Cooped up New Yorkers were given some good news this week: You can add a visit to Governors Island to your list of safe, outdoor summer staycation activities. The 172-acre island in the heart of New York Harbor reopens to the public Wednesday, July 15. Like many mainstays, there are new rules for summer 2020, including social distancing, mandatory mask wearing, and the most significant change: Reservations are required for ferry rides.

If you're looking to escape the confines of your home, Governors Island has long been one of our favorite summer playgrounds, with its vast green spaces, fresh air, and views of the Manhattan skyline. Read on for details about the summer 2020 Governors Island season and programming, plus learn how to score your ferry reservation. We've got more family-friendly picks for fun in our Summer Guide for NYC Kids.

As the debate over school reopenings rages on, New York City's Board of Health voted Tuesday to allow city daycares to reopen on Monday, July 13. Daycares must meet a series of heightened health and safety protocols to reopen. The announcement affects approximately 3,000 child care providers across the five boroughs and is welcome news for working parents who may have been called back to the office with the city squarely in Phase 3 of reopening.

City-supervised daycares have been shuttered since April 6; those supervised by the state were never ordered closed.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza announced the framework for getting the nation's largest school system back to school in September 2020. The key takeaway for city parents: Though students will be learning five days a week during the 2020-21 school year, it's unlikely they will attend in-person classes more than 2-3 days a week as the city adopts a "blended learning" plan for the upcoming school year.

"Students will return in September to either a blended model or a fully remote model if they so choose," de Blasio announced. "Blended learning means students will be taught on-site in school for part of the week and remotely for other portions of the week. Over the past several months, we've worked with many stakeholders, including our principals, to develop scheduling models that can accommodate limited in-person attendance."

New York City's public schools, which make up the largest school district in the nation, have been shuttered since March 16, and the city's 1.1 million students finished the school year remotely.

As long as there are kids and bicycles, a family bike ride will always be a hit. And while the streets of LA can be a stressful place to ride, not to mention keep an eye on kids on bikes, there are several lovely dedicated bike paths around LA that make a great family day out. So pump up the tires and pop on a helmet to enjoy one of these Los Angeles bike rides. No bike? No problem: some of the trails below have bike rental options adjacent to the trail, and many bike shops around the city offer rentals of all styles and sizes. And if someone in the family is a newbie, we have some tips for teaching a kid to ride a bike without training wheels.

As temperatures rise and many camps are canceled, we’re all looking for ways to pass the time indoors. After exhausting the science experiments and online classes, everyone might welcome some downtime. Thankfully, Netflix has a lineup of great shows to keep kids laughing and learning all summer. Here are our 21 favorite shows on Netflix to stream right now, with picks for both little kids and big kids.

For other ideas for keeping kids entertained, including more high-quality kids TV shows and movies to stream during quarantine and beyond, check out Mommy Poppins Stay-at-Home Guide.

Monthly subscription boxes for kids can spark a sense of excitement and curiosity for all ages. So, quell those complaints of "I'm bored," and requests for more screen time by ordering one of these inventive kits to be delivered directly to your doorstep.

You can even go all-in and sign up for a monthly delivery of one of the subscription boxes listed below. Monthly subscription boxes also make a thoughtful gift for kids. Whether your child loves a crafty project or a STEM-inspired experiment, we've tried to include something for everyone.

Summer 2020 may not be what most LA families had planned, but once we make our peace with staying close to home, it can be a different kind of fun. It can be staycation, love where we live, totally Southern California kind of fun. It can be old-fashioned, making popsicles and sipping homemade cocktails while the kids play backyard water games kind of fun. And we can take a break from stressing about what school will look like in the fall by picking a few of the wonderful things to do that we can still indulge in this summer around Los Angeles. The photos from summer vacation 2020 may all have masks in them, but we can be making wonderful childhood memories all the same! Here are 50 places open now to get you started.

Summer activities for New Jersey kids often revolve around the Shore, lakes, and fantastic summer camps and sports leagues. Yet, summer 2020 is the summer of a pandemic. There's no real way to ignore that fact.

It's a summer where families might travel less, go to fewer birthday parties, attend less camp (or none at all), and just generally stay home more. It's a summer where kids may be more underfoot or have less supervision. I'm not ready to call it the summer of boredom just yet, though. New Jersey is actually offering a ton of summer activities for kids. As we've entered Phase 2, the reopenings now include beaches, zoos, amusement parks, water parks, lakes, arcades, and playgrounds. Some NJ museums, libraries, and aquariums are reopening, too—at reduced capacities and with new rules in place.

So while it may be the summer of canceled t-ball tournaments and overseas flights, there are still plenty of fun things to do in New Jersey with kids this summer. Besides, the slowing down of summer life actually opens up new opportunities to explore those top NJ spots you've always meant to in the past. Read on to plot your NJ staycation with an abundance of outdoor summer activities, day trips, and even some at-home indoor activities.