An Hour-by-Hour Guide to Action and Adventure

Family Days: An Hour-by-Hour Guide to Action and Adventure

It goes without saying that some weeks are more hectic than others. Sometimes, entire weekends are packed back-to-back with extracurricular activities, like when you volunteered to pick up your neighbor’s son from softball lessons because their babysitter bailed at the last minute, only to realize that you were supposed to be home for that can’t-miss Time Warner appointment and your in-laws came to visit on less than a week’s notice and informed you they would be staying at your place because, newsflash, hotels in New York are expensive.

Sometimes you just need to know how long a certain event will last before you even think about corralling the kids, packing a few snacks, and embarking on a long subway ride to another neighborhood or borough. So, whether you have a few hours or an entire day, here’s a list of ways to entertain the kids this week.

If you have two hours…

Game Night
Tuesday, June 3
Are you a Candyland fanatic, Chutes and Ladders master, or Scrabble pro? Held every other Tuesday, Game Night is a long-standing tradition at the Scholastic Store. Indulge in an hour of board game mania and enter to win all the games played that night. If you still have a free hand to carry anything home, peruse the ginormous (enormous doesn’t adequately describe it) selection of educational toys and games in Scholastic’s museum-like mecca. Or just gaze because anything museum-like can break your budget. Highlights include ginormous (it’s becoming a theme, isn’t?) versions of your favorite everything: Harry Potter’s Whomping Willow, Clifford the Big Red Dog, the Magic School Bus.
Directions: R, W to Prince St; B, D, F, V to Broadway-Lafayette; 6 to Spring St; C, E to Spring St

If you have four hours…

Identification Day
Saturday June 7
It’s no secret that the American Museum for Natural History is one of the most kid-oriented museums in the city. There’s Lizards and Snakes Alive!, A Night at the Museum, and now the annual Identification Day. Bundle up all those nature objects your children have randomly picked up while they were playing outside: branches, leaves, stones, flowers. A team of geologists and biologists will identify each item, but not it’s value. The day is more about fun than finagling so leave the precious antiques at home. This year, the annual event is in correlation with The Horse, a newly-launched exhibit detailing everything about one of the world’s oldest animals.
Directions: B, C to 81st St

If you have six hours…

Big Apple Circus
Through June 15th
Celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Big Apple Circus with hostess Carrie Harvey, horses and hula hoops! The legendary circus is in East Meadow (Long Island) until the 15th and then in West Nyack (Rockland County) from the later half of the month. Naturally, an anniversary bash means there are lots of extraordinary performers from all over the world such as Grandma the Clown, who to Clown College and is a member of the International Clown Hall of Fame. Your kids can ohh and ahh as 17-year-old Christian Atayde Stoinev, who has been working for the Big Apple Circus for the past seven years, does acrobatic routines on a unicycle.
Directions: Grand Central Parkway or Long Island Expressway to Meadowbrook Parkway South (Jones Beach). The closest LIRR stop is in nearby Bellmore.

If you have eight hours…

Red Hook Waterfront Arts Festival
Saturday June 7
Continuing in the celebratory mood, the Waterfront Arts Festival turns 15 this year. Created as a place for children to display their talents and creativity, the festival features dozens of young performers singer, dancing, and reciting poetry. Get some shade by viewing films written, produced, and directed by local teens. Also on the schedule? Face painting, a petting zoo, and free kayak rides. Meanwhile you can admire the breathtaking views of the city, Governor’s Island, and the Statue of Liberty.
Directions: R, F to 4th Ave, then the B77 toConover and Coffey