Break out the books, toys and puzzles and sharpen your pillow fort skills. St. Louis family attractions have closed their doors and cancelled events for the next several weeks to help prevent the further spread of COVID-19. Here is a handy list of what's closed (and for how long) that will be updated daily as new information becomes available. Please note that projected opening dates may change.

Congratulations. You are now your kids' de facto teacher. But in this time of high anxiety, you get to decide what your "school" will look like and what your kids really need. I'm absolutely sure that what none of us need right now is more stress. To that end, I decided my kids need some current-day instruction mixed in with as many practical life lessons as I could pass along from my own growing-up years: the 1990s. 

Last summer, I was introduced to the wonders of modern-day sleep-away camp when my daughter spent a week at one for the first time. And let me tell you – these kids have it good. Real good. I went to sleep-away camp too, when I was a kid, and let's just say things have changed. Here are just a few of the differences between then and now.

Since breaking ground on the child-inspired Nature Playscape in Forest Park last summer, Forest Park Forever, the City of St. Louis and their team of partners have been pushing forward on this much-anticipated project at full speed, constructing eight activity areas where your kids will soon splash, climb, build, and learn. Already halfway completed, this one-of-a-kind play area in the heart of the park is destined to grow children’s interest in the natural world around them.

Once upon a time, well before we had children, I sat down to have a conversation with my husband. Looking back now, it was a magical twenty minutes. Perhaps we talked about something somewhat important, like our monthly financial spreadsheet, or something extremely important, like what restaurant we were going to for dinner. The point isn’t what the conversation was about. The point is that once upon a time we were able to have an entire uninterrupted conversation.