of Stopping.

· July 1, 2026
toddler sitting in muddy creek bank at Oak Creek Sedona, hands deep in red mud, yellow dress — letting children play in dirt

There’s a creek at Oak Creek, at the Red Rock Crossing in Sedona, Arizona, shallow and slow, with a soft muddy bank where the water goes still. Last April I took my daughter there on a whim, the day too good to stay inside, and within about ninety seconds she had lowered herself straight down … Read more