Weekend Planner July 1-4

Hooray for the red, white, and blue! Fourth of July Weekend is (finally) upon us. Staying in the city? This long
weekend is sure to roll out a fanfare of family fun, especially if you choose
one of our top event picks. —

‘Tis the season for outdoor
summer festivals! The 40th
Annual International African Arts Festival takes place Friday through
Monday and will feature over 100 local vendors, food stands, and traditional
African entertainment. On Saturday, check out the Avenue
of the Americas Summer Festival, a free international street fair with over 500 food,
craft, and antique merchants.

If crafts are solely what you seek, look no further! Head over to Socrates Sculpture Park on Saturday for their Wearable
Works of Art Workshop with Columbian-American artist Lina Puerta. Families can bring their own recyclable materials to create necklaces,
bracelets, and much more! On the Fourth, join the Children’s Museum of Manhattan for some Independence Day themed activities. Kids can paint
a mural, oo-la sparkle in a fireworks
collage, and stitch it up in their own American
Dream Freedom Quilt.

No Fourth of July is
complete without hot dogs. (Or any BBQ for that matter.) On Monday, check out Nathan’s
Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney
Island. Who will chow down the most and take home the coveted Mustard Yellow Belt? Stay tuned!
Afterwards, visit Central Park for a free
bird show where America’s patriotic bird of prey, the bald eagle, will take center
stage. Also, to commemorate our nation’s b-day (235 years!), Staten Island OutLOUD will host
a reading
of the Declaration of Independence on the shore.

Lastly, on Sunday,
take the whole clan to St. Mary’s Park in the Bronx for Summerstage’s
Bronx Family Day. This free event will include performances by Grammy Award Winner Bill Harley, Moona Luna, and the kid-friendly sensation Secret Agent 23
Skidoo. There will also be puppetry and storytelling!

Whatever your plans, be sure to travel safe and wear some SPF.

Looking for even more fun?
Click here for all of our weekend highlights.

Click here for the full
calendar of all family events happening this weekend and every day of the week.

And if you haven’t already, click here to
register for our free weekly newsletter which features our favorite events to
enjoy every weekend in the city and beyond.

The Language Workshop For Children

After offering both group and private lessons for many years and analyzing the results over&nbsp;time, The&nbsp;Language Workshop for&nbsp;Children, founded&nbsp;in1973, has decided&nbsp;to emphasize private remote lessons at shorter intervals.&nbsp;Our skilled educators&nbsp;will&nbsp;focus their attention exclusively on the&nbsp;unique needs, learning style, and interests of your child.&nbsp;This allows a&nbsp;bond&nbsp;to develop&nbsp;between teacher and student, which&nbsp;has been&nbsp;shown to&nbsp;drastically improve retention.&nbsp; OUR METHOD&nbsp; Developed by the pioneers of language education for children, our programs bring decades of&nbsp;experience to your living room with individualized, active language classes. Each lesson is based on proven methods and materials perfected to capture your&nbsp;child&rsquo;s attention during the ages when he/she absorbs information the fastest. &nbsp;&nbsp; While other online language classes rely on videos for passive learning, we deliver interactive, and engaging lessons with native-fluent teachers. In addition, all our teachers are certified in the Thibaut&nbsp;Technique which has been featured&nbsp;in the New York&nbsp;Times, the&nbsp;Wall Street Journal, and many other well-respected&nbsp;publications.&nbsp;&nbsp; Our short one-on-one lessons give kids the chance to focus, hear pronunciation clearly, and practice speaking in their target language.  THE PROCESS&nbsp; First, students have a short meeting with our Director&nbsp;Francois&nbsp;Thibaut, in&nbsp;English, with&nbsp;their parent(s)&nbsp;present.&nbsp;Mr. Thibaut&nbsp;will determine&nbsp;the best course of study, including&nbsp;class length and&nbsp;frequency, the&nbsp;right&nbsp;teacher, lesson&nbsp;format and materials (or action games for younger students.) Then the learning&nbsp;begins!&nbsp;Mr. Thibaut will continually check in on your child&rsquo;s learning to assure they are getting the most&nbsp;of&nbsp;their&nbsp;classes.&nbsp; OTHER OFFERINGS&nbsp; We can also help your child prepare for: the French subject tests for SAT, AP &amp; CLEP, the European DELF/DALF, the Canadian TEF and other standardized testing, college entry exams, studying or traveling abroad,&nbsp;cultural changes when moving abroad,&nbsp;and much more!&nbsp; &nbsp;

Speakitaly NYC

SPEAKITALY NYC offers stimulating and entertaining lessons for children 0 to 16 years through a wide combination of activities based on the communicative approach anchored in the Common European Framework of Reference: active learning (group work, role plays, etc.) and practice exercises aimed to improve listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. Kids will start speaking and using Italian in a very natural way.&nbsp; Small classes capped at 6 students to make sure each one gets the needed attention and facilitate learners' progress.&nbsp; Our method is driven by a didactic method that is the result of constant updates, professional certifications and more than 10 years of experience in working with non-native speakers from different native languages and levels of knowledge. Our aim is to develop a range of Italian language skills while improving accuracy that will enable the students and participants to interact without stress or feeling rushed. We want to help those in the community really embrace not only the true culture in Italy but the Italian culture within New York City&hellip; Who doesn&rsquo;t love what Italy represents in the kitchen, in history &amp; in the arts? Speakitaly wants to support multilingual families who want to learn a new language or pass along their ancestor&rsquo;s heritage and culture. Raffaella, the founder said: "We see language awareness and intercultural sensitivity as the milestones for an inclusive society. Italian, like all other languages, is an enrichment and a growth in every way. Vi aspettiamo!"

Chickenshed NYC

Chickenshed is an inclusive theatre company that began in the UK in 1974. Chickenshed NYC is a young organization bringing that same ethos and unique methodology to the USA. Chickenshed&rsquo;s mission is to create entertaining and outstanding theatre that celebrates diversity and inspires positive change. Chickenshed's model of Inclusive Theatre is based in the belief that everyone can flourish when everyone is included. At Chickenshed everyone is welcome, everyone is valued, and together we produce remarkable theatre. We want to break down barriers between people to create a world without labels and where differences no longer divide. At Chickenshed, support is given to those who need it, and given by those who can . We believe that creative activities, self-expression and performance should be available to anyone who has the desire, no matter their background or circumstances. We know that when everyone has the opportunity to shine, amazing things happen. Chickenshed NYC provides programming for little ones, children and youth through semester-long activities and performances.