Recess is for everyone

Author

Jeremy Intal
May 15, 2024

Good afternoon! Hopefully, you were lucky enough to catch the Northern Lights that were visible around the globe this past weekend. If not, you could always go to Iceland or just look at the pictures people posted on the socials 🤷 

Life and newsletters go on.

Activity of the week

This week’s activity was inspired by one of our readers who shared this post from Instagram of a parent who took their kids to a supermarket, and treated the visit like a trip to the aquarium.

So, if you plan to get grocery shopping done this week, this index card-based activity is for you.

Step 1: Put together your grocery list.

Step 2: Draw each grocery list item (or as many as you want) on an individual index card. Make sure to get the kids involved in the drawing or coloring of the index cards!

Step 3: Add an obscure fact from the list below (or any related fact you find on the interwebs) on the back of the relevant index card. The adults should complete this step to keep the fun facts a surprise for the kiddos.

Step 4: When you go grocery shopping, have the kids use the index cards as a guide for the trip. Treat it like a treasure hunt! After you grab each item, read the obscure fact aloud.

Here are some random facts about common grocery list items to get you started:

  • Chickens outnumber humans 🐔 

  • It takes about 350 squirts to produce one gallon of milk 🐄 

  • Corn is a type of grass 🌽 

  • Bananas are technically berries 🍌 

  • Strawberries are technically not berries 🤯 

  • Carrots were originally purple, until the 17th century 🟣 

  • Apples float in water because they’re 25% air 🍎 

  • A single pineapple takes 2 years to grow 📆 

  • Potatoes were the first food to be grown in space 🧑‍🚀 

  • Apples, pears and peaches are part of the rose family 🌹 

  • Cheese is the most stolen food in the world 🥷 

  • Coca-cola was originally green 🥤 

  • Honey never spoils 🐝 

Book of the week

No matter how much you prep, ever feel like your best laid plans sometimes fall apart?

You could have a thoughtful, event-filled weekend scheduled, and the weather forces you to cancel those meticulously curated plans. You might even have an engaging, fun-fact-filled, grocery-related activity all set and your car decides to not start for some inexplicable reason.

Saturday by Oge Mora is a story about valuing time together even when things don’t go as planned. This book serves as a reminder to find joy in the little moments.

Not for tots

Here are this week’s internet treasures for kidults. Happy rabbit-holing!

  • Do you remember how many words per minute you could type on Mavis Beacon? See how far you’ve come by testing how fast you can type. Feel free to brag about it to your 8th grade computer teacher on the Facebook. BTW is a computer teacher still a thing?

  • Are hot dogs sandwiches? Just like I’ve spent too much time collecting links for this newsletter, one internet sleuth spent too much time putting together this comprehensive guide on the “cube rule” to finally decide what makes a sandwich a sandwich 🌭 ≠ 🥪

Kidults in the wild

New newsletter segment alert 🔉 In the “kidults in the wild” section, we’ll be highlighting a notable human adult who’s channeled their inner child to expand their curiosity, achieve a childhood dream or acted childishly (hopefully in a good way). Here we go!

In this week’s edition of “kidults in the wild,” we’re reminded that you’re never too old to chase your childhood dreams. Sometimes (but not always) you just need to have the monies to make it happen. 45-year old venture capitalist Courtney Reum made his professional soccer debut in Portugal in early May. How? Hard work on the pitch.

Just kidding. He financed the deal and as part of his signing, gave the money-needy second tier Portuguese football club access to his venture capital firm. Sometimes money buys you happiness 🤷 

Stat of the week

Maybe you’re not that excited about joining a professional soccer team like our friend Courtney, and you just want to try a new sport. Maybe you want to try one where most people are just picking up the activity for the first time, and you don’t want it to be pickleball. Well, my contrarian friend, here are the fastest growing sports in America based on participation over the last four years.

Thinking about tomorrow, today

Do you play enough? We’re not just talking about sports or playing with your kids, either.

According to a myriad of scientific research, play permeates our brains with dopamine and oxytocin, and triggers the release of neural growth factors that promote learning and mental flexibility. Play also supercharges our ability to exercise our creativity. Perhaps most importantly, especially for parents of young children, it causes stress hormones to drop, mood to lift, and has an energizing effect. Like exercise, play acts as a super drug regardless of age.

If you want to promote a life-long love of and excitement for play, show the kids in your life (and the kid in you) how you play.

And if you’re wondering how you can incorporate play without having to build something with Legos for the thousandth time, check out this list by Dr. Stuart Brown (researcher and founder of The National Institute for Play) who defines play personalities to better understand the type of play that speaks to you.

Here are a few kidults playing in the wild for some inspiration:

Parenting-ish Headlines

We’ll google it for you

Look familiar? If you’ve ever felt this way, you should know what IYKYK means. IYKYK = “If you know, you know.” It’s often used after a statement or post on the socials as a way of referencing an inside joke or something only a select group of people know and understand. Now, you know.

Note: IYKYK is said out loud as the full phrase “if you know, you know.” Please, for the love of the youths, don’t say the acronym.

And yep all typos are intentional to make sure you’re paying attention 🙃 

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