This Week: NY County Fairs, Labor Day Weekend Family Getaways, Free NYC After School, End-of-Summer Fun

8/21/14 - By Raven Snook

Even though it's still a week away, Labor Day weekend seems to be on everyone's mind. So we started a special Labor Day section in our Summer Fun Guide featuring family getaway ideas, including destinations that don't require a car, plus last-minute travel deals on more far-flung excursions like Niagara Falls, Portland, Maine and even Orlando.

Our regional sites are good places to look for offbeat day trip inspiration. Just this week, Connecticut posted about the nature-filled town of Monroe, New Jersey shared a list of the top 25 things to do with preschoolers in the state, Westchester rounded up county fairs in upstate New York and Long Island has a super-detailed Hamptons and North Fork Family Guide.

If you're looking at a NYC staycation, our Summer Guide is packed with last-chance seasonal fun like water playgrounds, pools and beaches (that's my daughter at the Rockaway installation in Fort Tilden above, a must-see if you're heading to the shore over there).

Here's what else we covered on the NYC site this week:

OUR LATEST VIDEOS

We continued our series of posts on Coney Island & Brighton Beach with a roundup of our favorite family restaurants in the adjacent neighborhoods.

In search of some good, old-fashioned country fun? Try hitting one of these ride-and-animal-filled county fairs, including three right here in NYC!

We wrapped up our awesome SUMMER OF PLAY with a slide show of playful family pics, plus tips on how to throw the ultimate end-of-summer bash.

A nature center, mini-golf, kid-friendly hiking trails and an Adventure Course with a zip line—there are lots of things to discover in Queens' 635-acre Alley Pond Park.

Our biweekly news post includes info on TADA! Youth Theater auditions, how to apply to the NYC Parks Department's FREE after-school program, and the release of the ELA and Math Assessment questions and scores.

We organized our Labor Day getaways post by theme, so find out where you can get wet, meet the animals or experience an adrenaline rush.

This week's WeeWork project is an adorable nature wand craft.

Best bets for the weekend include the FREE Arthur Ashe Kids' Day in Queens, the final FringeJr performances at the 14th Street Y and the Volkswagen Traffic Jam on Governors Island.