My now eight-year-old son had happy feet in utero, and happy (and apparently tasty) feet as a baby. As soon as he learned there was such a thing, he began asking for dance lessons. It seems he didn’t get the memo that, in America at least, dance is not considered a cool activity for boys. (Not that he would have cared—he’s very much a waltz to the beat of his own drummer kind of dude.)

In order to counter this attitude, lots of dance studios have launched special boy-centric or boys-only classes in the hope of appealing to all of the Billy Elliots out there. Bonus: Some of these programs are subsidized or even free!

Over the past few years, Harlem has become a real foodie destination, with celebrity restauranteurs like Cedric Lecendre and Marcus Samuelsson opening up much buzzed about eateries. And even though Cedric Bistro and Red Rooster are better for date night than brunch with the kids, many Harlem restaurants do cater to families.

So we continue our month-long focus on Harlem with a roundup of the best kid-friendly restaurants in Harlem, all endorsed by local families. From old-school standards like soul food stalwarts Sylvia's and Miss Maude's to popular newbies like Lido and 5 and Diamond, here are our top 13 places to eat with kids in Harlem.

Russian is my first language, so when I became a mom, I resolved that all of my children would be bilingual. I now have three kids and failed with all of them in their own way (not unlike what Tolstoy said about unhappy families). They are all definitely English dominant.

But I did do one thing right with my now eight- and five-year-olds: In addition to speaking Russian to them from birth, I also enrolled them in baby sign language classes. Not only were they able to communicate through sign months earlier than their mouths and tongues were capable of physically producing words, it created a perfect bridge from one language to the other. When I spoke to them in English (if their father was around), I signed the words. If I spoke to them in Russian (when we were alone), I signed the words. Making the same sign whether I was speaking English or Russian crystallized the point that all three–English, Russian and sign–referred to the same thing, and really helped them keep it all straight.

Here are some places where families can take baby sign language classes in New York City.