Because I live in the concrete jungle, or perhaps in spite of it, I am crazy about getting my son involved in nature activities and events in the five boroughs.  I don’t want him to think he lives in a place devoid of nature - because it just isn’t true. Here in New York City we have many diverse natural environments and thankfully we have lots of groups full of passionate people dedicated to preserving them.  One of these groups is the Torrey Botanic Society, who is sponsoring Wildflower Week in New York City.  A week of educational program all around the city devoted to exploring and hopefully conserving the plants indigenous to New York City.

Saturday is the kick off and there are a lot of really cool and interesting things scheduled for adults, kids and families.  Here are some highlights of  NYC Wildflower Week 2010:

Another fun filled weekend is upon us and there is a lot of cool, free stuff do in New York City: festivals, early Mother’s Day parties, fantastic flea markets and craft fairs, fun and enriching art programs at the museums, nature study in the parks, and a very cool indie-rock fest for families.  Plus if you and the gang are artistically inclined – check out the art competition in Coney Island – it sounds like a blast.

The annual Tribeca Family Street Fair (Saturday) and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Cherry Blossom Festival are also this weekend –if you plan on going to either of them, try to get there early – they are both very popular.  There are lots of other street fairs too. Something fun on a smaller scale is the King Manor Museum Spring Festival (Saturday). It's also Wildflower Week. And don’t forget it’s the first weekend of May and some area museums have free admission times and special family programs.

There are festivals everywhere this weekend, Huntington, Long Island is throwing its annual tulip festival in beautiful Hecksher Park, I used to go to this event as a kid, and it was always a lot of fun – and all the kid activities are free. While you are there check out the Hecksher Museum of Art located in the park.

Read on to see more goings on around town and I hope you have a great weekend.

There's no reason kids should get left out of the all-day music festival scene. Kindiefest is a three day festival of kids music. The first two days are industry only (talks, panels, and showcases around today's family music market), but the third day is a huge public family music festival with tickets just $15 for all six shows.

I used to make Mother's and Father's Day crafts for my parents in the girl scouts, which consisted of painted wood panels that said "I <3 (insert parent here)" or flowers with pipe cleaners. Now you won't find any pipe cleaners here, (really, I think that is for the best) but you will find some cool, free and inexpensive crafts the kids can do to get creative, and bring you home something you can cherish/use to make their cheeks blush years later. Read on for where to make paper bouquets, crafts with real flowers, cards, cookie decorations, jewelry and jewelry boxes, and one event we think might be worth the cash.

If you’re looking for an enjoyable afternoon of stories, crafts, and a little bit of American history, all for free, do pay a visit to King Manor on a Saturday for either their upcoming Spring Festival on May 1st or one of their monthly children’s Hands on History days.  We attended one of the Hands on History events and found the crafts thoughtfully presented, the guides warm and welcoming, and the special presentation just the right length to be entertaining.  The free house tour we took after was also worthwhile.
 
Read on for more about this little-known locale and their upcoming children’s events.