Discovering A World Beyond The Front Yard

According to Richard Louv, author of "Last Child in the Woods," the radius beyond which children are not allowed to roam shrank by 89 percent in 20 years. "For tens of thousands of years, kids went out and played in nature, and we are reversing that in a matter of decades," he said.

Some communities in Europe are trying to reverse that trend, creating, for example, cul-de-sacs that make it harder for strangers to pass through.

In the United States, when children walk to school or play in a park unaccompanied, Allen recommended a "buddy system" that pairs them with other children. His center also encourages "block watch" programs in which adults take turns keeping an eye on children playing on the block.

Rebuilding neighborly connections is crucial to safety, he said. "In a world where so many houses are air-conditioned and so many people spend their lives inside, we've lost the use of the front porch. . . . People [are] so isolated in their jobs and their lives that they cease to be neighbors."

Darlene Allen, president of the District PTA, said that in her Southeast Washington neighborhood, children never stopped playing outside, though adults now look out more for each other's children.

And in Brookmont, a neighborhood near Glen Echo in Montgomery County, Carol Beehler sends her three children out with 30 or so other toddlers through teenagers who play outside, sometimes closing the street off for impromptu hockey games.

"I'm always kicking them out of the house," she said, adding that kids have played on her block since she moved there 20 years ago. "They're supposed to be within yelling distance," she said, adding, "I'll probably get a call now from Social Services."

Children from other areas have been shocked by the practice, she said, recalling a friend of her son's from a "big fancy neighborhood in Potomac" who came over when kids were running through sprinklers in the front yard. "He said to me, 'Wow, where I live, only the workers are out.' "

Strolling recently through Mace Park, along Four Mile Run in Arlington, Katzenberger pointed at where the grass dipped into a creek, sheltered by trees -- a favorite playing area of his son Clyde, 10, who has named it the Mysterious Beyond.

Other parents have warned him against letting his children play there. "I know that people are really afraid of their kids getting snatched," he said. "But the probability of a child getting snatched is so low that I think you're doing your child a disservice by letting them stay inside and not grow, not be creative, not be exposed to the Mysterious Beyond."

Lusby agreed. "If we're always there, surrounding them, they will never see past us," she said. "We're not raising children in a bubble. You have to let them learn from their mistakes. They cry and you reassure them and they go back, and that's the way it should be. Otherwise, they have these blinders, and their world is not as wide as it should be."

At home, Katzenberger and Leigh showed off the tarragon, basil and tomatoes they had planted out front, and the wooden porch they built this summer -- both undertaken with a specific goal.

"We're trying to turn the neighborhood around," Leigh said. "You build a stoop, and you sit out on your stoop."

Katzenberger added, "It might happen that we're going to be sitting out there and someone might stop by and have a beer."

"So we do," Leigh said. "We sit out there every day and say hi to people and do gardening and so on, and I feel that we've made a difference in how much people are out and about."