Now that winter has come to stay, you'll probably be spending a lot of time indoors, but you can't just stay at home the whole season or the kids will go stir crazy. Time to sign up for some winter classes. We reached out to some of our favorite educational and enriching NYC programs and asked them to extend deals to our readers. The result is ten excellent offers for kids that you won't want to miss, from babies through tweens. Save up to 50% on classes like swimming, musical theater, Spanish, dance and animation. We even have discounts on test prep programs. Act fast! These deals are too hot to hang around long.

Community libraries are a wonderful resource for families. From story time to special clubs and fun events, they offer a wide variety of programs that appeal to all ages. Libraries are especially wonderful during the cold winter months when you need somewhere to escape with the kids for a few hours. We’ve rounded up some of the best activities currently scheduled at Northern NJ libraries—read on for some great suggestions to keep your family busy this winter.

Every winter, New York City families are faced with the same problem: How to keep the kids active when it's too cold to play outside. While your kids would probably be happy to turn your bed into a trampoline and your shelves into a jungle gym, you're desperate for better ideas. Our Indoor Activity Guide is filled with mellow inside spots like public atriums, children's bookshops and fun-filled megastores. But when your kids really want to burn off energy, you need a more active indoor destination where they can play, run around and test their limits, not your patience.

That's why we came up with this list of indoor play places in NYC where kids can get their ya-yas out. We even found spots that cater to tweens and teens. Plus, all of these places offer drop-in sessions so you don't have to commit to a class or pricey membership. From ball pits to drop-in play gyms, ice-skating to swimming to NYC's only inside skatepark, here are great ways to keep kids of all ages moving indoors in New York City.

I”ve always thought it somewhat ironic that our kids celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day by taking a day off from learning.  But alas, Congress has once again failed to consult me when composing the list of federal holidays, and so school is indeed closed on Monday.  Therefore, come Monday morning, this family will honor Dr. King by happily lounging in our jammies and eating pancakes.   Not only that, we’re hoping to check out some of these great area events this MLK Jr. weekend! Just in case you are in Harford County check out these MLK events there too.

A school bus strike, a flu epidemic and no agreement over the teacher evaluation plan. Man are we ready for the three-day MLK weekend to arrive. How to celebrate and honor Dr. Martin Luther King's legacy was a hot topic across all of our sites this week, and we found lots of meaningful ways to mark the holiday (which also happens to be President Obama's inauguration day) in NYC, on Long Island, in New Jersey and Connecticut. There are even some volunteering opportunities for families.

While the snow we got in NYC earlier this week washed away in a matter of hours, our Winter Fun Guide has info on plenty of tri-state area ski and snow tubing resorts that make their own in case you're thinking of going away for the weekend. We're hoping we actually get a natural snowfall at some point this season so we can go cross-country skiing, too.

Here's what else we covered on the NYC site this week:

It's a three-day weekend, and there's lots going on to keep the kids busy. There are several shows to see this weekend, including Gustafer Yellowgold at the Goat on a Boat Puppet Theatre, Pinkalicious the Musical at the CM Performing Center in Oakdale, Raggedy Ann and Andy at Theatre Three in Port Jefferson, Sleeping Beauty at the Studio Theatre in Lindenhurst, and The Magic of Thaddeus at Dix Hills Performing Art Center. If nature's more your thing, check out "The Colors of Winter" at the Sherwood-Jayne Farm in Setauket, Winter Animal Tracks at the West Hills County Park, terrarium making at the Suffolk County Farm and Education Center, or the Cold Spring Fish Hatchery. There are also several events commemorating Dr. King in honor of the holiday. Check out our posts on volunteering in honor of MLK Day and commemorative events, and as always take a look at our events calendar for more great activities. Happy three-day weekend!