As my kids grow older I am more and more struck with the reality of how different this generation of kids is and will be than any before. I am not that old (not even thirty!) and yet my childhood seems archaic in light of my children’s childhood. My two year old can turn on his mini dvd player to watch “Thomas the Train” and skip past the boring “talking” parts on his own. The kids I teach are no different. A month ago I had a grade 8 class that was supposed to be researching notable figures in history and the Internet was down. We tried to go to the library but most figures were too recent to be incorporated into encyclopedias and so I had students looking up information on their cell phones and ipods! I find though that most kids have some sense of nostalgia and are interested in “old school” kinds of things. I hate to break it to you, but you my friends are now “old school.”

We have no choice but to embrace our ancientness and we can celebrate it this week by teaching our kids some old school activities. Many of them are quite timeless. Take skipping for instance. Skipping is a huge playground pass time. If you can remember some of the rhymes, try teaching them to your kids. If you can’t, look them up online! Another idea is to take out the sidewalk chalk (or to be really authentic find a rock that will “write” white) and draw out a game of hopscotch. You could also pick up a game of Jax or marbles and challenge your kids to a sidewalk match. You could even play for “keeps”!

It’s perfect weather now to pull out the ball gloves or a football and go to a park to play “500”. If you have a shed or another outbuilding with a low roof you could teach your kids “Annie Annie Over” where one group throws a ball to the other side and they try to catch it before it hits the ground and then run and tag a “thrower” with the ball.

I can’t wait to dig out the “old school” games and I think we’ll even watch “The Little Rascals” to top it off!