The end of the school year is here, and I am faced with the age-old parenting dilemma; what to do with my kids this summer? I want to continue drop-off classes for my daughter to get her used to the school routine, but I don't want to spend a lot of money and also want to enjoy the warm weather with a lot of outdoor activities for both my kids.

Another mom and I decided to join forces to come up with a summer plan for our kids (exactly the same age, so it's really convenient to spend time together since there are no surprises for either mom). The other family is traveling all summer, so we decided to enroll our older children one day a week in the preschool summer camp at Hudson Dance and Movement. Classes started a few weeks ago, and so far they are having a great experience. The facility is cramped, but the arts and crafts as well as dancing activities are top notch.

It's a giant pain that the Barnes & Noble around the corner just closed because it would have been great to entertain my two year old during the recent unseasonably cold weather, but we fed the Canada geese who live in the water next to Pier A and ran errands on Washington Street to kill time.

I compiled a list of activities and am splicing them into a weekly plan for our families. One day each week we plan to venture far afield to places like Adventurer's Amusement Park, Sesame Place, Secaucus Pool, Bryant Park and the American Girl store.

On another day we'll stay close to home, taking toddler lessons at Hoboken Golf, playing in the excellent water sprinklers at Madison Park and Pier A, visiting Liberty Science Center, Jersey City Museum, and the Battery Park City playground (my kids love taking the ferry to World Financial Center).

There are also toddler favorites like drop-in Puppetonia classes and art classes at Monroe Movement Space along with more traditional camp options like the program offered by Hoboken Historical Museum. We will definitely be checking that out in future summers when the kids are a bit older!

When the other family leaves in July, I discovered that World of Wonder Day Care in South West Hoboken offers a weekly swim class during the summer session, along with yoga and music classes. I plan to enroll my daughter three mornings a week to benefit from those classes, and to attend the swim sessions with my two year old. That covers almost all of the summer, and then we will probably take a week-long family vacation. When our friends return in August, we are considering enrolling the older girls in a one-week camp at Kidville to prep them to start full-time preschool in September. The Superhero and Fairy Princess camps look especially intriguing since I have a superhero princess in my house.

To read more about what makes Kathy Zucker tick, check out her blog at http://hobokenmomcondo.com/momblog and follow her at http://twitter.com/zhobokenmom