About And The Little Ones Too

What this publication is

And The Little Ones Too is an evidence-led publication for parents raising active kids, and for anyone who writes about them. It covers youth sports and the wider world of children’s extracurricular activities: lessons, clubs, camps and programs, and what they ask of a family.

Children’s activities are visible: the game, the lesson, the recital. The work around them is not. We cover that work across four subjects:

• Time: The hours activities take beyond the session itself: travel, waiting, preparation and the shape of the family week.
• Money: What activities cost families: fees, equipment, travel and the costs no registration form lists.
• Activities: The sports, lessons, clubs and programs themselves: how children start, stay and stop.
• Family Life: How activities shape the household: siblings, parents’ work, meals, rest and shared decisions.

We publish statistics references, evidence syntheses and decision guides. Each one names its sources, dates its figures, and says what the evidence cannot tell you.

Why it exists

While developing ACTIQO and talking with parents about their children’s activities, we kept meeting the same questions. What do youth sports really cost? How much family time do activities take? When should a child start organized sports, how many activities are too many, and when is it right to stop? What do burnout and early specialization actually mean?

Good answers often exist, but they are scattered across academic studies, government data, national surveys and medical and professional guidance, and they are hard for a busy parent to find and weigh. We realized this research could be useful to parents whether or not they ever use ACTIQO. So rather than keep it inside product development, ACTIQO created And The Little Ones Too to publish it, free, for anyone.

Warm subject. Serious treatment.

The subject is family life, and we write about it with warmth. The treatment is a research publication’s: primary sources wherever they exist, evidence stated at its true strength, and our own analysis and opinion labeled as such. Our editorial standards explain how that works in practice, and our corrections policy explains what happens when we get something wrong.

Who publishes it

And The Little Ones Too is owned and published by ACTIQO, a company that builds software for families managing children’s activities. The publication covers the same everyday problems ACTIQO works on, so it is not independent of ACTIQO, and it does not claim to be. ACTIQO is the publisher, not a sponsor, and it is not the subject of our coverage.

The two do different jobs. This publication makes the evidence about children’s activities public, for any family. ACTIQO’s product helps an individual family understand and manage its own activities. Our pieces do not promote ACTIQO’s app, and what we report is decided by the evidence: each finding is shown with its source, and our own analysis and judgment are labeled as ours. The publisher disclosure sets out the relationship and how evidence is kept separate from ACTIQO’s commercial interest.

Who writes it

Each piece names the person who takes editorial responsibility for it and the date its sources were checked. Pieces are currently the responsibility of Alec Bantel, founder of ACTIQO, who researches the realities of children’s activities, youth sports and family coordination. We list only real people in their real roles, and we do not name editors, advisers or experts we do not have. How we use AI tools in research and drafting is set out in our editorial standards.

A new publication on this domain

And The Little Ones Too is a new publication. Before it, the web address andthelittleonestoo.com was used by other, unrelated websites. This publication has no connection to them: it did not acquire or continue any earlier website’s content, archives, authors, audience or editorial operation, and it does not republish any of them.

Get in touch

To report an error, ask about a source, or contact us for press, see Contact.