What's happening in NYC this week for kids? There's new playground in Brooklyn, a new IMAX space show at the Liberty Science Center, a viking ship has docked in Times Square, and for parents, a revealing new TV series about the food our kids are eating. Plus it's free cone day at Ben and Jerry's and free pastries at Starbucks today only. Get the scoop!

Opening this week:

Staying up late and seeing the annual Ringling Brothers' elephants exit The Midtown Tunnel is a fairly exciting event for city kids--afterall it's not every day you see pachyderms parading down 34th Street in the middle of the night to herald the Spring opening of the circus. No secret there.

But we do have some tips on seeing the elephants this year:
 

We live in a great big city full of exciting and interesting things to do.  And this weekend is no different; it will be a weekend that reminds you why you love it here and why the kids should, too. Start off with the Children’s Museum of Manhattan's free day . If you 've bever been – admission is free on Saturday – and there are a lot of special activities planned. You could also take the 7 to Queens and visit the Math Midway at the NY Hall of Science or get your brood to Prospect Park for a family bike ride that is sure to be lots of fun.

There are also lots of great performances this weekend. On Saturday there is a choice of two classics, Shakespeare in midtown or Mozart on the Upper West Side. Or you can relive a favorite from your childhood on Sunday with the fun and funky Paper Bag Players in a show uptown.  If you are looking to catch some tunes, head to Midtown for a concert at the Turtle Bay Music School, or to SoHo for a rocking good time at The Housing Works Bookstore and Café.

But wait, there's more: a new green library in Battery Park City, unique story telling events, fun for older kids, tons of Easter Egg hunts and events for Passover.  And, who says New York City has to be expensive, the best part of this weekend – most of it is all free. Read on for lots more events. And, enjoy!

A new public library branch opened in Battery Park City this week and is holding opening celebrations today. March 18, 2010. Besides being a beautiful, light and spacious facility, the new Battery Park City NYPL branch was constructed with a focus on environmental sustainability and will be the first GREEN Library in Manhattan.

A few people have asked me to write about the Bake-In Rally that parents are organizing at City Hall on Thursday, March 18th. While I like taking a good jab at the NYC DOE as much as the next guy, I'm pointing my elbows at a slightly different target this time.

Recently, there have been several cases of parents getting up in arms over issues spawned by headlines that seem to be written for the sole purpose of provoking us...and us falling for it. And, thanks to yet another misleading NY Times headline, many parents have been riled up again, in this case, to believe that not only are they not allowed to sell home baked goods at school bake sales, but that they are required to sell packaged goods like Frito Lay products and Pop Tarts. This is just not the case.

The Math Midway is a hands-on, side show styled, action packed “carnival” that illuminates mathematic principals and applies them in fun, surprising ways for kids.  My family and I got a peak at the Math Midway last year when it debuted at the Science Festival in Washington Square Park but it was so unbelievably crowded we couldn’t really tell what it was.  We were excited to hear it was coming back to the NY Hall of Science in Queens and wanted to give it another try. 

Ah, Spring! This week we saw the weather warm up and temperatures rise over a slew of sensationalist reporting in the parenting arena. Not sure what's going on, but even the paper we expect to be above this garbage is dishing it up. Is it Spring Fever, the loss of that extra hour of sleep, or a desperate attempt to compete with snarky online media vehicles? Whatever the reason, we hope they screw their heads back on straight. In the meantime, here's what everyone is in a lather about: