Jonah and I want to move to Philadelphia. I’m not sure how long this will last, but we just returned from a four-day trip, just the two of us, and—despite some (inevitable?) challenges—had a pretty great time.

Wow. The Please Touch Museum, an incredible and imaginative kids’ museum. Its Alice in Wonderland section had a shrinking hallway and flamingos for hitting balls through playing-card-soldier arches. A grocery store with little shopping carts, goods you can fill them with, and cash registers where you can pretend to pay for them or play cashier. (And a kitchen with cabinets and fridges to stock.)

Wow. The Franklin Institute, with its gigantomous human heart. Pretend you’re a blood cell and take a trip through, learning about how the heart and lungs work together. A planetarium show on black holes—how can you beat that?! And a space exhibit where you can build your own Mars land rover and then test it out.

Wow. The Liberty Bell, in the flesh (so to speak)! And a sweet, knowledgeable park ranger who listened to the kids, engaged them, and handed out Liberty Bell cards for asking good questions.

Jonah and I happened upon an alleyway with a bumpy brick street, posts for securing your horse, buildings with wooden windows (now sealed shut), and lanterns (now containing energy-saving lightbulbs). We wondered what it might be like to live right in the middle of a busy city and yet on a quiet street belonging to another century.

We visited to a playground in a cute neighborhood with a huge Whole Foods and an ordinary grocery store on opposite corners. This is where I decided we should live. (I wonder what the rents are like?)

It’s ironic that shortly before we left, Terry Gross, whose interview program airs from WHYY, the Philadelphia NPR station, spoke to an education reporter from The Philadelphia Inquirer who’d written about the high number of federal investigations into charter schools in the Philadelphia area. Charges involve nepotism, embezzlement, and other nefarious deeds. And it arose during the conversation that many Philadelphia parents prefer charter schools because of the high level of violence in Philly public schools.

There is no Shangri-La, is there?

But it was good to get away, even for a short while. Good to be away from e-mail, and my Facebook addiction, and to have an anonymous someone supply us with clean towels each day. I loved that the hotel had large glass containers of fruit-infused water in the lobby. Jonah didn’t like them so much, probably because they also contained herbs, but I found it refreshing and healthy, as well as lovely to behold. Jonah came up with a similar concoction to create at home that included every type of food he could imagine, including cheese and peanut butter. (I’m hoping he doesn’t insist on trying it.)

They were the best of times, they were the worst of times, leading me once again to question my parenting skills, my sanity, my maturity. Jonah was in temper-tantrum mode, freaking out over my insistence that he use the potty (he needed to go every time) or have something to eat (he’d turn out to be famished). And I had moments of extreme stress, as when a Phlash bus driver gave us the incorrect time for the last bus from Franklin Square (which is not, as advertised, a wonderland, but a so-so park and playground with a cool carousel and expensive miniature golf course) and we ended up waiting in the rain for a bus that was not to come. Thunder and lightening ensued. I pulled out my transit map, which I found nearly impossible to make sense of, and found a station within walking distance (but a somewhat long walking distance for a four-year-old).

Being only about a third taller than he is, I can carry my child only for short periods; I then have to insist on his walking. This leads to conflict. His running and/or walking off at times also led to conflicts and stress and resentment (I’ve done all this for him and he’s so ungrateful! No—I didn’t actually say that to him. But I thought it.). I am not proud to report that on our last day, on a particularly long walk to that playground, I became so freakin’ frustrated at his walking away (and not listening to me) that I hurled his one-third-full plastic cup of milk from Starbucks onto the sidewalk, creating a mini milk explosion.

My internal jury is out on that one, though it did get us past our impasse. It got us talking. And we forgave each other. But was it one of our better moments? Not a chance.

…

Aviva Luria recently created the blog Old Mom, Young Child, which can be found at omyc.wordpress.com, a glimpse into the mind of a sometime writer who became a mom at the ripe age of 42. Aviva, who has a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a master’s in English and creative writing, has published work in an array of places, from The San Francisco Examiner and The National Post(one of Canada’s national newspapers) to the literary journals The Mississippi Review, Kalliope, andGrain,and the magazine Canadian Living. A radio junkie, she also contributed stories to a couple of CBC radio programs. (That’s in Canada, eh?)

Having grown up on Long Island, she has lived in London; San Francisco, Berkeley, and Davis, California; Ontario, Canada; and other odd and wonderful places. She lives with her husband, a physics professor, and their son, born in 2007, who is the wonder and light of her life.

courtesy of fullhandsx3.blogspot.com

Family Biking Tidbits from One Family Bike Commuter

1. Find a bicycling friend.  When figuring out your family riding, go ahead and reach out to another bicyclist.  Perhaps you two can go for a ride together before adding the kids.  Maybe this bikey friend can help you plan a good route to get to the library that doesn’t take you on streets too busy with auto traffic.  Ask to try out another’s cargo bike.  Ride together to camp or school drop-off.  Even if you cannot find a cyclist right down the street, go ahead and reach out to others via the web.  When we first started family bike commuting, the folks we met through the Internet were invaluable.   We asked their advice and looked to them for inspiration.  It helps to see what others are doing and sometimes their example makes you stop and think, “Hey, maybe we could do that, too.”  We have found fellow bike folks, both local and virtual, to be extremely generous and open to our many questions.

2. Find a bike shop that makes you feel comfortable.  I admitted in my first post that I don’t wear padded bike shorts and have never fixed a bike flat on my own.  Sometimes it can seem intimidating to be around folks with far more technical knowledge about bicycles than I have, who race bikes, or train hundreds of miles each week on their skinny, fast cycles.  However, find a bike shop that makes you feel like you belong, too.  Many shops see the growing interest in bike commuting and everyday utilitarian cycling so they carry items beyond those skinny, fast road bikes.  Some shops are starting to cater more specifically to commuters or even specifically, cargo bikes.  We are extremely fortunate to be supported in our family biking adventures by one local shop, The Devil’s Gear, here in New Haven.  The folks who work there have always been enthusiastic and friendly with our family, helpful about ordering bikes/parts we need or want, and patient with our many questions and my sons’ desires to test out every bike horn in the shop, numerous times.

3. Check out New Haven’s Street Smarts Cycling Manual.  The New Haven area has a strong group of bike advocates in Elm City Cycling who have worked for years to make our local community a more bike-friendly place.  They have been aided by some solid partners in the city government, and in particular, those who work for the Street Smarts Campaign. Recently, Street Smarts published a helpful manual called “Smart Cycling: A Handbook for New Haven Bicyclists.”  It is worth it to read through this manual, perhaps more than once, and if your kids are an appropriate age, share it with them.  Learn the rules of the road and to use the words of Travis Wittwer, a committed family bicyclist from Portland, Oregon, “Be a visible, safe, competent, and courteous family on bikes for others to see that it is, indeed, safe.”

4. Start small. To quote from the U.S. Secretary of Transportation’s blog, Fast Lanes,

“High gas prices are hitting American families in their wallets and pockets pretty hard these days.  But did you know that more than 40 percent of urban trips in the United States are less than two miles, yet 90 percent of those short trip are taken by car?”

Go ahead and plan to take a bike ride once a week to start.  Think about one of those less-than-two-mile trips when you normally might take a car. Find a route on streets where you are comfortable riding.  The more you are out there on your bike, the more you’ll feel comfortable doing so on your bike. Likewise, the more family bicyclists out there on the road, the safer it is for all.  So take that one trip to start.  Make sure your gear is in good working order and you have all those provisions you need, kids’ snacks, sippy cups, etc. including a U-Lock (really, make this a part of your investment).  However, it doesn’t matter how long you ride for or how far you go, just give it a try.

courtesy of fullhands on Flickr

5. Have fun.  My family has had tons of adventures getting around town by bike. Some of those seemingly onerous parent errands suddenly became joyous when we did them together on our bikes.  So allow yourself to rediscover the joy you may have experienced pedaling out there as a kid or discover this joyful experience for the first time.  And if you need to reassure yourself, read Totcycle’s wonderful post “Is Family Cycling Safe?”  But mostly, mostly, have fun!

Sure, I had seen baby seats on the back of bikes and even the occasional Trail-a-Bike.  But beyond bike trailers, I was stumped by any biking options available to me as a momma of twins.  Feeling uncomfortable riding on city streets with the boys sitting low and far behind me, I didn’t think there was any way we could get around by bike. Thankfully, I was proved wrong and since our discovery of cargo bikes nearly three years ago, it is clear that the family biking options out there have grown.

Here are various family bike set-ups that accommodate a number of different aged children (click the links to see examples).

Child Seats

• Back: for toddlers and even for bigger kids up to 75 lbs
• Front: like this iBert,  the BoBike Mini, and the Yepp Mini
• Gotta love the mamafiets (mama-bikes) that have both front and back seats like this one and this one even equipped with a windshield.  The Japanese versions or “mamacharis” are incredible.

Bike Trailers

• Burleys are a brand many know but there are lots of options available out there, including ones that convert to strollers.

Trail-a-Bike/ Tag-Along

• These go by various names but they look like this and this and kids get to pedal along.
• Here’s a different take on this, where you can purchase a bracket to attach your child’s regular  bike to your own and tow him/her around this way.

Convertible bikes

• There are now products out there like the Zigo and the TrioBike that convert from a regular bike to a bike with front child carrier to a stroller. I was especially excited to see a Taga bike at the Wooster Square Cherry Blossom Festival this year. This local family had double seats (if only I had my camera with me).

Box Bikes/ Bucket Bikes/ Cargo Trikes

This is the cargo bike that started it all for us. Think of it as the minivan of bikes: space for multiple kids and all the stuff we schlep around with them.

• Bakfiets: The Dutch wheelbarrow-type-bucket-in-front bike like this, this, and this.   Here’s a couple of USA-made versions like the Joe’s Bike’s  and Metrofiets (hers even has an electric assist!) and Copenhagen’s Bullitt. Small tidbit: pronounced “bak-feet;” plural is “bakfietsen.”
• Madsen: US company with the Tupperware-like bucket in the back. There are a few local families riding Madsens and New Haven’s Devil’s Gear Bike Shop is a Madsen dealer.
• Boxcycle/Christiana Trikes: Some folks are more comfortable on three wheels instead of two.  Originally harder to find on the East Coast, these trikes are really popping up all around!  I was excited to see a few parked along the sidewalks last time I visited New York City.

Longtail Bikes

These cargo bikes have an extended tail that allows a rider to carry passengers and/or a whole lot of freight (like large furniture!).

• Xtracycle kits allow people to convert their existing bikes into longtail cargo bikes. Also, Xtracycle has ‘full’ bikes like the Radish and Big Dummy. Xtracycle owners can customize their bikes to fit their passengers, like here, here,  here, and here.  There are a number of Xtracycles in the area and more arriving each week it seems. The Devil’s Gear bike shop here in New Haven is an Xtracycle dealer.
• Yuba Mundo: This cargo bike is heavier than an Xtracycle and has a longer tail with built-in ‘running boards.’  See here and here. Like Xtras, Yuba owners can customize their bikes to fit their families’ needs: some add toddler seats, others stoker bars (handlebars for a back passenger).  Mundos can also be equipped with electric assists to help ride up hills or with extra heavy cargo.
•  Kona Ute: An example here.
• Sun Atlas Cargo: This is a relative newcomer in the longtail cargo bike family. It is especially intriguing because it seems to be one of the more affordable options out there.

Tandems/Triples

Some families ride with their kids using bicycles-built-for-two or tandems so the children can help with the pedaling. One can lower seats and/or raise pedals to fit younger riders.  The triples are most impressive.  Here’s a version you see less in the States with the stokers (riders not controlling the bike) up front and another example here, too.

I would be remiss not to recognize, that yes, the initial sticker shock on some of these cargo bikes can seem extremely prohibitive.  People continuously ask what we paid for our family bicycles.  Since we use our cargo bikes as an alternative to buying a second car, we figure with the cost of a car, insurance, gas, upkeep, and parking downtown, we’ve invested well.  However, if you are put off by the costs of these bikes, do not despair.  We’ve met a number of folks who have found their Xtracycles or Madsens on Craig’s List for a reduced cost. Also, as the demand for family cargo bikes grow, the market gets more competitive. I suspect we shall see lower-cost options, like the Sun Atlas Cargo, out there more and more.

And now for some photos of my favorite family bike set-ups where folks cobble together what works best for their crew like this, this, and this!

courtesy of fullhands on Flickr

Upon meeting me, away from my bike, your first thought would not be, “Oh, she’s so clearly a cyclist.”  I am an overweight, 42-year-old mama of three boys: twins, aged nine; and a nearly-six-year-old.  I own no Lycra cycling jerseys nor even padded shorts.  While I understand the concept of replacing a punctured bike tube, I, in fact, never have.  As a kid I biked around the various suburban neighborhoods where my family lived. As an adult, however, throughout my twenties and thirties, I never rode a bike– with one exception, and that was during my Peace Corps service in the Philippines. Even then, I didn’t have a bicycle at my site but only hopped on two wheels when visiting my now-husband, a fellow volunteer.  Peter had purchased a bike to get around his coastal Luzon town and would borrow another from his host-brother whenever I could make the eight-hour trek to his site. But the truth is that I had not ridden a bike, not once, for ten years when I became a family bike commuter.

It was really about avoiding the purchase of a second car for our family of five.  We had lived car-free or with one car throughout our marriage and arrival of sons.  When we moved to New Haven in 2007, we looked for a rental apartment that would allow us to remain a one-car family.  After a year in New Haven of full-time, at-home parenting, I was offered a position at a school about two miles away from our apartment. My older sons, then six, would join me there as students.  Two miles was too long for two sets of six-year-old legs to walk to and from school daily, but it seemed, well, silly to drive just two miles every day, hogging the one car we owned for four measly miles to-and-from work.  With no public transportation options available, I began telling friends, with a joking edge, that I was going to buy a rickshaw, a pedicab to get the three of us to school.  I actually did begin researching pedicabs on the web, seeing only commercial options, and knowing we could never quite pull this off.

courtesy of fullhands on Flickr

In October of 2008, I spent a weekend away with a friend from Maine.  Andrea, a committed environmentalist (think twins, cloth diapers, Maine winters, and no clothes dryer), heard my story of the two-mile commute and my aim to remain a one-car family, and replied, “You should buy a bakfiets.”  As I had never heard of such a thing, she explained that it was a type of Dutch bike seen around Portland, Oregon, that had a wheelbarrow-esque front with a bench seat for kids.  I remember asking her to write out the name of such a contraption, which she did on a scrap of paper that I then slipped into my jeans.  When I returned home, I typed ‘bakfiets’ into a Google search and seeing the initial photo, my first exposure to this thing called ‘a cargo bike,’ I suddenly became a woman possessed.   I reached out to anyone on the web I could find that sold or owned a bakfiets (pronounced BAHK-feets and meaning ‘box bike’ in Dutch), and I became convinced that this was just what my family needed.

courtesy of fullhands on Flickr

It took four months of research and discussion about investing in such a bike before ours arrived on a cold February afternoon.   We had no idea that we had just found our new passion.  Initially, we started with the school commute.  Then we discovered we could load the bike with the boys and their instruments and head down to the Neighborhood Music School for their Saturday morning lessons.  Suddenly, we realized that the majority of our errands could be done by bike and the more we rode, the more we found we were able to do by bike.  When the kids’ schedules took us in opposite directions, Peter and I began to jockey over who got to ride the bakfiets and who was stuck driving the car.  Investing in a second cargo bike, this time a longtail one, an Xtracycle Radish, allowed us both to take bikes and leave the car parked at home.

courtesy of fullhands on Flickr

We still own a car.  We drive it when necessary.  But whenever we have the option, we take our cargo bikes.  We’ve loved the greater connections we’ve developed in our community, heading out on two wheels, noticing more, interacting with different people, easily pulling over to experience something or someone we would have missed while driving.  We’ve loved saving gas money, making a small dent in our carbon footprint, and the quick exercise we get just getting to places we need to go.  We love the easy and free parking and we love showing our sons that there are alternate ways beyond driving to get around town.   And while all these reasons are why we ride, the truth — neither noble nor self-sacrificing — is that the primary reason we are family bike commuters is that it is just plain fun.

However.

An excellent children’s museum is a much rarer breed.  I realized this when I visited Explora with my nephews a few years back.  And no, it’s not just because it’s in Albuquerque, NM.  Anyone who knows me knows it takes a lot for anything in Albuquerque to impress me (I’m a Santa Fe kind of girl).  On a recent trip to Baltimore, our good friends took us to Port Discovery where the kids played their rainy-day blues away and where this momma not only ooooed and awwwed over the variety of exhibits, it’s where I remembered that all children’s museums are not created equal.  Port Discovery is in this special league of Excellent children’s museums.  Let me whet your appetite:

• It’s walking distance from Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.  Translation: if you’re visiting Baltimore, you’re probably visiting the Inner Harbor.  If it’s too hot, too cold, too wet or too anything outside – Port Discovery is a hop, skip and a jump away.
• It’s a children’s museum that appeals to a wide age range.  Many museums we’ve been to seem to struggle with this.  Port Discovery really seems to have figured out how to have enough for little ones to do -and- things that are still cool enough for the big kids (like KidWorks, an urban tree house we’re yet to explore)
• It’s a big museum with LOTS to do.  We’ve been there 3 times now (which isn’t all that much, but…) we have some favorite exhibits, but we also haven’t done everything yet!  Seems we’re still finding something new to do everytime we visit.  So far, here’s our list of favorites:

The Convenience Store & Fill Up Station – Kids get to shop in a kid-size grocery store, be the cashier, re-stock the shelves and then imagine driving home in a VW Beetle, after they fill it up with gas, of course.

Tiny’s Diner - Definitely the highlight every time!  Sit at a booth or a counter seat, grab a menu and be prepared for your kids to wait on you!  With a kid-size kitchen that’s fully stocked with play food and dishes, on a busy day it’s like watching organized chaos.  Somehow it works and works well.

Tot Trails – This new space is super snazzy!  The last time we were at Port Discovery, I remember thinking their toddler area could use some updating.  Guess I wasn’t the only one with that idea!  It’s now been completely remodeled and updated and is super duper fabulous.  Sandbox, light wall, squishy cushions, texture walls, toys and more.

The Oasis - We found this tucked-away room on our most recent visit.  It’s a space perfect for taking a breather.  Play a board game, read some books or sit in a quiet place to nurse the baby.

Bring your own lunch and plan on spending a good long time at Port Discovery the  next time you’re in Baltimore.  The kids won’t be disappointed and boy, will they sleep well that night.

the essentials:

Baltimore, 35 Market Place, #410.727.8120

Open Tues-Fri 9:30am-4:30pm; Sat 10am-5pm; Sun 12pm-5pm

Admission is $12.95 for adults and children 2+, FREE for children under 2

10. It’s only an hour and a half away via Route 8 and the drive is pretty scenic up around the border.

9.  It’s an oasis of outdoor beauty and quaint New England charm.  As long as you ignore all those other tourists who happen to agree, it really feels like an oasis.

8.  Not to mention, some cool history.  Norman Rockwell worked and lived in the area during his later years.  Activist WEB Du Bois was born and raised in GB.  And GB is home to the country’s first Community Supported Agriculture farm after the idea was exported from Europe.

7.  The Berkshire Co-op Market & Guidos Marketplace are two fantastically local grocery stores that also accept BerkShares, the Berkshires’ local currency (yes, you read that last part right.  local currency.).

6.  Baba Louie’s pizza and salad.  It’s worth the wait, trust me.

5.  We love every delicious bite of Richard’s Bread & Chocolate baked at his Berkshire Mountain Bakery.  (Although there’s no secret here.  The Berkshire Mountain Bakery was just named one of the top 10 bread bakeries in America by Bon Appetit.  Yup, A-m-e-r-i-c-a.  Kudos, Richard!)

4.  Splashing around in the Summer or my new favorite, ice skating in the Winter on Lake Mansfield is easy, cheap fun for all.

3.  Picnicing at dusk followed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the stars at Tanglewood is bliss.  Pure bliss.

2.  In all these years, there are still so many things we haven’t done but are on our list like skiing at Butternut and Catamount’s Adventure Park , for example.

1.  Two of our best friends in the world live in GB, which was reason number two we moved to the East coast in the first place and reason number one we hope to stay for a really long time.

p.s. Many of you have since asked me about places to stay in the Berkshires.  There are lots and lots of really cute inns in the area, and our good friends also recommend using Vacation Rentals By Owner online for finding rental homes.

Last week I told you I was going to get our train on at another place, but then that train show’s not open on Fridays which was the only day we could go :(  See, we had a weekend trip planned to NYC minus the plan (we knew we were hanging out with family, but that’s it).  Yes, I occasionally don’t have a plan.  But never for long.  I looked back at this list and was reminded about the Holiday Train Show at the Botanical Garden.  Minutes later our 3:45pm tickets were purchased online.

We drove down into the Bronx on Saturday, that gorgeous December day we just had.  As we got into the massive line to enter the parking lot, I took a deep breath and got into city mode.  See, I find that if I just accept that the lines will be long and I will be surrounded by thousands of people no matter where we go in NYC, I can deal.  Otherwise, I’m just annoyed and that’s no way to spend a weekend in the city.

Having never been to the Botanical Garden, we didn’t really know what to expect or what even to do really.  We had a couple of hours before we were allowed into the train show so we meandered on over to the Children’s Adventure Garden.  We followed M’s lead, watching her wander along every side path she came across.  We eventually came upon the oversized gingerbread house kids were playing in and then the indoor laboratory.  The gingerbread house was so-so.  I mean, it was just a decorated play house for the kiddos.  The laboratory inside included real gingerbread houses on display and hands-on activities like planting seeds, microscopes and mashing different spices.  We spent a long time exploring inside. The time passed super quick, so we made a stop at the boulder climbing area (i.e. lots of great rocks to climb on, up and over) and then headed straight for the trains.

That is, us and a thousand other people (not really, but it sure felt like a thousand other people).

Before long, this became the part of our visit where I say things to myself like, “This BETTER be worth it,” and “WHY did I think this was a good idea?”  You know what I’m talking about.  The line is super long.  The crowd is so tight you can barely move.  And then there’s that annoying person that’s standing right next to you, complaining about having to wait and pushing her way in front of you and your kids.  Seriously?  People – annoying twenty-something-immature-people – think it’s ok to cut in front of little kids and mothers holding a baby? But I’m not annoyed –  I’m in city mode remember?

So after a really long time, especially for a 3 year old, we made it to the trains.  And let me just say, it was worth it.  And.  And it was a damn good idea to bring my family here.

At first sight, the cityscapes are breathtaking.  Just breathtaking.  M was enchanted.  I was enchanted.  The hubs was enchanted.  Even little E’s eyes lit up as we stepped inside the magical little city inside the Conservatory.  If 5 month olds could talk, E’s first word would have been “wow.”  This Holiday Train Show was something.  It was building after building of NYC  landmarks perfectly constructed with an insane attention to detail using only natural materials – plants, tree bark, nuts, leaves.  I even overheard someone saying that the windows in all the buildings are made of plant resin.  Craziness.  And if you haven’t already noticed, this Holiday Train Show is less about the trains and more about seeing a mini-NYC all dressed up for the holidays.  I mean, I only remember the ladybug train/trolley thing because M thought it was the funniest thing as it zipped back and forth.  No matter.  This exhibit is one to add to your bucket list.

In it’s 19th year, I totally understand why the line was so darn long and the crowd so darn tight to see the NY Botanical Garden’s Holiday Train Show.  NYC is a special place in this world as it’s oversized, overcrowded and sometimes overdone self.  And as if that’s not reason enough to love NYC, this train show brings an elegance to the city that will charm the socks off you, the Scroogiest Scrooge and everyone in between.

the essentials:

Bronx, 200th Street and Kazimiroff Boulevard (Exit 7W Bronx River Parkway and Fordham Road)

#718.817.8700, Automated Info: events: #718.817.8777 ; directions: #718.817.8779

Open Tuesday – Sunday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m., plus some special extended hours

Rates are more expensive during Peak dates (Holiday Weeks); Advance purchase of timed tickets is strongly recommended

After I shot off an email with a list of ideas to my bueno amigo, I couldn’t help but think, “I wanna go do some of these things, too!”  So I’m sitting down tonight re-working my initial list and turning it into a ‘To Do with Kids in NYC’ list.  I’ve sorta thought about doing this before, so thank you Pablo for the final push I needed to get it done!

Oh, and anybody who really knows NYC knows that this list could go on and on.  For me, I picked out a lot of the big, famous things to do in NYC but also tried to sprinkle a lot of other tidbits I’ve picked up from friends, kidHaven fans and the ‘ole guide book.  It was hard to keep this list under control because there is just SO much to do in the Big Apple!  As it is, it’ll take us years before we get through everything I’ve included. Oh well, it’s good to have goals, right?

Kids Events Resources:

• New York Times  ‘Family Fare’ in the ‘Weekend’ section has a corner with current listings of kiddo activities
• New York magazine –nymag.com/family/kids/- has a full calendar of kiddo events
• Time Out Kids –newyorkkids.timeout.com/- has a kids events section
• gocitykids.com
• Theatre Development Fund –www.tdf.org- lists current theatre shows
• Lincoln Center –lincolncenter.org- for event listings
• Broadway –www.playbill.com- for broadway and off-broadway shows
• City Park Events –www.nycgovparks.org- often free events
• www.citypass.com

Super Famous Spots:

• Times Square
• Statue of Liberty
• Empire State Building
• Top of the Rock
• Grand Central Station
• Central Park – Children’s Zoo, Carousel, Conservatory Garden, Story Hour next to Hans Christian Andersen sculpture Sat @ 11
• United Nations (offers hour-long tours)
• Bronx Zoo

Museums:

• Metropolitan Museum of Art
• The Cloisters
• MoMA (+ story hour in sculpture garden)
• American Folk Art Museum
• American Museum of Natural History
• Children’s Museum of the Arts
• Children’s Museum of Manhattan
• New York City Fire Museum

Theatre & Broadway:

• The New Victory Theatre
• Symphony Space Just Kidding series
• Stomp
• Mary Poppins on Broadway
• The Lion King on Broadway
• Galli’s Fairytale Theatre
• Puppetworks weekend shows

Holidays & Festivals:

• Chinese New Year in February
• Children’s International Film Festival in March
• Street Fairs May – October (look under ‘Events’ in the ‘Spare Times’ section of Friday New York Times)
• Museum Mile Festival in June
• Arthur Ashe Kid’s Day at the U.S. Open in August
• Broadway on Broadway in September
• Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in November
• The Nutcracker, Rockefeller Tree, Holiday Train Show at NY Botanical Garden in December

Misc:

• Indoor Playspaces in NYC
• Circle Line boat tour –or- Staten Island Ferry (free) for good views of Statue of Liberty
• Explore food carts, food carts and more food carts
• Farmer’s Market, people watching, and playground at Union Square
• Ice Skating at Wollman Rink in Central Park
• Imagination Playground near South Street Seaport
• Washington Square, Rockefeller Park and Teardrop Park
• Do American Museum of Natural History’s sleepover, ‘A Night at the Museum’
• See a professional sporting event (anything, I’m not picky)
• American Girl, FAO Schwartz, Toys R Us
• Books of Wonder shop
• Cupcakes from Crumbs or better yet, Magnolia Bakery
• Dylan’s Candy Bar
• Counting taxi cabs and screaming lunatics (idea courtesy of Stephanie!)
• Brooklyn: Bridge, Promenade, Children’s Museum, Botanic Garden, Prospect Park,

p.s. The Statue of Liberty’s crown is now OPEN!  As of this post, “Crown Access” tickets must be purchased at least 3 months in advance and “Pedestal Access” tickets must be purchased at least 2 weeks in advance.

the essentials:

Book your tickets at www.statuecruises.com. Ticket prices include ferry ride & entry fee to sites.  Prices start at $12 per adult, $5 per child age 4-12, children 0-4 are free