Five Things To Do On A Half Day

Verona’s four elementary schools and H.B. Whitehorne Middle School have half days on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week for parent-teacher conferences. Those talks are necessary, but mid-week half days are a test of even the best parental ingenuity. Note that Cedar Grove has a half day for conferences only on Thursday; Montclair and Caldwell have full weeks.

We’ve already posted some events taking place at the Essex County Environmental Center. The Yogi Berra Museum is still closed for renovations, but there are plenty of other options. There’s a chance of rain on Tuesday and more on Wednesday, so plan your week accordingly.

1. Liberty Science Center: Yes, you’ve been here before. But the center has a new exhibit on the Ice Age,  Mammoths and Mastodons that is just about the right size for a half-day afternoon.  The science museum is open until 4 p.m. on our half days. LSC tickets are usually $15.75 for adults and $11.50 for kids, but there’s a coupon on page 251 of the Kidstuff book that discounts that.
2. Thomas Edison Museum: Open Wednesday and Thursday until 5 p.m., the museum is a great way to show kids what things were like in the dark days before iPods and GameBoys. The museum is 15 minutes away in West Orange, kids are free and adults are just $7.
3. Montclair Art Museum: Yes, you could do the Native American collection–again. But why not go out on a limb and take the kids to its “Living For Art” exhibit? It features works of 20th century art collected not by millionaires and billionaires, but by a very ordinary couple in New York City. It just might inspire the kids to do some collecting of their own. MAM is open Wednesday and Thursday until 5 p.m. Tickets are $12 for adults and kids under 12 are free.
4. George Washington: George spent a lot of time in New Jersey during the Revolutionary War, often bunking with leading families of the day. The Dey Mansion in Wayne is one such place and it’s open Wednesday and Thursday from 1 to 4 p.m. Kids under 10 are free and everybody else pays $1. The Ford Mansion, Washington’s headquarters in Morristown for two winters, is open all three half days until 5 p.m. and its tour guides are top-notch and very kid-friendly. There are tours at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Kids are free and grownups are just $4.
5. The Aviation Hall of Fame: There’s more to do at the Intrepid, but the Aviation Hall of Fame is not a bad way to show the kids how New Jersey helped the world to fly. This small museum is on one side of Teterboro Airport, which means it’s an easy drive east on Route 46. It, too, is open all three half days. The cost is $7 for adults and $5 for kids, which makes it a lot less expensive than the Intrepid too. And if you have a Kidstuff book, there’s a coupon on page 315 to make it even less expensive.