Laurie Rein
Laurie Rein is passionate about finding fun (especially free!) activities for her twin daughters. Before joining Mommy Poppins New Jersey, Laurie worked in the television industry, with roles as an NBC page, copywriter, affiliate liaison for The Rosie O'Donnell Show, and research manager for CBS.
Latest posts by Laurie
While 2020 is shaping up to be a simpler holiday season, there's no reason to skimp on your favorite holiday foods. Forgo the heavy cooking and treat the family to a delicious takeout Christmas dinner or Christmas Eve meal to-go from a New Jersey restaurant or market. We've rounded up a handful of options for your Christmas meal, whether you want to have the whole meal catered or just need a few a la carte entrees, sides, and desserts to round out your holiday spread.
Check out these no-fuss Christmas dinner takeout options throughout New Jersey. While making your holiday preparations, consider visiting one of these Garden State Christmas tree farms, and catch up with St. Nick himself at one of these awesome Santa encounters.
The long Thanksgiving weekend has arrived, featuring four days of festivities with all the trimmings. Take a break from the hustle and bustle of the weekend at dazzling drive-thru light displays, including The Winter Wonderlights Spectacular Drive-Thru, Orchard of Lights, and a new Six Flags drive-thru, which all debut this week. Plus, kick off the holiday shopping season with daily surprises at American Dream's Wish Week, and search treasures for sale at Morris Museum's Rock and Mineral Weekend.
If you're planning a simple, low-key gathering for Thanksgiving, enjoy these 25 Thanksgiving games and crafts while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade online. You can even start plotting out some funny Elf on the Shelf ideas.
As always, you can find even more things to do in our Event Calendar and our Holiday Fun Guide, which is jam-packed with seasonal happenings, including our holiday bucket list for New Jersey families.
Playgrounds are the perfect destination when you need a change of scenery and a change of pace. Your kids get fresh air and exercise for FREE! But what happens when your school-aged children decide they’re too cool for their once-favorite neighborhood parks? My 8-year-old former playground-enthusiasts have recently begun to turn their noses up at the local swing sets. And if I do talk them into a playground visit, we last about five minutes.
Playground parents—don’t give up yet. I haven’t! There are some destination playgrounds in New Jersey with features and contraptions novel enough to satisfy even the pickiest playground cynics. These play areas include zip lines, crazy slides, Spiderman-type climbers, and other structures that challenge the ages 7-and-up crowd. We've rounded up some of our top picks across the state, and take note: These playgrounds all feature plenty to entertain the younger siblings as well.
Find more romping spots in our Parks & Playgrounds Guide for Jersey Kids.
Let there be light! Due to popular demand, the colorful, animal-shaped lantern sculptures at the Franklin Park Zoo will be illuminated on a nightly basis starting this week. In this first official week of fall, Boston families can also create a tide pool, enter a scarecrow contest, or grab one last chance to see dinosaurs "roaming" Gillette Stadium. Read on, because we've rounded up more top events happening this week and beyond in the Boston area—most in person!
Looking for even more seasonal fun? It's high time to go apple picking, get lost in a corn maze, or visit animals or sample cider at a Massachusetts farm. Just remember to bring your mask and practice social distancing. If more enriching activities are what you're after, our Back-to-School Fair is still going on; catch the last few free demo classes this week, including Atlantic Acting and Coucou French. As always, keep tabs on our Boston events calendar for daily updates on reopenings at favorite spots, and more local and virtual opportunities for family fun.
While remote learning plays a key role in the curriculum of many New Jersey schools this fall, in-person extracurricular activities can provide much-needed socializing and screen breaks for housebound students. Kids of all ages can burn energy in athletic classes, explore their creativity in art workshops, and expand their learning in technology classes. We've rounded up nearly two dozen in-person classes for New Jersey kids this fall. Some are classes in the great outdoors, while others take place indoors with social distancing guidelines in place. If you need more support during virtual school hours, be sure to see our roundup of centers offering remote learning support in-person and homework help this fall.
Check out these diverse fall class options, and find more extracurricular opportunities in our online Back-to-School Fair or our Guide to Classes for New Jersey Kids.
While indoor learning options are a bit limited for NJ kids during the ongoing pandemic, many creative organizations are turning the great outdoors into a classroom. We've found a number of classes for kids, as well as workshops and storytimes, taking place in NJ parks and other outdoor areas that offer fresh air and easy social distancing. Kids of all ages can saddle up, have farm fun, rock out, or hit a hole in one, all in the Garden State's outdoor settings.
If you're looking for more ways to spend time outside, visit New Jersey mini golf courses, zoos, swimming lakes, and sunflower farms. Find online classes and more virtual entertainment options in our Poppins@Home platform.
Finding the bright side of 2020 may feel challenging some days, but the variety of free classes and enrichment opportunities available to kids online is definitely a win. In a year when summer slide feels like it started in March, it's great to be able to learn from institutions normally out of reach. Kids can get crafty in art classes at New York's MCNY X Project Kid, whip up recipes in cooking class at Fresh Bites for Kids, learn marine biology at Santa Monica's Heal the Bay Aquarium, or write music with Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame.
There are plenty more free science, art, dance, technology, and cooking classes below. For more options to enrich the long days of summer, check out the free and low-cost classes on Poppins@Home, our Giant List of Top Virtual Summer Camps, 20+ Free Online Summer Camps, or How to Make Summer Camp at Home Fun.
Pages
