There’s plenty going on this weekend for families in the Boston area, from free admission and Nano Days at the Discovery Museums on Friday to a Saturday afternoon puppet show at the Arlington Center for the Arts. A family festival at the Harvard Museum of Natural History takes families back to the world of dinosaurs on Saturday, and the Wenham Museum celebrates children’s books illustrators on Sunday. Read on for details about these and other great events happening this weekend.

Just because it’s winter, it doesn’t mean your family needs to be deprived of the farmers’ market experience. Check out 5 winter farmers markets in and around Boston. And for kids who just want to play around, maybe a trip to a toy store will do the trick - read about some of the newest toys from the Toy Fair 2012 that may just be making their way to Boston.

Finally, even though February Vacation Week has just ended, we’ve started highlighting camps and programs available for April vacation – camps for kids who are sporty, artsy, outdoorsy, all camps that fill up fast! And while we’re on the theme of camps, find out more about Mass Audubon’s summer day camps - for kids who love nature!

Enjoy!

Well, that was over quick. Even with an extra day, February has gone all "been there, done that" on us. Makes you think Spring is just around the corner, despite any predictions a certain groundhog (or the weatherman) might have made. Luckily Mommy Poppins is on the ball with our list of 10 Spring Break Camps that LA Kids Love!

Spring Break might put you in a mindset for Spring Cleaning, and we're here to help with that, too. Anyone can talk about tidying closets, but you know you're a Mommy when it's your car seat that needs cleaning. This week we take a look at CleanBeeBaby unique car seat cleaning service, and there might even be something in it for you. (SPOILER ALERT: it's a giveaway!)

But before you kiss Winter good-bye, you might want to take in one of the many Purim festivals going on around town. Purim is a Jewish festival that celebrates the salvation of the Jewish people, complete with an evil villain, valiant heroes, crazy costumes, and all manner of revelry, and it goes without saying that Mommy Poppins has the lowdown on the best Purim celebrations for your family.

Read on for our favorite picks for this weekend, and to find out more about that giveaway...

The New York International Children's Film Festival, Purim parties, Women's History Month celebrations, Dr. Seuss' birthday—this weekend is jam-packed with family fun.

The month-long NYICFF kicks off this weekend and although many screenings are already sold out, some are still available. Or you can head to your local cineplex to see Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, which is being released on the author's birthday. My son and I saw a preview screening and it was so good I cried.

There are also a couple of wonderful stage shows this weekend, like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer at the New Victory and a free performance by the Story Pirates; rockin' concerts like  The Dirty Sock Funtime Band and the day-long Brooklyn Kids Rock music fest. And we haven't even gotten to all of the Purim celebrations around town, including carnivals at the JCC and the 92nd Street Y.

These are just a few of the great things going on this weekend. All of our best bets are below. You can find additional options in our Event Calendar and our Winter Fun Guide.

This week's giveaway from CleanBeeBaby is a no-brainer. We all have car seats and strollers. They all face daily assaults from the toddler arsenal. (Cheerios. Goldfish. Raisins. Sand. …Not to mention an array of bodily fluids). They need to be cleaned. 

But we’re faced with a dilemma. Cleaning the car seat means taking it out of commission for a day or more (you can put the cover in the washer but have to let it air dry).  It also means taking it out of the car - uninstalling it - and then having to reinstall it ourselves. (No pressure or anything, but did you know that more than 80% of car seats are installed incorrectly?) We've found a terrific solution, and we get to share it for free in this week's giveaway!

As a stay-at-home mom raising a daughter, I'd like to think that we celebrate and (in our own small way) add to women's history every single day. But since March is officially Women's History Month, I've been searching for meaningful ways we can celebrate the achievements of our gender together.

Like February's Black History Month, pretty much every New York City institution plans some kind of event in honor of Women's History Month. We've picked the ones we think will really speak to and inspire kids—not just little girls, but little boys, too. From activism to art, science to suffrage, sports to politics and beyond, we ladies have done lots of awesome things. That's why we've rounded up awesome ways for families to celebrate Women's History Month with kids in New York City.

Sheri and Eli Gurock, intrepid proprietors of Magic Beans, keep planting more seeds and making their toy store business grow. It started in 2004, with a single store in Coolidge Corner. Eight years and 5 stores later, their latest beanstalk has sprung up in The Shops at Prudential Center.

The new Magic Beans store in the Prudential Center quietly opened for business in November and made a splash in January with a grand-opening Kazoo Flash Mob – Skip to My Lou through the Pru with kazoos – led by the incomparable children’s songstress, Vanessa Trien. It was quite a celebration, complete with a visit from Elmo and giveaways galore. For those of us who missed it, we can have our own micro celebrations by taking our little ones to the new store to check out the selection of gear, gadgets, gifts and games.

My kids taught me everything there is to know about frogs, fiddler crabs, horseshoe crabs, tidal pools, the marshes, and shorebirds. And they learned everything there is to know about these important things at Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Natural History Day Camp. For three years, they happily spent hot summer days mucking in the marshes, digging at the sandy shore, and skimming bugs from a fresh water pond—and loved every minute of it.

Mass Audubon offers camps across the state, from the Berkshires to the Cape and Islands. The organization has been running summer camps for over 60 years, and if our experience in Wellfleet is any indication, the quality of its programs is hard to beat. 

So... have you looked up your kid's teacher's rating yet? It feels like that's all public school parents and teachers and principals and newspapers are talking about these days. (All kids are talking about is having to go back to school after break. Perspective is everything.)

In addition to lots of links with different takes on the release of the teacher rankings, we've got info on a new elementary school in Williamsburg, a downtown school supply drive, a fresh debate over teacher evaluations (different than ratings, stick with me here) and a handy solution for the city's out-of-date school zoning maps.