An especially great line-up of free stuff to do with kids this weekend in New York City plus some special inexpensive events that were too good not to list.

I'm ignoring the fact that it's a leap year and posting the Top Posts for February today. If you haven't been following along the big news this month was the launching of the Mommy Poppins Summer Camp and Program Guide. It's a great resource with over a dozen posts to help you with your summer planning, with almost 30 camps covered in our posts and another 30 in our advertising listings. Check it out!

One of the things I love about living in NYC is the ability to walk out the door and stumble upon some really cool free stuff to do with kids that you might never expect.

Today and Friday, for instance,

I know what you did last summer? Big whoop, so does the whole world??”I'm a blogger. The real horror movie is about planning for next summer. I'm already in a cold sweat over trying to figure out what to do with my kids, my childcare...and if I have to have one more circular, non-committal conversation about what we could, should or might possibly-maybe do for our family vacation, I think I will scream.

So before the blood starts flying, I'm going to attend The Busy Mom??™s One-Stop Summer Planning Luncheon and Expo hosted by Executive Moms next Wednesday, March 5th. There's a lot of cool things going on with this event (including a chance to win some big prizes), so bear with me here.

 

The Art Farm is another one of the unique places for kids in New York City, an indoor farm with a wide variety of animals including bunnies, chinchillas, hamsters, guinea pigs, lizards, turtles, birds, and tropical fish. Children can touch, feed and hold the animals, as well as participate in many other activities.

I know The Art Farm best for their show-stopping birthday parties, but they also offer playgroup classes for toddlers, Mommy and Me classes and Farm Helper/Animal care classes for children up to the age of 8 years and I just found out about their drop in/drop off program, what they call their Open House program.

 

So, last week I was so happy about this new They Might Be Giants song, Never Go To Work and blogged about it, or thought I did. Apparently a sneaky little 4 year old was perusing YouTube on my computer and tricked me into posting about Robot Parade instead??”another fine They Might Be Giants song, but not one worthy of the fetishistic feelings I expressed for Never Go To Work??”unless you might be a four year old boy, that is.

I fixed the post, so I do highly recommend checking it out now. It makes me very happy.

It's mid-winter break and whether you just have the four day President's Weekend off or the whole 10 day vacation, you need a plan for things to do to filling those days with fun and memory-making activities that won't break the bank. I can't believe some of the great free activities going on in the city this week.

So I put them together to create the Mommy Poppins Do-It-Yourself Mid-Winter Break Camp! It's fun, it's free and it's sure to fill your vacation days with awesome memory-making activities. The only draw-back is you don't get to ship your kids off to do all the fun stuff with someone else. Oh wait, that's a plus too!

Day One: Friday February 15
Free Skating Prospect Park Wollman Rink 8:30 am to 9pm
Get in the mood for your wintry vacation with a special evening of free ice skating followed by hot chocolate at Prospect Park Wollman Rink. Actually the skating is free all day today, but doing something a little out of character like skating in the evening is a great way to break your everyday routine and get into the vacation mood without leaving New York.

Day Two: Saturday, February 16
Fill your kids with a little culture at some unusual performances around the city. Your pick: Sword Dancing, Gospel or Ice Skating Competition.

Two separate, free sword dancing performances in one day??”at the Museum of the City of New York 1:30pm or at Jefferson Market Public Library 1pm??”what are the odds of that? [Thank you to New York Magazine for clarifying to me that these two performances are actually part of a sword dance festival going on throughout the city both Saturday and Sunday. Check the festival homepage for more free locations around Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Tri-State Area]

Meanwhile at the World Financial Center enjoy Gospel Choir Competition with singers from all over the country. Youth groups will sing first, starting at 10am with adults following at 1:30 to 5pm. How sweet it is.

And at Sky Rink at Chelsea Piers the Skating Club of New York will hold it's Showcase Competition in Theatrical Skating at 1:30pm.

Note: The sword dancing at the Museum of the City of New York is free with admission and children under 12 are free, but adults will have to pay the $9 museum admission.

Day Three: Sunday, February 17
Family Arts Workshop: MAKING A MARK 1 - 3 pm
Enjoy a child-friendly docent-led tour of the current funky abstract art In Context exhibit followed with an art making workshop. Space is limited. Please call or email Rose at 212.598.0400 x229 or Rortiz@henrystreet.org to reserve your place.

Day Four: Monday, February 18
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is usually closed on Mondays, but will open for this President's Day. There will be special family programs throughout the day, including story times, films, and gallery sketch talks.

Take advantage of a free complimentary family pass for free admission for up to 6 people. Register and print out the invitation for your free pass plus a $5 off coupon to the museum store.

Day Five: Tuesday, February 19
Play at the Parks??”Actually every day throughout the vacation break the NYC Parks Department is hosting a winter festival with fun activities for kids.

Historic Lefferts House offers Coming in from the Cold where kids can experience and learn what children did for fun over 100 years ago with historic indoor games and projects. February 16-24 12pm -4pm.

The Audubon Center hosts a Children's Film Festival with kid-friendly nature films followed by nature crafts.

See all the offerings at the winter festival website.

Day Six: Wednesday, February 20
Fort Greene Park will offer its own daily educational activities during the break. On the 20th, kids can learn about the urban wildlife that lives all around them and create an animal craft. 11am.

Day Seven: Thursday, February 21
The Brooklyn Children's Museum On-the-Go will be having a Tales for Tots at the Brooklyn museum with international stories illustrated by real artifacts from the Brooklyn Museum's collections.

Day Eight: Friday, February 22
It's been a long week. How about chilling out at a free storytime yoga class at Karma Kids Yoga.

Day Nine: Saturday, February 23
They Might Be Giants promote their new album, Here Come the 123s with a free performance at Borders in the the Time Warner Center! 3-5pm

Day Ten: Sunday, February 24
Princess Katie and Racer Steve perform for free in Chelsea Market at 10:3am in honor of Steve's birthday. Costumes encouraged.

Whew! I hope that keeps you as busy all week having fun as it kept me writing it up. Don't forget about our Winter Fun Guide. If any of these ideas don't tickle your fancy one day, there's plenty of other fun stuff to do with kids in New York in there. Working parents, you can print this post out for the sitter too.

The Mommy Poppins Summer Camp and Program Guide is up! It's got information on over 30 terrific camps, organized by type, from preschool camps to sleepaways and everything in between. We've been amazed at how many cool camps there are that we had never even heard of.

This is just the beginning though. We're going to keep writing about camps for the rest of February and we'll be adding the new posts right into the guide, so you'll have everything you need to know about summer camps and programs in the New York region right at your finger tips. Stay tuned for more resources for finding the right camps, more expert posts, more free and cheap camps and summer programs, cool finds for camp gear, and more and more cool camps.