What does healthy independence for kids look like? Lenore Skenazy of Let Grow has been studying this idea ever since she made headlines for letting her 9-year-old son ride the subway home by himself. In this episode, Lenore joins HSLDA President Jim Mason to discuss what she’s learned about unstructured play and child independence. Lenore and Jim also chat about the recent bill that passed in Virginia to revise the law regarding parental supervision—and how these types of bills affect homeschooling families.

“None of us wants a job where we’re micromanaged. Neither do kids. You want an employee, an adult, and a child to be able to figure some things out for themselves. . . . There are all those social and emotional skills that they learn—like how to get along, make something happen, or deal with conflict—that [kids] learn when an adult is not running the deal for them.”—Lenore Skenazy