I was so saddened yesterday to read about a 12 year old girl who drowned on a class trip to Long Beach. I have been reading with dread the stories over the past few years of adults and children drowning at the beaches around NYC, frequently due to strong currents and riptides.

We can not go back in time and save this little girl or the others that have died due to rip currents, but I hope to spread the word to all parents to educate yourself and your children to know what to do in case they are carried off in a strong current. Knowing what to do in a riptide can make the difference between life and death.

Summer is one of the most exciting times on this site. I love digging up all the amazingly cool stuff to do around the city all summer long, and so much of it is free. We spend so many summer days just running around the city, checking out neighborhoods and places we don't have time to get to all year long. It's really fun and I love sharing it here with you.

Our Summer Fun Guide is where you'll find all those posts collected in one place. It's got our lists of the best beaches, swimming pools, neighborhood itineraries, music festivals, concerts, outdoor movies, sports, even places to eat and drink. And, of course, there's our list of 100 Free Things to Do this Summer with Kids in NYC (not to mention our event calendar which is jam packed with fun stuff to do too).

What more could you possibly need to have an awesome summer? How about winning a Flip Video Camcorder!

There is only so much time you can spend at the beach this summer... and when you are looking for a day of instant fun, just head to one of the many fun (and often FREE) kid-friendly festivals across New Jersey.  Who can pass up a day helping determine the best ice cream in New Jersey?  Have you ever seen a dog ride a motorcycle at the county fair?  You will be amazed at the wide variety of chickens that exist in NJ at the NJ State Fair's animal exhibits, while you kids croon over the newly hatched chicks.  And you never know, you may have a champion sand-castle builder in your household! 

We love exploring neighborhoods with our toddler.  It gives you a whole new view of NYC. My 1-and-a-half-year-old and I have been exploring every square inch from Columbus Circle up to 100th Street, coming up with itineraries in 10-block stretches for parents and toddlers. We recenly posted about 10 toddler-friendly spots in the West 60s and this week we've dug up 10 cool finds in the West 70's.

Find out what to do, where to eat and how to have fun on the Upper West Side with your tyke in tow:

Today is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. Also called Midsummer, (as in Shakespeare's Midsummer's Night's Eve), the summer solstice has been celebrated around the world since neolithic times with traditions that are now a mix of Pagan and Christian rituals.

When I was a kid there used to be a Summer Solstice Celebration in Riverside Park that we attended every year which involved staying up all night long making music. It was one of the quirky, artsy things that I was lucky to experience growing up in NYC.

Today there are slightly less out there ways to celebrate the Solstice that still capture the sense of freedom, revelry, and hapenstance of those magical celebrations and truly are only in NYC events and are the types of cool events that your children will remember for the rest of their lives.

June mainly means two things to many parents: Father's Day and the end of the school year. And that means gifts for teachers and dad and sometimes yearbooks and, ugh, what to do with all the priceless artwork that comes home from your child's classroom. Whew. It's a lot.

One thing that won't make your life easier (we're not going to lie to you), but may make it nicer is digital photo book services that let you make great gifts and memory books from your photos, children's artworks or writing. The great thing about photo books is they slide neatly onto a shelf, meaning those piles of artwork and great memories can be easily accessed and shared without creating clutter, something teachers appreciate as much as you do.

Here are some places to make great books including a place you can do it right here in person in NYC. And we've got discount codes too!