Festivals and more festivals - the summer festival season kicks in to high gear this weekend, from shores of the Charles at the Cambridge River Festival (Saturday) and the streets of Salem for the Salem Arts Festival (Saturday and Sunday) to the Rose Kennedy Greenway for Figment Boston (Saturday and Sunday), Central Wharf for World Oceans Day (Sunday) and City Hall Plaza for the Jimmy Fund Scooper Bowl (Tuesday through Thursday).

Strawberry season has also arrived (a few weeks early!), and we’ve rounded up some places to pick-your-own, as well as - you guessed it - 3 strawberry festivals. And if “sign kids up for summer camp” is still on your to-do list, check out Tara’s last-minute finds - spaces are still available! We also have a great list of places to go and things to see in the Springfield area. Summer day trips, anyone?

Read on for our picks of the week, and be sure to check our calendar of events for more happenings.

Enjoy!

June 1 Update: Due to heavy rain forecast, Figment Boston has been canceled. Please check with the organizers before attending any outdoor event this weekend.

Photo: Long Island Children's Museum

Happy June! There are lots of festivals and fairs around the island this weekend to keep you busy, including a strawberry festival in Bellmore, a Nature and Craft Fair at Sweetbriar Nature Center, and the Brookhaven Fair in Farmingville continues. Plus Long Island Children's Museum is putting on a Blue's Clues production and having a summer celebration in its outdoor space, "Our Backyard."

Schools out for summer! Can you believe another year has passed us already?! With the end of the school year and start of summer just around the corner many families are eager to fill the (long) days with fun things to do. The Hartford county area has many exciting outdoor festivals to help us ring in the warm weather season this June.

The events this week are presented on a need to know basis. For instance, National Doughnut Day was started in 1938 to honor the women who served donuts to servicemen during WWI, but you don’t need to know that. All you need to know is that there’s a free donut in it for you. Do I have your attention now?

Charles Lummis went to school with Teddy Roosevelt; he walked from Cinncinnati to Los Angeles (and wrote a book about it), had a distinguished career as a journalist, and was an activist for Native American rights; but again, that’s neither here nor there. What does matter is that the festival housed in his namesake home is this weekend, with music ranging from tex-mex to hip-hop; dance from Irish step to Brazilian capoeira, and a backdrop of historic buildings.

Remember last week when the moon blocked the sun and we were all pitched into complete blackness and chaos and Cthulhu emerged from the bowels of the earth?  No? Not important. Anyway,  it’s happening again.  Minus the chaos, the blackness, Cthulhu  (though wouldn’t that be something!)  And minus the moon, because this time it’s Venus that’s bogarting our rays. You can read all about the Venus Transit, but here's all you really need to know: no looking at the sun without protective eye gear!

Is it too early to start thinking about Fathers' Day? (It’s on June 17, and yeah, maybe that is one you need to know.)  There are a number of free art projects your kids can do this weekend that would make great gifts:  check out the craftiness going on at the Petersen, Home Depot, Lakeshore Learning, (yes, maybe Dad wants a snazzy garden snail. You get what you get and you'll like what you get, remember?)

Read on for the events you need to know this weekend...

This weekend is the 20th anniversary of the Connecticut Trails Day Celebration. There's your excuse to get out and go for a hike with the kids! There are over 193 events all over CT and we've listed a few of them in our calendar: Flat Stanley's CT Outdoor Adventure, Hike at the Audubon Society at Glastonbury, Litchfield Community Greenway, Walk with Bethlehem Land Trust, Nature Walk at Earthplace, CT Trails Day at Sharon Audubon Center, and Roaring Brook Nature Center.

When we posted our roundup of June festivals and fairs earlier this week, we pointed out that a lot of our annual favorites take place this month. And guess what? A bunch of them are happening this weekend, and most of them are FREE. We wish we could clone ourselves so we could hit the World Science Festival's Ultimate Science Street Fair in Washington Square Park, the Howl! Fest's Great Howl Out Loud Carnival for Kids of All Ages! in Tompkins Square Park and the Puppetry Arts Festival of Brooklyn in Park Slope's recently renovated J.J. Byrne Playground. Plus there's a brand-new fest to add to your list: Family Fun on the Williamsburg Pier & Frolic! Rock Fest, where you can say hi to the Mommy Poppins gang—we're media sponsors so we'll be there dancing to all of the great kindie bands.

Speaking of cool music, this weekend you can also catch no-cost concerts by Dan Zanes, Elizabeth Mitchell and Mil's Trills.

Those 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 Summer Fun Guide, which is jam-packed with info on NYC beaches, awesome water playgrounds and other ways to cool off.

If you invested in a pair of eclipse viewing glasses or welder's glass last week for the solar eclipse, we have great news: you're about to get to use them again! As unlikely as it seems, we are to be treated to yet another once-in-a-lifetime celestial event in the sky over southern California, on the afternoon and evening of June 5, 2012. This time instead of the moon passing between us and the sun, our neighbor planet Venus makes a far rarer shadowy appearance known as the Transit of Venus - viewable in LA for the first time since 1882 (and the last until 2117!).

[UPDATED: December 1, 2012]

For our final post about visiting Chelsea with kids, we're taking a look at family shopping in the area. While there are a lot of popular chain stores on Sixth and Seventh Avenues like T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and infant emporium Buy Buy Baby, you'll find homey children's toy and clothing boutiques on the side streets filled with eclectic wears and playthings, and in one case a perpetually busy train table. Chelsea is also home to one of New York City's best bookstores for kids, Books of Wonder, which hosts free storytimes and author readings every single week. Here are our top stores for families in Chelsea, NYC.