Category: Kids Activities

Manhattan Kids Guide Early Content Lost

Post author By Guest Blogger
Post date March 24, 2021

Website Written Content Lost but Videos Remain

The first version of the “Manhattan Kids Guide” website was started back in June 2009 and was originally created using the now antiquated Dreamweaver software. Then in 2018 this website was transitioned to the more modern format of WordPress. Unfortunately, somehow in the transition, all the original content dating from 2009 to 2018 was lost! Though, there remains remnants of the early days of the publication, such as videos scattered throughout YouTube including this one that documented the Lights Camera Read parade that occurred back in November 2009.

Press

We have been fortunate throughout the years, to have received much support and positive feedback from those we live near, here in Northern Manhattan. This can be seen in various videos scattered throughout YouTube of various events we created throughout the years starting with the 2009 costume parade and including library shows we performed for the local community. We were also lucky to have received much local press including the local publication, the “Manhattan Times.”

Happy Memories

When my wife and I started this community building process in Inwood Manhattan in 2009, our daughter was a toddler. During the 2009 costume parade of kids and parents that my wife and I organized, our daughter’s participation was being pushed in her carriage while dressed as a lamb.

Time Flies

Our daughter will become a teen this year and as parents, my wife and I see ourselves focusing on how to best be there for her during these Pandemic times. Issues include remote learning, online socialization and other web processes and challenges. Thankfully, our daughter is flourishing in her online activities that she accesses through her Chromebook that her school provided.

Kids Activities

Things We Do During the Pandemic

Post author By Guest Blogger
Post date July 5, 2020

Our daughter told us she wanted to go to summer school camp.

COVID-19 Blues

With my wife and our 11 year old daughter we started our lockdown early on March 8, 2020. The date now is July 5th, the day after Independence Day. Ironically we have been independent of much of the world for the last 119 days. After day 100 I went outside solo with a medical mask on to mail a letter. The three of us also went outside to the park very briefly which was a frightening experience of people without masks, spitting talking loudly, bumping against us, all with a cavalier attitude about the virus. This as cases are rising!

Avoiding “Summer Slide”

So indoors we stay in Manhattan, NY in a small 800 foot two bedroom apartment. But what do we do all day and night? We have some traditions such as Family Game Night. Also we celebrate TGIF when my wife and I break free from our daily computer grind and have fun such as watching a movie together. Also, our daughter asked us if she could help thwart her losing her knowledge via “Summer Slide” by participating in a summer online learning camp. Although her test score average is 97% we said “yes” since it will be a healthy activity for her to do online.

What Do You Do During the Pandemic?

What do you and your family do during the Coronavirus lockdown? We want to know!

Kids Activities

How to Start a Children’s Theater Company

Post author By Guest Blogger
Post date October 17, 2019

How Do Some Perceive Children’s Theater?

Starting a children’s theater company means that you are taking on special work. Many perceive children’s theater as nothing more than a group that performs story characters, possibly borrowed from a popular kids book, who act in an extreme and silly manner. Many write off childrens theater as nothing more than vapid entertainment that the family enjoys and does not have to do a lot of analyzing.

The Impactful Side of Children’s Theater

In truth, children participating in the productions (or watching them) are impacted in meaningful ways. Children’s theater helps a kid’s development. It can actually increase intelligence through participation. Additionally it opens up a whole new vista for the child. Depending on the production they are participating in, they can make discoveries that will last them a lifetime.

More Positives About Children’s Theater

Children’s theater helps kids to imagine new worlds and ultimately be more empathetic. Young minds also are opened up to a better understanding of what they read. Going through the process of putting up a production can change the point of view of youths.

Grades Can Go Up

Studies have shown that kids who do theater much of the time have better grades in school.

What is Special About Your Group?

We have taken a bit of time exploring the “why” of children’s theater, now we are going to look at the “how.” Having a mission is important. Also it should differentiate you from other companies. What is special about your group? For marketing and promotional ideas check out websites like How to Get New Customers. You can also explore sites such as Magic Neighbors and their theater company.

Get Prepared

Once this is established decide on what method of being able to accept donation you want. Do you want to be a nonprofit? This is possible but it takes time. And easier way of doing this is to get another nonprofit to fiscally sponsor you. There are organizations dedicated to this very thing. Search fiscal sponsorship in your area. You also should also open a bank account in the name of your company to put donations in.

Finding a Space for Your Children’s Theater Company

You’ll also need a space. Chances are you don’t have a big budget so you might consider solutions like staging performance in a church’s community area. Or some churches even have stages.

A Business Idea for Children’s Theater

Another way of bringing in money is through offering classes to kids which the parents pay for in conjunction with staging a particular production. Parents will enjoy seeing their children perform.

Kids Activities

Fun Things to do in NYC

Post author By Guest Blogger
Post date September 9, 2019

Manhattan is a Playground

We live in Inwood Manhattan but frequently travel all over this amazing metropolis doing all kinds of activities. Manhattan is an amazing playground for families with everything under the sun. Some activities cost money whereas many do not. The great thing is that many of the activities are educational yet fun and will make a big impression on kids.

Fun and Interesting Activities

Some fun and interesting activities include The Empire State Building, New York Transit Museum, The Highline Park, Children’s Museum of Manhattan, Central Park, The Brooklyn Bridge and the Natural History Museum just to name a few.

Harmony in New York

As a mom of an 11 year old living in Manhattan, it is important to me that my child experience all the city has to offer. One of our favorite activities is swimming. Another is simply going through the city and visiting the exciting and different areas of cultures that live together in harmony.

Free Stuff to Do With Your Child

Plus, there is lots of free stuff you can do. This includes the Museum of the City of New York, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, The Houdini Museum, The Queens County Farm Museum and the Brooklyn Museum. This is just the tip of the iceberg of wonderful things that can be done in Manhattan for free.

Manhattan is Magical

My husband, who has a background in magic, especially likes the Houdini Museum and several of his Society of American Magician meetings have been held there. Although we have gone to several different magic shows, my daughter and I have yet to visit the Houdini Museum. We look forward to doing so.

Scratching the Surface

Of course we’ve barely scratched the surface of what is possible in this wonderous city. The key is to keep you eyes open for more new experiences that you and your kids can have. We wish to thank Lights Camera Read for giving us some of these ideas.

Kids Activities

Manhattan Kids Guide Lists 5 Educational Websites

Post author By Guest Blogger
Post date August 17, 2018

Manhattan Kids Guide Educational Websites — Although there are many wonderful education based websites out there, Manhattan Kids Guide selected 5 of them that our kids have enjoyed as well as ourselves.

FunBrain

This site is just what its name implies: it’s Fun for your Brain! It has wonderful online reading from Pre-K through to 8th Grade so if you have a very young child, she or he could end up enjoying FunBrain for many years to come.

FunBrain describes itself as being a site that is created for kids in grades Pre-K through 8. They also mention that they have been a leader in free educational games for kids since 1997. Funbrain offers hundreds of games, books, comics, and videos that develop skills in math, reading, problem-solving and literacy.

BrainPop

As long as we’re on the topic of “Brains” here’s another enjoyable website for the mind of a child called BrainPop. This a terrific learning destination for kids and includes Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Arts & Music, Health, Engineering & Tech as well as New & Trending topics. A great resource.

Wikipedia.org describes BrainPop as being s a group of educational websites with over 1,000 short animated movies for students in grades K-12 (ages 6 to 17), together with quizzes and related materials, covering the subjects of science, social studies, English, mathematics, engineering and technology, health, and arts and music. Amazingly BrainPop is used in more than 20% of U.S. schools and also offers subscriptions for families and homeschoolers.

National Geographic Kids

I love this site. My 10 year old has as strong interest in animals but there’s more to National Geographic Kids than just animals. It has answers to questions about the world around us. There’s also an entire family section which is very useful and illuminating.

National Geographic Kids describe themselves as being inspiring to young adventurers to explore the world through award-winning magazines, books, apps, games, toys, videos, events, and a website. And the differentiation factor between National Geographic Kids and other online experiences is that it is the only kids brand with a world-class scientific organization at its core. Impressive!

ABC Mouse

My child learned a lot from this kids website when she was very young. It made learning for her fun and engaging.

ABC Mouse describes itself as being a global education initiative of Age of Learning, Inc. Their goal is to help children build a strong foundation for future academic success by providing a comprehensive and engaging online curriculum to greatly assist early learners to succeed in pre-k, kindergarten, and early elementary school programs.

How Stuff Works

How Stuff Works is another terrific resource. It literally teaches older kids (and Mom and Dads too) How Stuff Works! A lot of interesting material here. Enough for hours of discussions!

Wikipedia describes How Stuff Works as being an American commercial educational website founded by Marshall Brain to provide its target audience an insight into the way many things work. The site uses various media to explain complex concepts, terminology, and mechanisms—including photographs, diagrams, videos, animations, and articles.

Final Notes

You can’t go wrong with any of these wonderful online education conduits. Hope you and your kids have a chance to enjoy them!

Kids Activities

Alison Stamas’ Top 5 Manhattan Kids Guide Activity Resources

Post author By Guest Blogger
Post date July 20, 2018

Manhattan Kids Guide has 5 Pages of Activities for Your Family from Alison Stamas

Hi all. Alison Stamas here. Happy July! It’s been a while since I’ve done a post for Manhattan Kids Guide but wanted to mention some of these terrific publications in a list as we are always looking for ideas for fun activities for our kids. My top 5 Manhattan Kids Guide activity resources are all New York City based and chock full of fun ideas for kids, tweens and teens. These 5 online publications can be found below. Also, if you have any blog ideas you’d like to contribute to Manhattan Kids Guide, as always please go to our contact page here.

1. Mommy Poppins

Mommy Poppins has always been a terrific friend to Manhattan Kids Guide and they are a wonderful place to get ideas for kids activities in the city. Even though the article entitled “40 Things To Do on a NYC Staycation with Kids” is from last year, it is still very relevant and might inspire some ideas that you’d like to pursue!

2. Time Out

Time Out is another website that Manhattan Kids Guide is grateful to for their featuring of some of our kids festivals over the years, that we’ve done in conjunction with Lights Camera Read. Their post called “Cool indoor activities for kids in NYC” is also from last year but is as current as can be with its host of kid friendly activities.

Here is a picture of my daughter Lily (in top left image of the composite photo) between Jason Bishop magician and his assistant Kim Hess taken after the magic show at the New Victory Theater.

3. Curbed

As New Yorkers we sometimes forget or never get to the very things that tourists do almost immediately. Curbed has a great list of things you can do in our great city that are “touristy” but well worth doing with the kids. These include one of my personal favorites which is seeing a show at the New Victory Theater. Our family attended a magic performance there recently and had a wonderful time. It was called “Jason Bishop: Believe in Magic.” Above is a picture after the show of my daughter Lily with the magician himself, Jason Bishop plus his magical assistant Kim Hess. My husband John especially enjoyed the performance because he used to be a magician and occasionally puts on his magic hat of Manhattan Magician for our New York Public Library touring theater company for kids called Magic Neighbors.

4. NYMetroParents

NYMetroParents actually has a search function on their site that features finding kid activities by categories including Date, Age, Price and More.

5. NYCgo

And finally there is NYCgo which calls itself the official guide of NYC. And best of all it has a page filled with lots of enjoyable activities that are all…free. Our family has done several of the outings and were quite pleased with the experiences. Plus, you can find out about cool stuff happening around town like Restaurant Week and Broadway 2 for 1 shows

In Closing

So there you have it, my top 5 Manhattan Kids Guide related resouces. I hope you are able to find something that you will enjoy doing with your kids. If you would like to contact us please go to our Manhattan Kids Guide contact page here.