Let's up the Antics!

With the full force of summer's heat and humidity upon us, it's hard to remember the 18 degree days that left New Yorkers so eager to rush toward these high temperatures. As your little ones enjoy the last four weeks of playground sprinklers and Mr. Softee, the rest of us can begin the countdown to the crunch of leaves underfoot, cool evening breezes and bounty of farm stand produce that autumn in the Northeast brings as its gifts.

In Brooklyn, there is one day a year when the beauty of autumn and the talent and resources of our local artisans and businesses can be celebrated at together: Atlantic Antic! This year's 35th incarnation of the number one street festival in New York promises to be the best yet, as Brooklynites walk the span from 4th Avenue to Hicks Street on Atlantic Ave enjoying all of the food, music, games and merchandise that Brooklyn has to offer. http://www.atlanticave.org/antic2009/antic2009.htm

While the October 4th festivities will surely hold much appeal for New Yorkers of all ages, New York City Explorers has some fun cooked up especially for Atlantic Antic's youngest Explorers to enjoy! Stop by and visit us any time from 10 AM 'til 6 PM. Explorers can enjoy crafts, free classes and face painting while parents and parents-to-be will find convenient one-stop shopping for childcare at our Meet the Sitters event! Meet our dynamic, experienced babysitters for yourself to find out why our Bag of Tricks Babysitting service is a favorite amongst New York City parents as you chat with Sam, Emily, Abigail and the rest of our CPR-certified, background-checked, college-educated sitters.

Bring the evening to a close just in time for dinner with Glowsticks and Pixistix, the pint-sized rave where your little ones can join Kisha and Haven for some G-rated music and dancing! Happy Exploring!

Simon says open your umbrellas!

Six little boys and a sky full of rain clouds are what Sarah found herself faced with at the New York City Explorers' Underhill location today. With a full day of outdoor games planned, what's a girl to do? Play them inside, of course! Sarah, Vaughn and the rest of the Explorers at 2: Cool For School played Simon Says, Duck Duck Goose and other classic favorites as the sky opened up outside.

Embracing the elements at Atlantic Ave, the Explorers Club decided to have an underwater adventure --- in book form, that is! After reading stories about sparkly long-haired mermaids, the gang brought the magic alive, crafting mermaid puppets out of ribbon, googly eyes, and lots of glitter! To make your own magical mermaid friend, find instructions and a template here: http://www.thebestkidsbooksite.com/printcraft.cfm?CraftID=122 The Explorers Club was happy to dry off their imaginations in the yummiest way possible: with homemade organic lunch from Brooklyn Fare. There's nothing better than Chef Sherwin's turkey meatballs to fill up hungry baby bellies after a tiring underwater adventure! http://brooklynfare.com/

It was a full house at the Atlantic Ave playspace this afternoon, as the junior and senior campers made their ways indoors just as the day's heaviest rain began to fall. While Brittany's junior campers opted for some quiet craft time with Gayla, Amy and the Explorers Club tots, the senior campers took advantage of Edwin's athletic prowess. No playing ball indoors? Maybe not at home, but the Explorers lucky enough to stay for After-camp seemed to be playing a game of full-court crazyball in the playspace as they debated what the best part of the camp day had been. Zach loved Central Park and his picnic lunch, but Patrick seemed the most excited about winning the race against thunder and lightning back to his home borough!

Rain, rain, go away, but if you don't we'll still play!

Her head was in the clouds...

...and her crayon was on the paper, as Amy showed the Explorers Club how to find shapes in the clouds and transform them into heavenly works of art. After completing today's weather chart, the most creative toddlers in BoCoCa braved the heat and explored the Brooklyn sky to find a rhinoceros, a door and even Curious George in the clouds!

The Explorers in Kisha's Mini Michelangelos class exercised imaginations in the cooler clime of the New York City Explorers Atlantic Ave classroom. It's a good thing 2-year-old Explorer Coley was outside with Gayla, Amy and the very cuddly Curious George for this class: If she thinks the dragon in Shrek 2 is scary, the monsters that Kisha's students crafted out of paper bags, googly eyes and pipe cleaners would have terrified her into an early nap!

As scary as the monsters that came out of Mini Michelangelos were, they didn't elicit the volume of shouting that can always be heard coming out of the classroom during the baby-friendly Miles, Marley and Mozart class on Tuesday mornings. Of course, the shouts that Judah, Ava, Tessa and their friends let loose during Boerum Hill's favorite toddler jam session were shouts of joy, as they clapped their hands, stomped their feet and boogie woogie woogied to the jammin' beat!

Before spending the afternoon enjoying their Lango Mandarin class with the Explorers Club, the junior campers experienced a closer view of New York City's clouds than did their younger friends. Brittany and her pint-sized friends enjoyed a view of clouds and skyline alike as they traveled 250 feet above the East River on the Roosevelt Island Tramway. http://www.ny.com/transportation/ri_tramway.html

Today's heat had neighborhood Explorers and parents hurrying into the play space as fast as little legs could run, but in this Mediterranean weather, Keyanna's senior campers toted backpacks and water bottles all the way to Italy! Little Italy, that is. Hot Italian food inside followed by cool Italian ice outside: Now that's amore!

I scream, you scream...

Explorers scream for ice cream! After making their way into downtown Manhattan, strap-hanger style, Edwin and the senior campers followed the sweetest smell of summer (and Keyanna's sweet tooth) across the Brooklyn Bridge to Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory on Monday morning. http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/brooklyn-ice-cream-factory/ Afterwards, on the ride to Fort Greene Park to work off those sprinkles it was three cheers for Wet-Naps! Walking the Brooklyn Bridge to Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory might not be the most relaxing way for parents of little ones to spend a weekday afternoon, but that doesn't mean that Mr. Softee is your only option for a cool summer treat. After Sarah sends the boys from Two: Cool for School home at noon, an afternoon at the NY City Explorers' Underhill playspace is a great way to cool off, and walking through Blue Marble Ice Cream to get there is the cherry on top! http://bluemarbleicecream.com/
While the senior campers enjoyed a timeless summer treat, Brittany's junior campers were stepping back through time into old-fashioned New York City via the Merchant's House Museum. http://www.merchantshouse.com/ The spacious rooms and original furnishings of the 19th century Washington Square row house hearken back to a time before New York City had even elected its first mayor, but somehow Brittany was able to maintain law and order amongst the campers anyway!
Fresh from her Florida vacation, Gayla still hadn't tired of the sunshine, so rather than be contained in the Merchant's House Museum with the junior campers, the Explorers Club headed outside to Van Voorhees Park to soak up the rays (after being slathered in sunscreen, of course!) In between running through the sprinklers and swinging on the swings, Lili and Simone took the time to make sure our youngest Explorer, 13-month-old Reza, was not only safe in Gayla's arms, but was having fun as well. As anyone who has ever been treated to the twins' performance of the Mary Poppins classic, The Perfect Nanny, can report, little Reza was not left wanting for entertainment!

It rained and it poured, but we still Explored!

Rain may have kept New York City's beaches empty on Monday, but it didn't stop the Explorers Club from playing in the sand. Sand art, that is! Hana, Lev, Shayna, Lili and Simone had fun creating masterpieces with Fruit Loops sand art, as they counted, sorted and crushed their way to the yummiest art work on Atlantic Avenue! Our youngest Explorers had so much indoor fun practicing colors and squeezing glue that they didn't mind missing the sprinklers for an afternoon. (Okay, almost didn't mind!) To make your own rainy day creation: http://fun.familyeducation.com/childrens-art-activities/toddler/36999.html

While the weather man threatened ten days of rain clouds on the way, Brittany and her Junior campers hoped the sun would return sooner rather than later. With Brittany's optimism leading the way, the campers made sure their next day at the sandbox or beach will be extra special and extra sparkly thanks to the pails and shovels they each personalized with glitter, glue, and NY City Explorers creativity.

Of course, the Junior Campers may have had more than digging for seashells in mind as they decorated their new pails and shovels, as the group had spent the first half of the day looking at the greatest dug-up treasures in Manhattan: the dinosaur bones and fossils at the American Museum of Natural History! http://www.amnh.org/ Move over Adam Sandler! Your Night at the the Museum may have brought the laughs on the big screen, but you have nothing on the giggles that accompanied Sammy, Haven and Lilliana's day at the museum!

If the campers didn't get enough cultural immersion at the museum's Culture Hall, they certainly made up for it during Tuesday afternoon's Mandarin class, where Lango's Sharon, Dee-Dee and their puppy puppet Cosmo led the Junior campers and the Explorers Club on a Mandarin-language adventure, singing songs, reading stories and even making paper cup squids! http://www.langokids.com/ Here's hoping you all do some exploring of your own this weekend in our wonderful city. Zai jian!

Fishing for Fun!

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a wriggling bass flying through the air on Haven's fishing pole! Brittany and her Junior campers spent a wet and wild afternoon on Friday fishing at the Prospect Park Lake, and while catch-of-the-day fish sticks didn't make it onto the lunch menu that afternoon, plenty of fun was served up anyway!

While the Junior campers' fishing lines were zooming through the air in Brooklyn, the Senior campers were zooming into Times Square on the A train with Keyanna and Edwin. Their final destination? Sony Wonder Tech Lab! http://wondertechlab.sony.com/index.html At the multimedia Madison Ave technology and entertainment museum, campers had the opportunity to perform virtual open-heart surgery and play instruments in a virtual band. After all of the virtual fun was over, the campers headed back to NY City Explorers for some actual fun, in the form of arts and crafts, games, and story-telling with their friends and counselors.

Although the Explorers Club and Two: Cool for School kids couldn't join in the Times Square fun just yet (they are toddlers after all), both groups found plenty of fun right here in Brooklyn. Bathing suits and sunscreen in tow, the Explorers Club made its way slowly but surely to the sprinklers at Van Voorhees Park, where our favorite three-year-old twins, Lili and Simone, showed the younger Explorers how to pump their legs on the swings, air-drying away evidence of the fun they all had running in the sprinklers moments before.

As the Explorers Club was keeping cool in the sprinklers, Cristina and the boys across town in Two: Cool for School wisely avoided the heat altogether. The group walked to the Brooklyn Public Library, where they read Bob the Builder books before choosing some more stories to read back in the cool comfort of the NY City Explorers Underhill location. How Cristina kept that bunch sitting still and quiet in the library is a mystery to us; Maybe for her next trick she'll pull a rabbit out of her hat!

Hopefully everyone was maxin' and relaxin' last weekend; With the campers headed to the Statue of Liberty, The American Museum of Natural History, and a walking tour and lunch in Harlem (Yum!) they'll need all the energy they can get! Finally, a special very Happy Birthday to Kisha's daughter Shelton, who turned one last week and celebrated over the weekend doing what she does best: Eating! Here's hoping Shelton's birthday BBQ was everything she wished for!