Pick-Your-Own Farms near NYC

Going to Trehune Orchards in 330 Cold Soil Road in Princeton, New Jersey is also a long trip. It took us almost 2 hours going there and more than two hours coming back but they have dwarf apple trees.  Even my toddler has to bend to pick some apples.

 

Garden of Eve Organic Farm and Market in 4558 Sound Ave, Riverhead, NY might be consider by some to be a long drive from New York City but it is worth it. It is almost an hour and a half from our home but at least they have organic strawberries.

They have a playground in the farm and my daughter absolutely enjoyed it. I think she enjoyed the playground more than the straw berry picking but when she looked at pictures she always say let's go back pick strawberries again.

Family Friendly Places in NYC

If you have children you probably looking for places where to take them during the weekend. Exposing kids to different experiences build their language skills and improve their knowledge of the world. Children's Museum are a good way to start. There is Brooklyn's Children's Museum in 145 Brooklyn Avenue, Brooklyn New York. They have Totally Tots exhibit for children 5 and under.

The Children's Museum of Manhattan in the Tisch Building, 212 West 83rd Street, New York, New York offers cool exhibits like Adventure with Dora and Diego.

The NY Hall of Science in 47-01 111th Street, Queens, NY is a nice family friendly weekend destination if you live in New York City.  Your kids will enjoy it whether it rain or shine. My toddler really enjoy it every time we go there.

Another great family weekend destination is the NYAquarium in Surf Avenue & West Street in Brooklyn, New York. The sea lion show in the aqua theater is a joy to watch. The dolphins' antics are also amusing. It is nice to see so many kinds of fishes.

Take advantage of the zoo around you. You can bring your children to the Bronx Zoo in 2300 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, New York  if they don't mind a lot of walking. The Central Park Zoo located in 64th Street and Fifth Avenue, New York is also a great weekend family destination. It is fascinating to watch the polar bear swim.

Another family friendly destination are the beaches. New York City has lots of beaches like Coney Island Beach and Boardwalk in Corbin Pl. to W.37 St., Boardwalk. If you prefer less crowd, you and your family can go to Manhattan Beach in Oriental Blvd. between Ocean Ave. and Mackenzie St. It has playground on both ends. You have to pay $20 for parking during the weekend and holidays.

Libraries always have a lot to offer children. The Queens Library have program for children usually during week days  that your child will enjoy. My daughter enjoys Toddler story time and Arts and Crafts offered by the library for FREE. Check out Kids Events.

NY Petting Farms

If you have an active  toddler, visiting a petting farm with rides and bouncers might just be perfect to channel that excess energy. White Post Farms Animal Farm and Petting Zoo in 250 Old County Road, Melville, NY can offer all these amenities. It was definitely worth the 30 minutes ride from our home in Queens.

You and your kids can feed the goats. Sometimes a cow is insides some of their pen though, whenever the cow tried to come near we just go to another stall.

It was surprising to see camel in a pet farm so it was a surprise.

There was a cute little village of colorful little play houses.

There was also a train ride.

We choose to let my daughter enjoy the bouncers as her last stop in the farm because we're afraid she won't go to the other parts of the farm otherwise.

The Queens County Farm in 73-50 Little Neck Parkway, Floral Park, New York has a lot to offer young children, from hay ride to pony rides to pumpkin patch or corn maze, my toddler enjoy herself.

Green Meadows Petting Farm located in Floral Park, New York is also another great family weekend destination. They have pony rides, hay rides, chickens, sheep and a lot more.

Reading Websites

Reading during the early years helps the child in improving his/her language skills. Reading also helps a person be successful in life. It helps a person acquire a lot of information. Reading can also alleviate boredom or even shape a person's life.


Fortunately for us mothers, there are a lot of reading websites that would help us prepare our kids for reading or improve their reading skills.

Starfall.com is a website that teach preschool, kindergarten, and first grade children to read with phonics. This website offers exciting phonics games and online interactive books. It includes songs and a lot of animations for each letter of the alphabet, animated interactive books and other reading exercises. There are also a lot of downloadable materials such as handouts for classroom use from theStarfall.com's Download Center. Although Starfall.com has a free version parents can opt to subscribe for up to three computer at home and teachers can subscribe for their class.

Storyline Online provides interactive  stories read by Screen Actors Guild. Each book includes activities and lesson ideas. 

Kol Jr. Stories has a collection of online story books that are read aloud.

Clifford Interactive Storybooks offers interactive stories and games for early readers. Students has to click on the right word to complete a sentence on every page. 

In PBS KIDS GAMES children can choose reading games, letter games, spelling games, literacy games or vocabulary games among others to develop their reading skills.

Interactive Food Planner

As if obesity causing health problems like diabetes, heart disease, hyperlipidemia is not enough.  ABC news recently had an article about the link between obesity, sleep apnea and cognitive problems in children which reported that according to Researchers at the University of Chicago's Comer Children's Hospital and Pritzker School of Medicine "Cognitive functioning in children is adversely affected by frequent health-related problems, such as obesity and sleep-disordered breathing. Furthermore, poorer integrative mental processing may place a child at a bigger risk for adverse health outcomes."  Not only that, UMHS claimed that obesity causes psychological problems, like poor self-esteem and depression too. Thus, it is imperative for parents to be vigilant so as to have healthy kids considering that there are higher chances of obesity if a child has improper eating habits.

Since diet has an important role in having  healthy children it is kind of reassuring to know that there are interactive tools offered by the government for cautious Moms. In USDA's MyPlate, you can find MyFoodapedia, Daily Food Plan, Food Planner, Food Tracker and Child Cost Calculator.  With MyFoodapedia  concerned parents can have quick access to food information such as food groups and calorie count once the food name is entered in the box. Daily Food Plan is useful if a cautious parent want to know the daily amount of each food group needed. All it takes is entering information such as age, sex, height, weight and physical activity to receive a customized Daily Food Plan.  Like in the Daily Food Plan, Food Planner also necessitates entering some basic information to be able to use the MyPyramid Menu Planner.  After searching for food, a list of the closest matches will appear.  Once  the item is selected from the list a Mom can customize it. She can select the amount she wants to eat and assign it to a mealtime.  After she add this to her menu it will tell how this food and other foods she selected contributed to her daily goal or daily limit. It will also gives her daily menu report, weekly menu report as well as family menu report. Like wise  Food Tracker or MyPyramid Tracker gives parents a fully accessible version of a dietary assessment and planning tool. With  Child Cost Calculator parents can estimate how much it will annually cost to raise a child.



 

Passover Puzzles, Games and Toys

Introducing holidays through play to your children will create fond family memories for both of you. Children learn through play because it is fun. When your children do something fun they obviously want to repeat the activity and with repetition comes mastery. And mastery brings a sense of accomplishment and confidence.

When other family member come over during the holidays it is valuable to have toys and games ready that will smooth the initial awkward moments until everyone warm up to each other. One of the toys that would be fun for very young children is the Seder plate wood puzzle. Since the Seder plate items are named in Hebrew and English everyone will be able to name the items.

If your kids want something fiddle with and want an end result to amuse them, try the walking matzah ball. They would have fun winding it and watch it walk.

 If you are looking for an interactive Passover board games try the Matzahkoman board game.Your kids would have fun with your relatives as they spin the dreidel to begin their turn. Each spin determines movement which can be either backwards or forwards and the amount of resources collected on that turn. Cards that are acquire in different ways during the game can be used at any time to affect movement, free slaves or block challenges. As players collect resources like water and grain they can combine them to make matzah.

Pick Your Own Apple Farms

Going to Trehune Orchards is certainly a long trip. It took us almost 2 hours going there and more than two hours coming back but it is certainly worth it!  They have dwarf apple trees that even my toddler has to bend to pick some apples.

If you are feeling adventurous you can try the corn maze.

There is also a pumpkin patch.

 

There are barns of different sizes. 

There is a little tractor and a big tractor available for children to try. There is even a wooden truck.

There are pony rides but if your toddler is still too young for one maybe he or she can just pet the docile horse in the stable.

Since it is a farm, there are other animals as well such as ducks, goats and sheep.

There are even two cute scare crows under a trellis.

 There are pretty flowers if you and your kids are in the mood for picking them.

Pennings orchard located in 169 State Route 94 South, warwick, New York is another pick your-own apple orchard that has dwarf trees. 

MobiGo Touch Learning System

If you're trying to discourage your kid from playing with your expensive cellphone, why not give your little darling the MobiGoTouch Learning System, an interactive learning device that uses a touchscreen and keyboard to control gameplay. She can clicked to her heart content without accidentally calling your friendsor using your minutes.

The MobiGo Touch Learning System is a next-generation learning device that uses the popularity of modern handheld electronic devices to build skills in young children. It encourages the development of important dexterity-based skills by shifting between touch-based games and keyboard-based games, and it promotes the development of skills related to problem solving, spelling and grammar, observation, and mathematics.




















You can select a wide variety of games for your kid based on skill levels and themes, which makes MobiGo a versatile learning device that will maintain relevancy as a child grows. The MobiGo keeps track of user activity and saves this information under a personalized user profile that a child can set up the first time she uses the device. Although other users can play with the device, only one user profile can be saved at a time. This user can log onto the VTech Web site to download performance information, compare progress with other MobiGo profiles, and earn rewards for a job well done.