Abstract: This paper explores children’s relationships with their homes and the neighbourhoods in which they live. On the child’s journey through life there is a gradual exploration from home to the wider world, with the neighbourhood providing a starting place for this exploration. Good neighbourhoods act as the centre of the social and cultural life of children and their families. However, many children are becoming alienated from their immediate neighbourhood and community as their daily life activities school, shopping, play, relatives, doctors disperse across the city and cars are needed for access. For some children the neighbourhood increasingly represents a type of terra incognita, a space they pass through to access places that matter to them. For other children the neighbourhood still remains the focal centre of their lives, the place where they interact with neighbours, play outdoors, go to school, church, playcentre, shop, and socialise. This paper presents the results from a study in the city of Dunedin New Zealand that explored children’s relationship to neighbourhood in particular their experiences of neighbourhoods as sites of social connection. It analyses the factors that both encourage and inhibit neighbourhood connectivity. Whilst the focus is on children wider lessons for planners generally are explored on encouraging neighbourhoods that encourage greater social connectivity for all.