Road trip it this summer to one of our gorgeous U.S. national parks where kids can hike, swim, camp, and generally explore the outdoors. You can get back to nature with a little planning—and an online reservation. 

But some are maybe wondering: Are national parks open? Actually, yes, many of our national parks are in the early phases of reopening for the busy summer season, meaning some lodges and campgrounds are once again accepting reservations. The National Park Service covers 84.6 million acres, making it easy for all of us to maintain social distance if we pick our trail and camping spot carefully. 

At Dwight-Englewood School's virtual summer camp, kids can experience much of the same fun and camaraderie they'd expect out of a traditional day camp, from home. Flexible and highly-customizable, D-E 360° Summer Connections online camp offers a huge selection of live classes and activities for preschoolers to 12th graders, with the option for families to enroll their kids for one week, two weeks, five weeks, or all six weeks the camp runs.

Whether you've got a gamer, film buff, ballerina, budding activist, or musical prodigy at home, the virtual camp experience at D-E 360° Summer Connections is tailored to your child's personal interests. Each week, campers create their own curriculum from the seriously extensive course catalog, which includes classes on sewing, origami, coding, broadcast journalism, writing, animation, and dance—just to name a few.

There are few parent-approved pastimes more loved than science experiments, but once summer hits, we naturally want kids (and their sticky creations) outdoors. With these 15 backyard science experiments for kids, all that measuring, mixing, and tinkering can take place on the grass, driveway, or a stretch of sidewalk.

Kids can learn to harness the power of sun or water in these science experiments, learning concepts ranging from molecular chemistry to basic physics. Several experiments are easy enough for even young children to do independently, but parents might want to get in on the (re)action, too! Find more science experiments for kids in our STEM Guide for Kids and loads more summer fun on our Ultimate Summer Bucket List Ideas with 100 (Mostly) Free Outdoor Games and Activities for Kids.

New York parents breathed a collective sigh of relief last Thursday, June 11, when Governor Andrew Cuomo announced public pools, spraygrounds, and playgrounds are allowed to reopen statewide at local governments' discretion.

The governor noted that local municipalities must use their discretion in opening play areas to the public, "Everybody wants to swim, I understand," Cuomo said. "Everybody doesn't want to see a spike in COVID again. So, use your judgment. Sometimes yes is not the right answer. It's the easy answer."

Read on for the details on how the decree has been received locally and what that means for families anxious for summer fun in Long Island, Westchester, and New York City's five boroughs. Stay tuned to our Summer Fun Guide for the latest reopenings for area kids.

With a summer at home ahead us, Strawtown Studio's new summer camp in a box provides a creative nature program for families to do on their own schedule. While the educational non-profit's summer program typically includes outdoor exploration, botanical and wildlife study, and creating art with natural materials on-site at the base of Hook Mountain on the Hudson River, this year, families can bring the fun and exploration home with the Strawtown NatureArt Adventure Box Program for ages 5 to 13. This paid program includes a scheduled series of Zoom workshops, but free at-home activities will also be available online throughout the summer.

As you stare down the bottom of empty glue bottles and paint jars after months in quarantine, the Strawtown NatureArt Adventure Box Program will be a welcome sigh of relief. As the name suggests, all families participating in the at-home summer camp receive a travel-friendly, water- and impact-resistant art box to guide their summer learning. The box is packed with more than 25 high-quality items (valued over $150), including watercolors and brushes, pencils and paper, modeling clay and colorful beeswax, strings and craft wire, plant ID cards and a magnifying glass, plus a few more surprises you can bust out as needed. A list of the materials with helpful tips and an illustrated activity booklet for hands-on nature art experiences are conveniently included for on-the-go inspiration.

Zoom became popular during the pandemic, but the video chat platform—and others like FaceTime and Skype—is great for more than just quarantine times. For families like mine, with grandparents spread across the country, a Zoom date is an easy, satisfying way to foster face-to-face connections between generations. While a casual chat is fun in itself, sometimes we like to up the ante and incorporate some fun activities into the video session. Here are our 10 favorite activities and games that kids can do with grandparents over Zoom.

For more fun Zoom tips, be sure to read our roundups of ways to make virtual hangouts more awesome and the best games to play with friends virtually.

There is a ton of inflatable and pool fun to be had this summer right in your backyard. Climb, splash, and slide in these bounces houses, kiddie pools, and water slides. These inflatables will take backyard fun to the next level and provide hours of outdoor entertainment during a summer of mostly staying at home. And no, they haven't all sold out—yet!

For more backyard fun, check out these 25 Water Games for Kids to cool everyone down. Still need some summer activities? You'll never be bored if you keep handy our Ultimate Summer Bucket List Ideas with 100 (Mostly) Free Outdoor Games and Activities for Kids.

Play is front and center in every way at Play Together NYC, a close-knit Manhattan preschool dedicated to individual attention, small class sizes, and a rich varied curriculum that preps young minds for Kindergarten and beyond. Right now, the school is accepting applications for their 3s Program, as well as their new Alternative 4s Program, which offers a part-time option to families that have chosen not to apply to UPK or whose placement was unsatisfactory. Play Together NYC also offers in Pre-K for All, and while all of the 2020-2021 seats in the city's free program are filled up, incoming 3s students will have first-priority for next year—and what a relief for parents that is.