50 Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do)

When we first came across the book, 50 Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do), the cover took us aback. It was almost a portrait of our childhood, a great deal of which was spent getting down and dirty with our adventurous selves.

The book is packed full of all sorts of ideas, projects and activities. Some of the more extreme ones being things like "Superglue Your Fingers Together" and "Play with Fire." There's 48 more, most of which are a little less dramatic, but all of which are built upon the precept of learning.

Though it sounds slightly scary to say a book is promoting children playing with fire, it teaches you that if they first learn to build a fire properly and how to handle it, than the playing with it isn't as dangerous — just like driving a car. You wouldn't let a teenager roam free on the roads without having learned to actually drive yet would you? Same concept.

The book is packed full of ideas that encourage parent/child interaction and is sure to be as fun for them as it is for you! You can pick up a copy for $25.95 over at The Maker Shed.

(via: Make)
(Image: The Maker Shed)

Comments (8)

What? LOL I hope there are age recommendations. Teaching my daughter how to safely manage a fire is pretty laughable. She is far too curious not to 'experiment'.

This looks great to me, kids are far too shielded these days! And this promotes parents doing things with their kids that the kids are just going to end up doing anyway without supervision, which would be much more dangerous!

I love this concept! My niece and nephews were taught around the ages of 6-10 how to build a fire in the fireplace. They are now the ones who manage the fire on our Christmas vacations and are excellent at it and responsible!

this would be the perfect book for me..as i am a by the book type! refresher of how much freedom we had as kids. i played on roof tops, candle fire, drove on my dad's lap...although there werent air bags back then.

couldn't agree more! kids don't have opportunities to get boo boos or make mistakes because they're over-protected. i don't want my daughter to burn her finger or skin her knee. but i did! and i turned out alright - and i learned that taking measured, educated risks is the only way to get ahead!

Cool concept!!! Kids don't have nearly as much fun as we did... While they do things online or on Wii in the safety of their "cotton wool" home, we actually went out and did stuff... skateboarding and tree climbing for real!!!

I work in a pediatric ER, and I've unfortunately seen some of the consequences of the 50 dangerous things people let their children do. Not to say that our children should never be allowed to take any risks, but I think there's a tendency to be very glib about the possible consequences. Sometimes when we look back on the possibly dangerous things we did as children, we fail to realize that we were very lucky not to suffer more serious harm than we did.

Coming from a family who hunts like crazy, I was taught to handle firearms even though I never wanted (and still never want) to kill any animals. I was probably 13 or 14 when I was certified in firearm safety. Instead of keeping me away from the seriously dangerous guns, my dad taught me to use it properly. I always appreciated that, even though I never shot anything except a paper target on a haystack. :)

Kids really are way too overprotected and sanitized. Obviously there need to be safeguards and limits...every kid needs discipline and structure. But you gotta let them learn...