Anna Fader

Founder & CEO of Mommy Poppins
Anna was born in Park Slope, spent her early years in the West Village. By the time she graduated high school, she had lived in 4 of the 5 boroughs. Growing up in NYC in the '70s meant the streets were her playgrounds. Museums and avant garde music venues were the kid-friendly activities. And living downtown taught her the importance of creating community for families in NYC.

Now, raising her own two children in the city, she tries to create the same sense of magic and community she felt growing up, despite today's more commercialized version of kid-friendly New York.

She started Mommy Poppins in 2007 to share a more artsy, educational, uncommercial, community-oriented vision of raising kids in New York City. Today Mommy Poppins is relied on by millions of families as the authority on the best things to do with kids beyond New York City: from Boston to Philly, Los Angeles, Houston and travel guides for dozens more cities and destinations.

Latest posts by Anna

New Building Brainstorm Exhibit at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum

Submitted by Anna Fader on Wed, 02/18/2009 - 10:14am

The totally redone Brooklyn Children's Museum is still new enough that we hadn't yet exhausted the current exhibits, but they're staying one step ahead of us by adding a great new exhibit that we really enjoyed, Building Brainstorm. I have always been interested in the fields of architecture and design, and thought this would be a great opportunity to expose my boys to those interests during play.

Located on the second floor, this bi-lingual (Spanish and English—love that!) exhibition continues with the interactive theme found throughout the museum, encouraging and inviting children of all ages to plan, build, and design, with rough materials and soft cloths, plastics and wood. The exhibit is made up of a series of challenges: Shape Search Challenge, Shapes in Building Challenge, Inside Shapes Challenge, Window House Challenge, Floor Plan Challenge, Room Design Challenge, and Brainstorm Challenge.

Cleanest Indoor Play Spaces in New York City

Submitted by Anna Fader on Tue, 02/17/2009 - 1:32am

Do you check back on posts to read the comments? Sometimes readers add great information there, or ask great questions. Some of my favorites lately were Margaret who asked other readers if they wanted to get a group together for a kids knitting class. Sharon, left a great comment with more ideas of places to eat on the Lower East Side on the Candy Store Itinerary post. Another commenter on our Drop In Play Spaces post asked for recommendations for the cleanest play spaces.

Good question. It seems to be a trade off. Places that don't charge hefty membership fees and are open to the public maybe aren't always quite as pristine. But I'm sure there are exceptions to the rule. Here are some of the indoor play places I've found to be really clean:

Flight of the Conchords: Glamorizing married, lovemaking

Submitted by Anna Fader on Fri, 02/13/2009 - 10:33pm

The financial collapse, unemployment, war...hey, put all that nonsense away and give yourself a few minutes of smiles with our new feature: Friday Afternoon Video Break.

Let me know if this is a feature you'd like to keep and If you have a video to recommend, email me.

Our first entry comes from Katia who says:

Activities for Valentines and Presidents Day Weekend

Submitted by Anna Fader on Fri, 02/13/2009 - 9:25am

So much going on with valentines Day, Presidents Day plus the February Break Vacation Week. I'm dividing the events into separate posts. This one has the best activities just for this weekend. Check out a sword dance festival, a disco dance party, valentines day crafts, movies, a winter festival and more, all free. Click on the links for more information about events and locations.

KidBuzzNY: Up to the minute news for NYC parents and kids

Submitted by Anna Fader on Fri, 02/13/2009 - 4:05am

Do you twitter? Have you figured out what it is or how to make it useful? That's something I've been wondering myself and think we might have come up with one answer: to create a cool tool that will update NYC families with the hottest, most up to the minute news of what's going on in New York for kids.

Twitter is like "micro-blogging". You can update the world with any news you want to share as long as you can say it in 140 characters or less. Then everyone who is "following" you can see what you've said on their computers or mobile devices.

Now, I'm not a big social media person...I'm actually not a big social person. I don't chit chat, the art of small talk is lost on me and I don't really care what you had for breakfast, so, while I have the obligatory Twitter account, I have been waiting to figure out something cool to do with it before I really decided to use it.

So Karen from A Child Grows in Brooklyn and I put our head's together and figured out how we could use twitter to create a crowdsourcing tool (doesn't that sound cool?) that will let all of us get the word out to other NYC parents about the latest news for kids in New York.

Say hi to KidBuzzNY, The Inside Scoop Written by You. It's our twitter group that will let all of us spread the word about the latest and greatest for kids in New York.

Itinerary: Best Candy Stores in New York City for Kids

Submitted by Anna Fader on Thu, 02/12/2009 - 8:39am

Picture 60.png Want a fun outing that your kids will REALLY love? How about a tour of some of the best candy stores in New York City? The Lower East Side is chock full of unique and fun candy stores and you can hit them all in one day for a super treat on Valentines Day or any day you want to be the bestest parent EVER! Find your inner child, turn off that parenting voice and have fun going crazy for candy with your kids, if only for one day.

Vintage Valentines Day Craft

Submitted by Anna Fader on Wed, 02/11/2009 - 7:28am

The other day we wrote about sharing Valentines Day with your children with a Valentines Day living room picnic dinner. In this post we're sharing an idea that lets you turn your children into the sweetest Valentine I can imagine receiving. It's a super easy project you can do in minutes using adorable vintage Valentine images and your even more adorable little sweetheart. Check it out.

Our 2009 NYC Day Camp and Summer Program Guide is Here

Submitted by Anna Fader on Mon, 02/09/2009 - 10:04pm

Our new 2009 Summer Camp Guide is up with over 70 New York City Day Camps, Suburban Day Camps, Sleep Away Camps, and Camp Services. Whether you're looking for a program for your preschooler for a couple of days a week, a week-long program to explore a special interest like science, the arts or a favorite sport, looking to stay in the city, or bus them out for some country air every day, or even a great sleep-away camp, we've got lots of great camps for you to choose from. Check it out.