Perhaps when your kids were babies you only gave them hand made wooden toys and never bought them anything with a character on it, but once you send your kids to school, all bets are off. All of a sudden status is measured by how much brightly colored plastic you have in your room, hanging from your backpack and printed on your T-Shirts.

And for kids these days, especially the boys, Pokemon branded plastic seems to be the most treasured. But the Pokemon empire extends far beyond the world of adorable plastic figures, there's cards, video games and stuffed animals to collect also. My kids can't get enough of any of it.

As the city continues the H1N1 vaccination program in schools, the debate seems to rage on. News reports state that fewer parents than expected are giving consent to have their children vaccinated, although some are reportedly planning on having the vaccination done in their pediatrician's office—assuming it will be available there at some point.

Read on for facts and fears over the swine flu vaccine and the big snafu in the program.

New York City is filled with incredible artists and, as parents, we are lucky that many of them make their talents and their services available to families: the concert pianist who teaches children, the painters and photographers who do portraits, artist who create wonderful and imaginative murals, and lots and lots of craftspeople of every stripe. We have created a new page to help these artists connect with the families that can use their services.

It's finally here. Halloween Weekend is upon us and the kids are already jittery with excitement. We've written about so many Halloween activities, how on earth are you to decide what to do? Plus there's a few events we haven't even mentioned yet. So this week's events post focuses on the most interesting Halloween activities this weekend.

Of course there's way more than ten great things to do this weekend so make sure to check the posts in our Halloween Activities Guide and our events calendar, which has over 50 cool events for this weekend (we even have some non-Halloween events if you're over it).

This year we're looking for ways to cut the sugar intake of our kids on Halloween a little bit, like with this idea we had to give away toys rather than candy. But if you're going to do candy, you might as well do it right, right? Here are a couple of tips on some places that are giving away the good stuff. Skip the bite-sized Snickers and read on to find out how to score fancy chocolates, cookies, and even some candy gelato.

A round-up of some recent news stories about New York City schools, plus a random silly video for your viewing pleasure. But first, the news:

A couple of great deals to snap up if they fit your bill. Find out how to get your environmentally friendly, toxin free diapers for almost half off from Amazon.com and scoop up a last minute Halloween Costume from Ricky's also half off. Check these deals out fast.

We've all been hearing lots of hype about getting vaccinated for the H1N1 swine flue on the radio, television, and in the print media urging people to get the vaccine. On the other side there have been lots of conversations in the playgrounds and on message boards discussing fears of the side effects and dangers of the flu vaccine. But once, you get over the question of whether to get the vaccination or not, you're faced with a second issue: how do you find a flu shot vaccine?