Shakespeare on the Run: We went to see the NY Classical Theatre's Hamlet being performed throughout the World Financial Center for free. While my 10 year old really enjoyed it, especially following the actors from place to place, it was a little hard for my 6 year old to sit through, but ironicaly he loved talking about it after it was over. There were lots of other kids there of all ages and I only noticed one child who had to be carried off crying.

The show runs from 7-9PM, but ours actually ran long, til 9:30. Of course, it's easy to stop following at any point if your crew gets tired, or tired of it. Hamlet isn't the easiest intro to Shakespeare for kids and they'll have outdoor performances with family workshops later in the summer of different plays, but I recommend this show for any families that are interested.  See event details

Be in Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution: My kids and I have been watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution every week on Hulu. It's been great to discuss the issues of healthy food with them. The Food Revolution season finale is going to focus on ongoing efforts to build a better food system in America. One short segment of it will feature The People's Garden NYC, an effort to plant an organic vegetable garden in front of City Hall.

Adults and children volunteers are invited to be in the People's Garden segment gathering signatures in Union Square for the People's Garden on Monday, April 5 at 3:45. To participate, email gather@PeoplesGardenNYC.org with your contact info, how many people you'll be coming with, and your T-shirt size. T-shirts and petition materials will be provided, but a $10 contribution to help defray the costs is appreciated.

Kids Club Thirteen: PBS Thirteen has started a new Kids Club that gives members discounts at NYC museums, shops and performances. They also will be hosting special events where kids get exclusive access to meet their favorite characters. Join now to become a founding member and get your second year free. And the $75 membership goes to support those shows on public television so it's a win/win.

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Hanami Season has officially started. Throughout the month of April you can head to the gardens to enjoy the beautiful cherry blossoms.

Central Park Bloom List: If you are heading to Central Park to enjoy the Spring weather, take a look at this list that shows which flowers are in bloom each month and where and have fun identifying flowers with your children.

More News from the Web:

Brooklyn Discounts: Your Brooklyn Library Card now works as a discount card at a dozen (and counting) local businesses including children's consignment shop, Still Hip. See the whole list of participating businesses here. Hopefully more businesses will sign on to make it more useful. [Brokelyn]

HFCS is worse than sugar: The debate over on whether High Fructose Corn Syrup is really worse for you than regular sugar seems to be over. A study using rats showed that the rats who ate HFCS, even in levels far less than that in soda, became obses as compared to rats eating that same amounts of table sugar or even high fat diets. [The Grist]

Snack TIme Never Ends: A NY Times article shows how food has been built into so many of our kids activities, creating a burden for parents as well as bad eating habits. It's interesting to think about what our kids are eating throughout the day when you actually look at all those snacks too. [NY Times]