Anna Fader

Founder of Mommy Poppins

A fourth-generation Brooklynite, Anna started Mommy Poppins in 2007 to help families find the best things to do with kids in NYC, with a particular emphasis on sharing activities that are free, affordable, and enriching. The site, used by millions of families, has grown to become the ultimate resource for parents in the major US cities, plus travel guides for 100s of destinations.

Anna is a believer in the magic of summer camps, traveling with kids, and that you can raise kids on a budget and still have a rich life full of amazing memories. Anna's first Mommy Poppins book, The Young Traveler's Journal and Activity Book, published in 2025 and co-written with her daughter, Amelia Eigerman, brings that ethos to life, in addition to this website.

Latest posts by Anna

Waldorf Astoria Boca Offers Luxury of a Caribbean Resort Minutes From Ft Lauderdale

Submitted by Anna Fader on Sun, 05/17/2015 - 8:36am

The Waldorf Astoria Boca Raton Resort & Club is the most luxurious U.S. vacation destination my family and I have ever visited. The sprawling property feels more like a Caribbean resort than the other beachfront hotels you find in Florida. With a surfing school, a kids’ camp, water sports, the new FlowRider wave simulator, fantastic restaurants, plus a world-class spa, tennis program and golf course, the Waldorf Astoria Boca Raton lets everyone in your family feel entertained, pampered and restored by the time you go home.

The resort is not all-inclusive, and what you save on airfare you’ll easily spend on meals and activities. But the Waldorf Astoria Boca Raton offers an incredibly luxurious and family-friendly Caribbean-style vacation located just an hour's drive from the Fort Lauderdale airport, so no need for passports.

Who Needs Spinal Tap? Check Out Manhattanhenge

Submitted by Anna Fader on Fri, 05/01/2015 - 11:16am

One of the things about raising your kids in NYC is that your neighbors are just as likely to be famous writers, artists or scientists as they are to be the more run-of-the-mill, US Weekly celebrities. In our building, giggling teenage girls hang out in the lobby hoping to get help with their physics homework from our resident celebrity astrophysicist.

Besides homework help, having a resident astrophysicist means you know about all the really big, life-shaping astrological happenings. So I share with you, my faithful readers, the astrological tip of the month.

How Different Was What We Expected of First Graders in 1979 From Today's Common Core?

Submitted by Anna Fader on Sun, 04/26/2015 - 10:39am

This year almost 200,000 kids in New York State chose to opt out of the standardized state tests for grades 3 through 8. That’s a whopping 15% and almost four times the number that opted out last year. The growing dissent over the Common Core and high-stakes testing has been visible in article after article citing despicable practices, product placement and age-inappropriate questions. While I think most parents are in favor of high standards for kids, there’s obviously a lot of frustration with how the Common Core is being implemented, and it raises the question of what our standards really are.

Of all the articles bouncing around the Internet these days about the Common Core and standardized testing, two particularly caught my attention. One describes the standard expectations for a first grader in 1979; the second shares math problems from a first grade Common Core curriculum today. The difference is striking and astonishing, and will really make you rethink the educational road we've gone down since we were little.

Kid-Friendly Queens International Snack Crawl

Submitted by Anna Fader on Sun, 04/19/2015 - 10:43am

Foodies know that NYC's most diverse borough is where it’s at for the best international dining delights. You can travel the globe with your kids going from neighborhood to neighborhood, exploring the different ethnic enclaves and great restaurants. After extensive research, we packed the kids in the car and set off to Queens to eat as much as we possibly could. Our Queens food crawl featured eight stops, seven nationalities and six neighborhoods. We didn't just eat great food; we had fun experiences and expanded our horizons. This is why we live in New York City, folks. If you haven’t done your share of exploring the ethnic eateries of Queens, get hoppin’.

Here’s where and what we ate:

Make: 3-Ingredient Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies

Submitted by Anna Fader on Thu, 04/16/2015 - 5:36am

If you like peanut butter and jelly, you'll love these super-easy-to-make, healthy, gluten-free and protein-packed cookies. All you need is three ingredients and about 20 minutes. I made this recipe up, and while these cookies aren't going to win anyone a place on Iron Chef, they make for a great after-school snack with a glass of milk. You could even eat them for breakfast. Why not?

Tribeca Film Festival for NYC Kids: Family Street Fair and Other Free Fun

Submitted by Anna Fader on Sun, 04/12/2015 - 9:54am

One of NYC's best known spring events, the Tribeca Film Festival, is set to take over downtown from Wednesday, April 15 through Sunday, April 26, and as always there are lots of awesome FREE activities for families. The main kids' event, the Tribeca Family Festival Street Fair, takes place on Saturday, April 25. While the crowds are huge, there are tons of surprises, cool experiences and great entertainment that make it a must-do.

In addition to the Family Festival Street Fair, there's Tribeca/ESPN Sports Day, plus a series of outdoor "drive-in" movies, an indoor screening of Back to the Future and other family fun—all 100% FREE.

5 Secondhand Clothing Stores to Outfit NYC Kids

Submitted by Anna Fader on Tue, 03/24/2015 - 4:17pm

As parents, we do a fair amount of shopping for our kids, always in search of a good bargain for ever-growing bodies. Personally, I love hitting children's consignment shops and thrift stores. Besides being a great way to find inexpensive clothes and baby gear, it's fun to stumble across unique items you would never see at a big chain store. Consignment shops are also excellent spots for buying staples like bed rails that you use for a little while and then need to pass on.

Unfortunately, due to listservs like FreeCycle and Craigslist, there aren't as many children's resale shops in New York City as there used to be. But we found five secondhand stores where you can buy (or sell!) kids' clothing, gear and even toys.

10 Steps to Planning Unforgettable Family Vacations

Submitted by Anna Fader on Sun, 03/15/2015 - 9:33pm

Great travel is the holy grail of family time: To see the world, expand our horizons, and experience unforgettable adventures together is everything we want our family time to be, all wrapped into one. That’s the dream anyway. The reality is that planning a big trip can be so daunting you want to throw up your hands and just stay at home. It’s no wonder all-inclusive resorts are so popular, just show up and your hardest decisions concern the buffet.

But there’s no substitute for amazing travel with your kids. If you’re like me you want to pack lots of stuff into your days, but not at the expense of having crabby, exhausted kids. There’s no reason to give up hope of doing the things you want or just sticking to vacations at Disneyland. Finding the perfect balance and knowing a few tricks to planning itineraries that optimize your days will help you have better, more adventurous vacations.

It‘s taken me years of practice to figure out how to plan itineraries that keep everyone happy, expose us to new experiences, and still feel enough like a vacation that I don’t need another one once we get home. The heart of my travel planning comes down to knowing how to balance cultural experiences with kid-friendly fun, while making the logistics as seamless as possible. I’ve boiled my technique down to 10 simple steps that anyone can do to have amazing vacations. If I can turn my grumpy kids into world travelers, you can too.

Anna Fader

Latest posts by Anna

Pages