Getting kids to practice their instrument, whether violin or voice, can be challenging, but when they are part of a music ensemble, they often feel more motivated to practice. If your teen or tween is at a middle or high school without the right musical group, we've found music opportunities that will make all those private lessons pay off. Many music schools offer teen ensembles, but we've found a cool one that perfoms contemporary chamber music and two others that offer free musical fun. Read on to find out more about our cool music picks for your tween or teen.
 

Most of us are familiar with the celebrated Chinatown festivities in New York City that mark the Chinese New Year, but New Jersey also offers several family friendly options. These events include all the good stuff that make a New Year celebration meaningful, including food, dance, music, crafts and a woman who can balance a kitchen sink of dishes on her nose and walk across a bridge of light bulbs. What family outing is complete without that? Whether you want to learn the lion dance, enjoy ancient acrobatics, or just make a paper lantern, the Year of the Rabbit won't disappoint.

With Valentine's Day a few weeks away and more cold weather to come, there couldn't be a better time to eat lots of chocolate. And while you're at it, why not learn a thing or two? Many of the city's Willy Wonkas let visitors go behind the scenes and watch the chocolate-making process up close. You could easily spend an hour or more at one of the five spots below. Or even better, spend a whole weekend celebrating chocolate and hop through a few boroughs. And just in case cacao isn't your thing, we included a place where you can watch cool candy being made.

Due to terrible damage sustained during Hurricane Sandy, the NYC Police Museum's Old Slip building is closed. However, you can still see some of its exhibits in its temporary 45 Wall Street space. When my (very) soon-to-be-six year old son entered the new, hands on, Junior Officers Discovery Zone at the NYC Police Museum, his reaction wasn’t quite what I expected.  As we walked down the ramp leading to the new children’s area he said “uh oh, this place looks like it’s for toddlers”.  I told him that we should go in and check it out anyway and after about an hour I asked him if the zone was for still only for toddlers and his reply tells it all:  “No, it is for me, too!”

Find out what changed his mind about this new permanent children's exhibit about NYC Finest in lower Manhattan.

Who doesn’t love the Laura Numeroff series of “If You Give…”? Whether it’s mice at movies, pigs ingesting pancakes, or Numeroff’s latest romp with cats snarfing cupcakes and slipping on sprinkles, the books are a favorite of kids and parents alike.

As long as the sidewalks are shoveled and MTA is moving us, New York City is the place to be this winter and there is no reason to hide inside your apartment just because it is cold or snowy.  The city is brimming with lots of fun things to do, so many in fact, it was hard to pare down to the best bets for the weekend.  

The Chinese or Lunar New Year is next week and there are plenty of ways to celebrate this weekend, both the Museum of Chinese in America and The Asia Society are hosting Family Days, plus there is also Taiwanese puppetry, lantern making, Asian music and dance around town. You can share some classical music with your children at the LolliPops Meet the Composer Concert; explore green design, collage making and even look for seals.  You may want to visit the faux indoor park before it closes on Monday, or take a trip to an indoor skating rink, rock climbing gym, bowling alley or a new play space.

This weekend finds our events calendar packed - so be sure to check it out - we have theater, dance, music, magic and a ton of story times listed.  Read on to plan your weekend and we hope you have a great one.

A great way to get a feel for a camp is to visit it in person. Whether you're thinking about day camp here in NYC or in the country, or especially sleep away camp, there's no better way to check it out than to meet the people and see the facilities first-hand. Many camps will let you visit any time, but some have special open house dates where you can get a tour and maybe even try out some of the activities for yourself. We've collected a bunch of upcoming open house dates, but if you don't see the camp you're interested in listed here, just give them a call and ask when you can visit. And if you can't get out of the city just now, check out the Camp Fairs being held by New York Family starting this weekend, on Saturday in Manhattan, or in Brooklyn on Sunday.

Check out our Camp Guide for more ideas on cool summer camps around NYC.

There's just so much freaking cool stuff going on all the time in NYC and if I wasn't so busy staring in disbelief at all the snow I would write up each of these things separately, but as it is I have a lot of ironic tweeting and facebooking to do about how unbelievable this winter has been. Who has time to blog?

Seriously though, read on because there's a bunch of really neat things that you want to know about from free swimming and ice skating to a play that offers babysitting as well as theater. Plus s'mores, hot cocoa, a baby and me lunch deal and more.