Spring emerging: The perfect time to plan for summer planning

Could it already be spring? I feel like we just celebrated Thanksgiving. The weeks are flying by and all in all this winter has largely lived up to the idea of climate change. I can easily recall harsh New York City winters in years gone by with large amounts of snowfall and frigid temperatures for days on end. Certainly not the case these days. I don’t really miss it personally, but I know a lot of kids do. It’s not easy to find a good snowball fight these days. It disappears faster than they can roll it. Again, I personally am not complaining.

I recently heard a rather bright and caring person ask why access to quality education should be limited by zip code? I thought that was a very thought-provoking question. The debate about Charter Schools will go on, but our thinking right now is that as publishers of parent guides, it’s important that we let our readers know what options are out there for their children. As a result, we have in this issue a special advertising section showing some of the many Charter School options in the communities. This is the time of year when applications are due and when the lotteries take place. If you are interested, please be sure to contact the schools and navigate through the simple application process.

We also have a special advertising section showing many of the wonderful programs your children can sign on for this summer. Some are more traditional camps and others are various kinds of specialized programs. The options are growing larger it seems with something for everyone. You can do a whole summer, or sessions or even a week here and a week there. As a person who went to traditional summer camp I’m finding the possibilities these days quite fascinating.

The month of March is a good time to start planning not only camp for the kids but also summer plans for the family. Do your research now to get the best deals for family vacations. Check out our website at NYParenting.com to find articles about family travel that will post from time to time through the month of March. There’s an interesting piece about travel to Raleigh and also a piece about other family destinations just outside of NYC by our resident writer Shneika L. Johnson.

Not everything gets into the magazine. More can be found online including our Full Calendar for the metro area. We do a lot of ticket give-a-ways too, so sign on for our newsletters for your chance to win. Soon there will other exciting offers too so don’t delay. Good luck!

Thanks for reading. Have a great month.