Nationwide

Learn how to pipe a buttercream rosette, smoosh icing over sponge, and make shell shapes under the watchful Zoom eye of NY Cake Academy instructors. The best part of this clever program is that once you’re registered, the academy mails you a full kit of everything you might need, saving you the hassle of finding (and going to the store and buying) a pastry bag or that offset spatula you swear you own but can never find. Set your kid up in the kitchen with their kit, hit play, and leave them to it for an hour.

Teacher, educator mentor, and curriculum designer Agata Young’s UK-based sensory learning center offers weekly sensory learning classes on YouTube, as well as a library of content on Facebook. While the classes are designed for babies up to thirteen months, sensory learning is all about exploring colors, textures, sound, and movement (and developing critical pathways in the brain), so it’s easy to get older kids involved, too. While you’re gathering the recommended props for a class, have toddlers pick out their own toys to use while following along.

Summer 2020’s stay-at-home orders can’t crush the spirit of Camp Lightbulb’s #rainbowtribe. The camp for LGBTQ+ kids typically has outposts in LA, NYC, and Provincetown, Massachusetts, all summer long. This year, it’s gone virtual. The weeklong themed camps are just as packed with activities, including short-movie making, music videos, and learning about LGBTQ+ history, intersectionality, and activism. If full days of camp don’t work with your family’s schedule, Camp Lightbulb also has free Instagram Live yoga and virtual events to keep kids connected and offer them a chance to make new friends while staying safe.

WOW stands for Woman-Owned Wineries, which is the foundational credo of Amy Bess Cook’s Sonoma-centric wine club. When you consider that only 10 percent of the lead winemakers in the thousands of California wineries are women, the absolute necessity of WOW’s rallying call sinks in. On the site you’ll find an invaluable directory of female-owned wineries and winemakers in the United States, plus details of the subscription service. You’ll also find an informative blog that spotlights the work of these female vintners and delves into the layered process of harvesting and producing a bottle of wine. Better yet, one dollar from every sale of WOW’s June shipment benefits the ACLU. Image courtesy of Kelly Puleio.

Disclaimer: Le Cru is pricey. It’s pricey because it’s a European-producer-based subscription service. To be specific, smaller European producers who don’t make the volume or perhaps have the resources to export to the States (making wine is expensive). A curated case of six bottles from say, Catalonia or Piedmont starts at $155, and shipping is free. If this sounds interesting, visit Le Cru’s excellent website, which has details on the various vintners it supports, along with approachable videos explaining the particulars of the regions it buys from.

Helen’s lore goes something like this: Sommelier Helen Johannesen started with a tiny, small-producer-forward wine store tucked in the back of Fairfax staple Jon & Vinny’s. Popularity exploded, a wine club was born, and a second location opened in Brentwood. If you’re not already a member of Helen’s Wine Club, now is a great time to join. We look forward to our delivery of limited production wines with handy tasting cards to help expand our palate every month. Otherwise, hop online; browse Johannesen’s smartly organized virtual store; edit your choices by price, country, wine type, style, or region; and get the corkscrew ready.

Getting into wine has a tick-the-box quality. Region: tick. Varietal: tick. Terroir: tick. But having someone walk you through those ticks makes delving into oenophilia doable. SommSelect offers three monthly clubs defined by theme (this one is the most affordable at $99 monthly and perfect for novices), SommSelect favorites, and guided blind tasting. For those who want to go deep, the sommelier concierge option tailors cases to your specific palate and budget (this is more suited to those who know their way around a wine cave). Lastly, Ian Cauble of Netflix’s Somm fame, is the maestro behind every bottle selection.

LOOM is an online sexual and reproductive health education platform for people and families in every stage of their journey—thinking about conceiving, struggling, expecting, parenting, and everything in between. In the pregnancy and postpartum program, which is taught by cofounder and CEO Erica Chidi, you’ll learn about choosing care providers, preparing for birth, and how to protect your mental health and physical wellbeing during it all. The baby care basics guide covers everything from diapering, sleeping, and swaddling. And after the baby is born, there’s baby massage, feeding support, and so much more. In this fully digital version of LOOM, you’ll have access to on-demand videos, in-depth written guides, live events, and audio conversations with therapists, pediatricians, fertility doctors, and lactation experts. Chidi, who is a former doula and the author of Nurture, is our go-to for nonjudgmental, science-backed information beyond pregnancy and birth: programs on sex, intimacy, periods, and menopause are also coming soon to the platform.

Methodology, a food delivery plan that ships nationwide, is made for busy professionals (or generally fast-paced New Yorkers) looking for nourishing meals at minimal effort. Their plans range from vegan to keto, and they taste amazing. The menu, which changes weekly, is full of cleaned-up comfort foods like Spanish chickpea paella and vegan eggplant caponata made with basil pesto, broccolini, and pistachio parmesan. Their desserts are amazing, too: think matcha chocolate collagen balls and paleo dark chocolate brownies with avocado frosting. You can mix and match your proteins and sides, and arrange for portions to be big enough for two servings. Meals arrive in glass jars, which travel well, and they'll pick up for easy reuse. Delivery is available nationwide (except Alaska and Hawaii).

Sure, it’s not officially in Manhattan, but this amazing science center is just a short train trip or drive away. Beyond boasting the largest IMAX dome in the states, there’s a Tesla coil lightning show, an outdoor obstacle course that mimics the way wildlife moves through nature, and the Touch Tunnel, where kids grope and crawl their way through a pitch black space.