Are your kids feeling the freedom of summer? Are they coming inside at the end of day dirty, tired, and looking a little feral? Do they have a now-permanent scent of sweat and chlorine and grass? So many parents could only wish. For kids whose parents have jobs, obligations, limited funds (for increasingly expensive camps), and a lack of community support, such summer freedom isn’t available. So the kids turn to indoor activities — which all too often means video games, TV, and more screen time. How does a parent reverse the trend? With small achievable steps: Make the backyard an enticing rule-free zone. Build in lunchtime micro adventures. Take long after-dinner walks. Stop overplanning your summer weekends and instead plop down at the side of a stream or in a park, set up a hammock and take a nap (with one eye open). The kids will take it from there. Because when children are allowed freedom — to play, explore, and discover — they benefit. That’s what summer is really all about.