It's been about a year and a half since we launched our Boston, Los Angeles, New Jersey, Long Island and Connecticut sites, and we added Family Travel last spring. We constantly work on improving our sites, filling our calendars with exceptional events and posting great content like our new Go Lists. Apparently, you've been enjoying it all, because I keep getting emails asking for more Mommy Poppins. Families from Westchester, who use our site to plan their trips into the city, have been clamoring for a site of their own. And our readers who spend their weekends or summer out on the North Fork and the Hamptons say they miss having Mommy Poppins as a guide when they are there. So we're expanding our Long Island coverage to add weekend activities and guides for the Hamptons and North Fork, and launching a new site just for Westchester. You can already sign up for these soon-to-start newsletters here.

But we need your help: We're looking for savvy local parents to help bring our readers the best activities and events in these areas. If you're interested in joining the Mommy Poppins team, read on to learn more about this editorial opportunity, or pass it on to friends who you think fit the bill.

If you enjoyed our post on the farms of Long Island, you may be excited to hear that there are also farms in Westchester that you can visit with kids. Seriously, less than an hour from New York City your kids can be gamboling with sheep, rounding up chickens, and milking cows.

Last week NYC Department of Education Chancellor, Dennis Walcott, hosted a live webinar to discuss changes to the Common Core State Standards and the New York State ELA and Math Assessments in 2013. The Chancellor stated that the tests have been reformulated and will be quite a bit harder this year because they will assess children on the new Common Core material. Math questions will have multiple parts and require more than one function. For example, students may have a word problem where they first need to add and then multiply in order to solve it. The tests are also moving away from multiple choice questions and within a few years will be completely essay based

My son's fourth grade teacher said that the math segment of the predictive test they took in January was so hard that a few students literally cried. Perhaps in response, it seems their class has done almost nothing except test prep for the past several weeks.

During the Chancellor's webinar, one parent asked why the DOE was putting the Common Core material in the tests this year—why not wait a full year before assessing them on the brand-new material? The Chancellor replied, "We cannot wait to raise our standards," illustrating that his team sees making the tests harder as raising the standard, rather than letting classroom instruction be the measure. I suspect most educators don't consider months of test prep as raising the standards of education. Even some who originally lauded the Common Core are now turning a more skeptical eye toward the assessment-based educational reform.

But as much as we may hate the high-stakes nature of the New York State Assessments, kids have to take them. So my goal here is to help parents navigate the situation our children are facing today. We can call for policy change, but in the meantime, our kids are dealing with these new tests now. As parents, we need to advocate for our children while staying cool and not increasing their anxiety over the tests.

Two years ago, we discovered Portraitbug and its adorable photo sessions, which inspired us to offer a great deal on Easter portraits. It was hugely popular—I even went with my family. The photos we got from that shoot are some of the best I have of my kids, both the ones with the chicks and without.

While Portraitbug has closed, most of the staff has moved to Big Apple Portraits, which offers the same great quality and value just a few blocks away. So I'm thrilled to partner with Big Apple Portraits this year to offer Live Baby Chicks Portrait Sessions at our upcoming Mommy Poppins special event.

A science summer camp is a great way for kids to learn about science from real life experiences, rather than text books. We've found three fantastic science camps that teach kids science through real-life experiences that are so cool I want to go!

Everybody had so much fun at our recent New York Kids Club event that we knew we had to do another gathering soon. And with the Presidents' Day school holiday coming up next week, it seemed like a great time for another fun meet-up for NYC families at one of the coolest creative spots we know: Hiho Batik.

We reviewed Hiho Batik back in October soon after it opened in Park Slope, and we really loved what we saw. Now we're partnering with the batik boutique/DIY design studio to create a special event that will be fun for kids of all ages as well as their grown-ups.

Since Winter Storm Nemo decided to hit us at the end of the week, we don't have to worry about school being canceled. Still, Saturday, February 9 certainly won't be a normal, run-of-the-mill day. Already several places have announced special snow day activities, including a snowman showdown, a snow sculpting contest and fun in NYC parks.

Read on to hear about these snow day specials, plus we've got the inside scoop on favorite sledding hills, a hot chocolate festival, snow painting and other winter fun.

In NYC, it's easy to forget that there is wildlife living amongst us. And I'm not talking about rats, alligators in the sewers, escaped tigers or even backyard chickens. There are eagles and Red-tailed Hawks, raccoons and even the occasional coyote.

Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge is great for bird-watching and the Alley Pond Environmental Center will introduce you to creatures living in our wetlands. And now there's a fun new way to discover even more hidden wildlife on a NYC Audubon Winter EcoCruise.