News Quiz for July 26, 2025
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CBS News
15 minutes ago
- CBS News
Colorado volunteers uncover lost treasures and trash during Arapahoe Basin's Annual Mountain Cleanup
How do ski resorts in Colorado keep thousands of acres of National Forest land clean? At Arapahoe Basin, they ask for a little help from their friends. Sunday morning, dozens of volunteers gathered at the base of A-Basin for the third-annual Mountain Clean-Up Day. Armed with trash bags, buckets and gloves, they rode chairlifts up to the summit and fanned out across the front side to help tidy up the ski area's summer slopes after a busy winter season. For many, it was the perfect excuse to enjoy the high country. "Any excuse to come out here and hike around in the summer," said Ben Woods, a volunteer who returned for a second year. "Might as well take the opportunity to clean up the place that a whole bunch of Coloradans love to enjoy in the wintertime." Woods and his partner Emma Kirkpatrick were already finding items before even getting on the chairlift. "We found some pieces of PVC, probably some old snowmaking equipment, some bungee cords," Woods said. "Off to a good start." Once on the slopes, the technique is simple. "Kind of just, using your eyes, going back and forth," Woods explained, spotting a small piece of plastic. "Got a little zip tie here, just kind of just looking for color that doesn't match." You might be surprised by what you find half a year later, once the snow has melted and the sun has bleached what's left behind. The haul went far beyond the expected beer cans and wrappers. Throughout the day, volunteers turned in: All these items, either mistakenly dropped from a pocket or a chairlift or intentionally thrown down, will not biodegrade and can pose a risk to the environment and the local wildlife that call the mountain home. "It's not only for us," Woods added. "It's for all the wildlife that's out here, that this is actually their home." While the physical act of cleaning the mountain is the day's main event, Arapahoe Basin's sustainability team sees a much bigger picture. The goal isn't just to pick up litter, but to inspire a mindset that lasts long after the volunteers go home. Helena Robinowitz, a Sustainability Specialist at A-Basin, said the event is about creating a movement. "It doesn't really matter, at the end of the day, at the global level, if we reduce our 750 metric tons of carbon," Robinowitz explained. "What matters is that we perpetuate a culture of caring and sustainability and equity throughout our community, throughout the industry, throughout our political and economic spheres." For each piece of trash picked up, it's a reminder that anyone can make a difference. While the views from the top of A-Basin are spectacular, today's event proved you can make it just as beautiful wherever you are with just a bag, a bucket and a decision to leave Colorado better than you found it.
Yahoo
43 minutes ago
- Yahoo
"I'm Surprised That My Friends And I Are Still Alive": Millennials Are Weighing In On Whether Or Not They Had "Free-Range" Childhoods, And It's An Interesting Glimpse Into The Past
If you're a millennial, I have a question for you: as a kid, how strict were your parents? Were you allowed to stay out past dark and play with your friends, or were you practically on a leash at home? Well, people from our generation are discussing this exact topic, and weighing in on whether their childhoods were "free-range" or not. Let's just say, it's veryyy interesting to hear about what other childhoods were like. It all started in a thread on the r/Millennials subreddit when u/WesternTrail asked about everyone's childhoods: Related: "I see so many comments here where people talk about stuff like staying out until dark and not telling their parents where they were, or just spontaneously going to a friend's house and doing whatever. I can't relate," they said. "Growing up near busy streets in central LA meant I had more restrictions than some people apparently did. I had to stay within a few blocks of home, and tell someone else when I left and when I got back. None of my friends lived within walking distance, so when I saw them outside of school, it was on a scheduled playdate. Aside from jogs around my neighborhood, I didn't really leave the house without an adult until my late teens. Does anyone else here relate more to my childhood than posts about staying out 'til the sun went down? Did y'all really have free-range childhoods???" Hundreds of people weighed in with varying answers, but I've rounded up 16 of the most interesting. Here's what people had to say about their childhoods: 1."My parents purposely bought a house on a dead-end street for this reason. I'd go out on my bike and see who else was out to play, and we'd just hang out in various yards, basements, or in the street itself. We'd make up games that we played in the street, like 'baseball,' except everyone was on rollerblades and you were hitting the ball with a tennis racket. Someone would yell, 'Car!' as soon as they heard something, we'd move, and then get back out there when it passed." "I knew to come home when the street lights came on. If my parents were looking for me and didn't see me, they'd check the garage to see if my bike was there. If it wasn't, they knew I'd found someone in the neighborhood to play with. Saying this as a non-parent, it's one of the reasons I think parenting is SO much harder these days. Our parents weren't supervising/providing entertainment literally 24/7 like today's parents are. My parents got tons of free time when I was out in the neighborhood! And when I was much younger, they could pay one of the teenagers from church or the neighborhood a couple of bucks an hour to babysit so they could go out. Or, we'd go to gatherings where everyone brought their kids, and then the kids (even very young ones) were off playing by themselves while adults had time to just hang out with each other. None of this is an option these days!" –haley232323 2."I'm 42 and grew up in the country. We didn't even have streetlights — we came home when the coyotes started howling. You think I'm kidding, but I was chased more than once..." –Shabbettsannony 3."My childhood was literally just hiding in my room most of the time. If I invited someone over or went out, nine times out of 10, my parents would invent some reason to get mad. Cellphones made it a lot worse because then I was expected to 'check in' a million times a day, and it opened up a new avenue of dumb shit that I could get in trouble for." –Meryule Related: 4."I'm surprised that my friends and I are still alive, lol. We survived being attacked by a pitbull, survived my friend dropping a 2x4 from a tree fort build that cracked my head open, survived jumping off of roofs into swimming pools, and survived climbing on top of a grocery store roof only to be escorted home by the police. I could go on and on. Good times." –6BT_05 5."We lived in a cul-de-sac, and our house was next to a giant dirt area with hills made for bikes. Every kid in the neighborhood went to our same elementary school, so we were outside all the time, going over to friends' houses and hanging out. We didn't sit at home and watch TV, only in the mornings before going to school. It was the BEST." –lalalutz 6."I had helicopter parents before there was even a word for it, and it was an extremely alienating experience to grow up like that while everyone else got to play freely around me. Going to my house meant you had to follow 100 arbitrary rules set up by my mom, so you can imagine I wasn't very popular with the neighborhood." –ConsumeMeGarfield 7."I graduated from high school in 2007 and wouldn't trade any of my kid/teenage years for anything. In middle school, I made friends with my neighborhood kids, and we played outside all day. On weekends, we played capture the flag until midnight, outside with no parents." –ImCerealsGuys Related: 8."I'd literally go days without checking in with my parents and just bounce between friends' houses in the summer. Once, I was four days into a two-week camping trip with a friend's family in another state before letting them know what I was doing. As long as the police weren't calling or showing up, my parents weren't too concerned." –bubbletrashbarbie 9."I grew up in middle-class suburbia in the Midwest. Everything that is mentioned in the stereotypical free-range childhood is literally all the things my siblings and I experienced growing up. Outside all day, playing with all the other kids in the neighborhood, looking for our friends' bikes on the lawn to find out which house everyone was at. Walking into random houses (I mean, one of our friends', not totally random) for snacks, popsicles, soda, whatever." "Making up games in the cul-de-sacs, hiking around the woods and the creek, down to the river, playing kickball, video games, basketball, swimming, catching lightning bugs and pulling the glowy parts off, sticking them all over our fingers and saying they were 'diamond rings.' (Sorry, lightning bugs.) Eventually, everyone was called home for dinner one by one. Sigh, it was great. Truly, the stuff nostalgia is made of. Sad my kids won't really get to experience it because I'm terrified of too many sickos out there these days." –Ok_Area_1084 10."We were kicked out of the house and were back for dinner. They had no idea that we almost drowned in the river, got lost in the woods, got attacked by a swarm of bees, and almost got trampled by a herd of in one day." –quailfail666 11."So many scrapes, cuts, forts, tents, special sticks, bonfires, water balloon fights, sneaking around construction sites, riding my bike into puddles as fast as possible, hiding things in holes, climbing through the trees behind other and everything. We played every type of game. We didn't go home until mosquitoes made being outside unbearable. There was not enough potential danger around in terms of vehicles or people. A kid wouldn't necessarily be given a watch, certainly not a phone, as that wasn't a thing back then. So you knew it was time to go home when it was dark and you were getting bitten up." "At one point, I realized if I played too close to my house, my parents could find me and make me come in. So I just went even further away. I rode my bicycle on main roads to supermarkets and rode back with bags of candy balanced on both handlebars. I went to visit friends who lived more than a few streets away. I think when people describe this type of childhood, it comes in two varieties: the suburban and the rural. An urban childhood is different. It's security-minded, it's boundary-minded, as opposed to laissez-faire." –oldsoulseven 12."Once you got your first bike, you basically could do what you wanted. Ride anywhere and check out your friends' houses to see if they are around. You could ditch your bike in a friend's yard; there was no chance of it being stolen. No one knew where you were, and no one had any chance of reaching you." "I remember once I biked a fair distance down a maintenance road, walked along a river until I found a fordable spot, dropped the bike, then hiked up a big hill in a forest and lay down in a clearing and watched the clouds go by. I remember thinking, 'Not a single person on Earth has the slightest clue where I am.' The culture was very different. Everyone basically agreed that children on bikes had a perfect right to be miles and miles from home. Police didn't hassle either the kids or the parents. We always had to carry a couple of quarters in case we needed to find a payphone to call home, and we had to memorize our home phone number. I still have it memorized, decades later." –Krytan Related: 13."My group of friends used an old, shut-down cement factory next to a quarry as our playground. The local gas station had no problem selling us lighters while we filled up containers with gasoline. Made epic bonfires, Molotov cocktails, wild games of hide and seek, and built a rope swing in the quarry. There's a bike/walk trail system through my township, and I was regularly miles away from home on my bike over the summers as well." –No_Account12 14."My friends were all free range. Us, not so much. My mom was a SAHM, so she listened in on our phone calls. When we asked to go anywhere, she had to know where, who would be there, and when to be home. We always had to be home for dinner, and it was rare that we were allowed to go out after dinner. We were kept out of a lot of trouble that way, but I kind of feel like we missed out." –ThoseRMyMonkeys 15."I had a pretty free-range childhood growing up, and honestly, it's been difficult to recreate it for my kids. We moved into a neighborhood that seemed to have kids out all the time, but I've noticed that every kid is scheduled for SOMETHING; summer camps for working parents, sports, and extracurriculars, etc. Add to the mix just the challenges of finding 'your people,' especially when you didn't grow up in the area." "My oldest was eager to jump on his bike and roam and ask friends to play, but after a pretty disheartening encounter with another neighborhood parent ('let us know ahead of time before he knocks on our door'), we lost the drive and haven't found it again. Between over-scheduled kids and unwelcoming neighbors, it's been really hard to find that drive for my kids externally. I'm hoping this changes as they get older and even more independent." –Unexpected_Sunshine 16."I grew up in a small town in New England. My friends and I would ride our bikes across town, grab candy at the only store, and head to the playground. Or play in the woods by ourselves. When we were 11, we were dropped off at the mall for a couple of hours by ourselves. No cell phones. It was great. Sad that kids aren't able to do that anymore." –Competitive-Safe-452 What do you think? Did you have a free-range childhood? Let me know in the comments! Note: Responses have been edited for length/clarity. Also in Internet Finds: Also in Internet Finds: Also in Internet Finds: Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Are Rewards for Children Actually Harmful?
The anti-reward movement seems to be growing... but is it really backed by research? Sticker charts, earning something special for 'good behavior,' and paying children an allowance for completing chores have long been common practice among parents. Yet, in recent years, these type of reward systems have come under attack by many parenting influencers and experts. In the world of 'gentle parenting,' rewards for behavior are a big no-no. Dr. Becky, Big Little Feelings, Janet Lansbury, and many other popular parenting influencers advise parents to avoid rewarding their children— even claiming that rewards can be disrespectful or damaging for children. As Dr. Becky says, 'we are raising humans, not training animals.' Yet, at the same time, most child psychologists advocate that parents use rewards and most evidence-based parenting programs include the use of a reward system. Interestingly enough, both sides claim that their position is backed by research. So why is the advice of parenting influencers so different from child psychologists and how can both sides claim to have research on their side? What does research really find about rewards? The Anti-Reward Movement The crusade against rewards was initially spearheaded by author and gentle parenting icon, Alfie Kohn. [An interesting side note is that Alfie Kohn also led the crusade against the phrase 'good job'.] In 1993, Alfie Kohn wrote a book titled Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes. In this book, Kohn claims that rewards are 'useless' and 'counterproductive' because rewards ultimately make children lose interest in what you are rewarding them for and they become motivated only by the reward rather than the task itself. In other words, he argued that when you provide external motivation (such as rewards) children lose internal or intrinsic motivation. According to this line of thinking, rewarding children for cleaning their rooms could prevent them from developing an internal drive to take care of their spaces and, perhaps more importantly, from grasping the ethical importance of contributing to the household in a meaningful way. According to Kohn, rewards result in short-term gain in exchange for long-term damage to motivation, creativity, learning, achievement, and even moral development. So are these claims backed by research? What Does the Actual Research Say? The confusion around rewards make sense because at an initial glance the research itself is confusing. Some research has backed up the claims of Alfie Kohn and the parenting influencers, finding that rewards decrease intrinsic motivation (translation: rewards make children lose interest in the task or behavior that you are rewarding and they become less likely to engage in it when you take your reward away). Yet, some research finds that rewards increase intrinsic motivation (translation: rewards actually make children more likely to do the task or behavior you are rewarding them for, even after you take the reward away). A closer examination of the research reveals a pattern— rewards intrinsic motivation for an activity that a child already enjoys (such as drawing) but intrinsic motivation for an activity that a child doesn't already enjoy (such as cleaning their room). Even for tasks that a child already enjoys, rewards may only decrease intrinsic motivation if they are tangible (that is, a reward you can touch such as candy, stickers, or money). This is a really important distinction because it really only makes sense that parents would reward children for activities that children don't already enjoy and aren't motivated to do on their own. For example, if your child really enjoys taking a bath and they eagerly get in the bath every night, you wouldn't think to set up a reward system for taking a bath. However, if your child hates taking a bath and it is a fight every night, a reward system might be just what you need. Translation: Research suggests that you don't really have to worry about rewarding your child for the types of tasks you would typically set up a reward system for (that is, the tasks they aren't doing on their own). For activities your child isn't already doing on their own, rewards may help to 'jumpstart' intrinsic motivation. How this works is that rewards get the child to engage in something they may not have without the reward and eventually they start to see the intrinsic motivation. Going back to the bath example— your child may initially hate bathing and only take a bath to get a reward. Yet, when they start taking a bath every night, they may start enjoying the calming experience of the bath in their bedtime routine and the feeling of being clean. Eventually they love bathing for bathing's sake and, just like that, they have developed the intrinsic motivation to take a bath. Another example— your child may not be initially motivated to have a clean room but if you give them rewards for cleaning their room, they may start to realize that they like being able to easily walk around their room and find everything they need and they may start to enjoy the sense of accomplishment they get from cleaning their room. Ultimately, they become intrinsically motivated to keep their room clean. You can eventually fade out the rewards as the activity itself becomes intrinsically rewarding. There is also no doubt that rewards have other benefits above and beyond increasing intrinsic motivation such as encouraging persistence and improving children's control over their own behavior. In addition, parenting training programs that use reward systems have been found to have significant and long-lasting positive impacts on children's behavior and the parent-child relationship. An Important Exception… There is some evidence that providing tangible rewards for social behavior, such as helping others or sharing, may undermine intrinsic motivation (that is, make children less likely to want to help others or share in the future). This makes sense since these types of social behaviors should be rewarding in themselves. Intangible rewards such as praise or positive attention do not seem to have the same impact and parents should feel free to use praise and positive attention for any social behavior they would like to see more often ('I noticed that you shared your toys with your friend'). Bribes Versus Rewards Many parents have heard that they should not bribe their children. But what exactly is a bribe and how is it different from a reward? A bribe is when a parent promises a reward to stop 'bad' behavior. For example, if your child is hitting their sibling in the backseat and you say: 'If you leave your sister alone, then we can go get ice cream'. A reward on the other hand would be offered in the absence of 'bad' behavior . Bribes are a problem because they are actually rewarding the 'bad' behavior because your child may learn that if they engage in that behavior, you will reward them to stop doing it which indirectly rewards the 'bad' behavior. What About Children with ADHD? It is also important to note that reward systems may be particularly effective with children with ADHD. However, research also shows that children with ADHD may respond more positively to smaller, more immediate rewards than larger delayed rewards. Overall Translation Using rewards with children may have many positive impacts and we have no consistent evidence of negative impacts (with the very important exception of using rewards for tasks your child is already motivated to complete or positive social behavior like sharing or helping). More research is needed but the research we do have gives parents some guidance. Here are some evidence-based tips for using rewards with children in a way that does not decrease intrinsic motivation and may actually improve your child's behavior: Avoid using rewards for tasks your child already enjoys or is already motivated to do. For example, if your child is very motivated to be potty-trained and interested in using the potty, you may not want to use rewards. However, if your child does not seem motivated or interested, rewards may be essential. A good rule of thumb is whether they are doing the task without you asking them to do it. Avoid using rewards for any type of social interaction (such as sharing, playing nicely with siblings, or helping others). These activities should be enjoyable and motivating in themselves. However, praising and giving positive attention to these behaviors can be very effective and should not impact intrinsic motivation. Base rewards on the child's performance. Decide in advance which specific behaviors you will reward and only reward those behaviors. If rewards are given willy-nilly, they lose their meaning. Reward your child immediately and consistently after the behavior. Rewards need to be immediate and consistent or children will not link the behavior to the reward. Research also finds that immediate rewards tend to increase intrinsic motivation more than delayed rewards. Don't use bribes. In other words, don't use rewards to stop 'bad' behavior or your child may ultimately link the reward to that behavior. Find the system that works best for you and stick to it. Some parents prefer a sticker chart, some prefer tally marks on a piece of paper, some prefer apps (I personally love and use the app Stellar). Go through some trial and error to find out what system you can use consistently and seems to be the most motivating to your child. You may have to use concrete and immediate rewards for children who are three or younger (this is very important to remember if you are considering using rewards for potty training). Gradually stop using rewards when they are no longer necessary. There isn't research specifically informing when and how parents should fade rewards so pay attention to your child and notice when the reward seems less and less important and gradually phase it out. Solve the daily Crossword
