Upper West Side Kids Neighborhood Guide

There are street fairs and then there are street fairs. We don't mean those random ones that sell irregular socks and fried Oreos; we're talking about true community festivals. Each one is unique and reflects the character of its neighborhood, and many feature rides, performances, activities and food. The hard part, of course, is knowing which ones are which, 'cause while we all love to stock up on cheap socks, we're not going to drag our family across town to do so.

We've gone through the city's list of festivals, street fairs and carnivals for the month of May and picked out our favorites from years past and some new events that sound promising. All of these fests are FREE or just a couple of bucks, and in most cases your dollars go to support a local charity or school, so you can feel good about spending money. In our research, we were bummed to learn that one of annual picks, the Hudson River Pageant, won't be happening this year. But there are 32 other awesome fests to choose from! You can find even more seasonal activities in our Spring Fun Guide.

Our spring culture coverage continues with a look at the most promising family shows opening this season. Reading the papers, you might think the only great productions for kids are on Broadway. But while Matilda (it's dark!) and Cinderella (it's light!) command the media spotlight and cost big bucks, there are many wonderfully creative children's theater performances off Broadway and beyond.

The selection this spring is particularly intriguing and there are options for all age groups, including a few shows that are perfect for first-time theatergoers. The New Victory has a pair of plotless spectacles, one acrobatic, the other urban dance, and Making Books Sing and TADA! Youth Theater are adapting popular kids' books by Eileen Spinelli and Ezra Jack Keats. Plus the New York Children's Theater Festival returns for its second year on the Upper West Side, and the tenth annual International Toy Theater Festival takes place in Brooklyn. The one thing all of these shows have in common? You can take the kids to see them without dipping into their college fund—most are $20 or under and one is even FREE.

In our melting pot of a city, kids are exposed to lots of different languages, and the summer is a great time for children to try to pick up a new one. Whether your child yearns to master Chinese, French, German, Italian or Spanish, New York City is home to lots of language immersion summer camps. No textbooks at these programs. Instead, kids experience the usual seasonal fun—swimming, sports, arts—in their non-native tongue. The instructors and counselors are all fluent and not only teach kids the language, they expose them to the culture, too. Here are 10 language immersion summer day camps that will have your kids saying hola, bonjour or ciao in no time.