Happy new year! As we return from the holidays to our usual routines, so do the types of events on tap for Westchester families. While a couple holiday events are cropping up—such as Three Kings Day Celebration and New Year’s Firework Painting—there’s also a departure from holiday fare with novelties like 19th Century Tin-Punch Decoration.

Regardless, we understand the need to keep the kids occupied and have compiled our top picks below. One added perk: They're all FREE! If one of your new year’s resolutions is to plan ahead and identify more enriching opportunities for your kids, look no further than our January GoList and our Event Calendar!

Although this week means back to school for most NYC kids, families can still carve out a little time for fun or some final seasonal celebrations, like Wednesday's Three Kings Day Parade. Other highlights for the week include Thomas the Tank Engine at the New York Botanical Garden Train Show, a sensory-themed puppet production at the Morris Park branch of the NYPL, FREE admission to CMOM and a family astronomy program at AMNH.

Families can also explore one of our favorite kid spots that opened last year, take a peak at what NYC parents can expect in 2016 or plan out the entire month with the help of our newly minted and jam-packed January Go List.

As always, more family activities can be found in our Event Calendar.

This is the beginning of my eleventh year as a parent, and every one of those years, I've had the same resolution on my list: have more fun with my kids. Happily, Connecticut is chock-full of fun family activities all winter long. This week, kids can visit with animals, take a cooking class, or enjoy a special drop off adventure just for Harry Potter fans. We are hard at work updating the Event Calendar for the new year so check back often to see the latest free and fun activities all over the state. Be sure to sign up for our newsletters and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest so you won't miss a thing. We look forward to spending time with you in 2016!

Just south of Prospect Park, Ditmas Park and Kensington are neighboring Brooklyn nooks oozing family-friendly charm. Centered around Cortelyou Road and Church Avenue, most flock to the area for excellent dining options, including The Farm On Adderley.  There are also several tried-and-true destinations for fun, including the terrific Lark Cafe, which offers a calendar full of toddler entertainment.  

Some staples of community life such as bookstores, children’s shops and playgrounds are not as plentiful as you might expect. Instead, visitors and residents share unique experiences such as Kensington Stables, Green-Wood Cemetery and one of the hippest farmers markets around, Cortelyou Greenmarket.  For just a taste of both neighborhoods, a single day might be enough. But to really feel like a local, we recommend you dedicate a full day to each enclave. We hope you love these sweet spots as much as we do. 

Check out our NYC Neighborhood Guide to find the best things for kids to do in each of the city's most popular hoods.

Trying to plan for a tween or teen birthday party might be a little more challenging then planning for your younger child. They are at an age where the cool factor is pretty important. Unfortunately you can’t just easily book a party at Chuck-e-Cheese anymore, you need to find something that is still entertaining and age appropriate. Here is a listing of places in Hartford County that might still be appealing to your tween/teen for a fun birthday celebration. Check out our CT Party Guide for even more fun options as well as a post we did on Flight Trampoline Park and Visiting Avery's Soda.

With the new year upon us, we thought it would be fun to review some of the Boston-area parenting blogs we loved in 2015. They cover everything from hyper-local events and healthy eating to LGBT solo parenting, and are the perfect additions to the two previous lists of some of our favorite local blogs from 2014 and 2013. In no particular order, here are some of our recommendations for local parenting blogs to start following in the new year:

School schedules, sports practices, predictable sleeping patterns... I am longing for normalcy to return to my home. To be clear, I love celebrating with family and friends while taking a break from our regular lives. But, I notice that my kids thrive when there is order and routine.

To settle back into the familiar, Philly families can count on our event calendar which features a variety of fun. Take your little ones to the library for storytime. Appreciate art at a local museum. Or, explore the outdoors during wintertime.

Read on for our top picks for the week. But, don't forget to browse our January GO List to help plan out fun for the entire month. Enjoy the week ahead. As for me, I'm looking forward to getting back to normal this week!

As far as aquariums go, my family is a pretty tough audience to impress. We’ve been there, done that, from the huge Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta to the Miami Seaquarium in our hometown. But since moving to NJ last summer, we’d heard some great things about  Adventure Aquarium, so with (happily!) no big plans for the holiday weekend, we piled into the SUV and made the hour and a half drive from our Jersey City apartment to Camden along the Philadelphia waterfront. Having a 2 1/2 year old, we were mostly excited about the new interactive hands-on exhibit called KidZone, geared towards kids 6 and under.