Beyond the Pipe Cleaner: 5 Mother's Day Gift-Making Activities for Kids

Yes, your child will most likely come home from school with a Mother's Day gift. Perhaps a ziti collage or a bouquet of paper flowers suspended on pipe cleaners. And you will ooh and ah. And appropriately so. But why leave all the fun to school when you could celebrate Mother's Day as a family, making Mother's Day crafts together (you for your own mom, them for theirs) or Moms could even send dads off with kids to make Mother's Day gifts for a few hours and that would almost be gift enough.

Many kid venues offer Mother's Day gift-making workshops where kids can glue tissue paper flowers together, but we've gathered some unique events where kids of all ages can step the Mother's Day gift-making up a notch, even if Dad has to pitch in a bit.

The 5 Best Mother's Day Gift Ideas for Romanticizing Motherhood

Sure you could get a piece of dazzling jewelry, but where's the fun in that? Mother's Day is all about paying tribute to the magic of Motherhood, so choose a gift that stands up and salutes to all that is precious, magical and beautiful about moms.

Here's our list of Mother's Day Gift Ideas that will warm moms' heart and give her joy for years to come. 

 

 

Swine Flu in NYC, Stay at Home Dads, Baby Born on 5th Ave, Secrets of AMNH, Bronx Zoo lays off Bats, Lauds New Baby Lion

Sweating like pigs: This weekend there were basically two topics of conversation in New York City, the heat and the swine flu. I can't help you much with the heat, but I do think it is important that people are well informed about the swine flu issue. Read more inside to find out the latest details, the most reliable source of information for swine flu news and what you can do to protect your family.

Oh and...more news about the new stay at home dads, a woman giving birth on fifth avenue, the secrets of the American Museum of Natural history, Lemonade Day, the new and old animals at the Bronx Zoo and more.

Check out the Beautiful First Entries from The Kids of Hanami Photo Contest

The weather is going to be beautiful this weekend and what better reward than to spend a wonderful afternoon in the beautiful Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, especially now that the Cherry Blossoms are in their prime. Of course, visiting the Cherry Blossoms could lead to its own reward if you enter your photographs of your children and the cherry blossoms into our Kids of Hanami Photo Contest.

Let me spell it out for you; the reward would be a Brooklyn Botanic Garden Pass, Mother's Day Luncheon at the Gardens and a generous prize package of beautiful gifts from the BBG store.

Take a look at some of the beautiful entries we've received:

Geek Out this Weekend at Kids Comic Con and Big Lightsaber Fight

Being a Star Wars fanatic or a comic book geek is pretty cool in my book. And these cool kid-friendly events celebrate and bring out the geek in all of us. A giant black-lit lightsaber battle? What could be cooler than that? A comic book convention just for kids. Let's go!

There's nothing cooler than these geeky activities:

Will Nursery University Preschool Documentary Make "Park Bench Wisdom" Wiser?

Getting into a preschool in NYC is harder than getting into Harvard. That's the premise of a new documentary about the preschool admissions process in NYC. Nursery University follows six families from different walks of life as they navigate, ruminate and, ultimately, dominate the preschool process.

Nursery University starts by drawing you in to the all too familiar drama of NYC preschool admissions, beautifully capturing every piece of "park bench wisdom" that's ever passed the lips of a distraught NYC parent. Beware: this part of the film made me so sick I almost stopped watching it, about to shrug Nursery University off as yet another piece of media hype feeding the fire of parent's anxiety rather than portraying a real and balanced picture of preschool admissions.

It turns out the directors had me just where they wanted me.

Take Your Kids to Tibet for the Afternoon

I've decided to homeschool my kids by traveling around the world and letting them learn through exposure to different cultures and experiences. What could be a better education than that? Our first stop on this amazing voyage will be Tibet where we will explore the Himalayas, learn traditional art-forms, get to see first-hand the creation of a Tibetan mandala, learn TIbetan calligraphy, children's games and more. It will be a most enriching experience for my kids and for myself.

Of course, leaving New York is kind of a hassle, and the kids kind of like going to school, so we'll do this homeschooling in New york City and on the weekends. Thanks to The Rubin Museum of Art's Family Day this weekend, we can travel to Tibet to experience the art and culture without having to give up our takeout or DSL.

Rubin Museum of Art Family Day: Celebrate Tibet in New York

Free Ben & Jerry's, Kick Boxing for Kids, Why not to Hide Vegs in Food, Hope for Kai, Still Tasty, More

Save some money, save the Earth, save a child, save the food in your fridge, and save some time for fun. Find out about free ice cream and 50 cent iced coffees, earth day fun for kids, a child who needs our help, Baby Loves Salse, a site that tells you when to toss it or not, an argument for NOT hiding veggies in your kids' food, and a totally new cool class for kids. Coming attcha:

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