This year almost 200,000 kids in New York State chose to opt out of the standardized state tests for grades 3 through 8. That’s a whopping 15% and almost four times the number that opted out last year. The growing dissent over the Common Core and high-stakes testing has been visible in article after article citing despicable practices, product placement and age-inappropriate questions. While I think most parents are in favor of high standards for kids, there’s obviously a lot of frustration with how the Common Core is being implemented, and it raises the question of what our standards really are.

Of all the articles bouncing around the Internet these days about the Common Core and standardized testing, two particularly caught my attention. One describes the standard expectations for a first grader in 1979; the second shares math problems from a first grade Common Core curriculum today. The difference is striking and astonishing, and will really make you rethink the educational road we've gone down since we were little.

Foodies know that NYC's most diverse borough is where it’s at for the best international dining delights. You can travel the globe with your kids going from neighborhood to neighborhood, exploring the different ethnic enclaves and great restaurants. After extensive research, we packed the kids in the car and set off to Queens to eat as much as we possibly could. Our Queens food crawl featured eight stops, seven nationalities and six neighborhoods. We didn't just eat great food; we had fun experiences and expanded our horizons. This is why we live in New York City, folks. If you haven’t done your share of exploring the ethnic eateries of Queens, get hoppin’.

Here’s where and what we ate:

If you like peanut butter and jelly, you'll love these super-easy-to-make, healthy, gluten-free and protein-packed cookies. All you need is three ingredients and about 20 minutes. I made this recipe up, and while these cookies aren't going to win anyone a place on Iron Chef, they make for a great after-school snack with a glass of milk. You could even eat them for breakfast. Why not?

One of NYC's best known spring events, the Tribeca Film Festival, is set to take over downtown from Wednesday, April 15 through Sunday, April 26, and as always there are lots of awesome FREE activities for families. The main kids' event, the Tribeca Family Festival Street Fair, takes place on Saturday, April 25. While the crowds are huge, there are tons of surprises, cool experiences and great entertainment that make it a must-do.

In addition to the Family Festival Street Fair, there's Tribeca/ESPN Sports Day, plus a series of outdoor "drive-in" movies, an indoor screening of Back to the Future and other family fun—all 100% FREE.

As parents, we do a fair amount of shopping for our kids, always in search of a good bargain for ever-growing bodies. Personally, I love hitting children's consignment shops and thrift stores. Besides being a great way to find inexpensive clothes and baby gear, it's fun to stumble across unique items you would never see at a big chain store. Consignment shops are also excellent spots for buying staples like bed rails that you use for a little while and then need to pass on.

Unfortunately, due to listservs like FreeCycle and Craigslist, there aren't as many children's resale shops in New York City as there used to be. But we found five secondhand stores where you can buy (or sell!) kids' clothing, gear and even toys.

Great travel is the holy grail of family time: To see the world, expand our horizons, and experience unforgettable adventures together is everything we want our family time to be, all wrapped into one. That’s the dream anyway. The reality is that planning a big trip can be so daunting you want to throw up your hands and just stay at home. It’s no wonder all-inclusive resorts are so popular, just show up and your hardest decisions concern the buffet.

But there’s no substitute for amazing travel with your kids. If you’re like me you want to pack lots of stuff into your days, but not at the expense of having crabby, exhausted kids. There’s no reason to give up hope of doing the things you want or just sticking to vacations at Disneyland. Finding the perfect balance and knowing a few tricks to planning itineraries that optimize your days will help you have better, more adventurous vacations.

It‘s taken me years of practice to figure out how to plan itineraries that keep everyone happy, expose us to new experiences, and still feel enough like a vacation that I don’t need another one once we get home. The heart of my travel planning comes down to knowing how to balance cultural experiences with kid-friendly fun, while making the logistics as seamless as possible. I’ve boiled my technique down to 10 simple steps that anyone can do to have amazing vacations. If I can turn my grumpy kids into world travelers, you can too.

As much as I believe that NYC is the best place on earth to raise children, I can't deny that traveling on the subway with babies or toddlers can be tough. While we’re lucky to have an amazing mass transit system, it’s not always easy to use and safety is a concern. Plus we have to share it with millions of other people—people who may not think our strollers and restless kids are as cute as we do. From finding a station with an elevator, to knowing what to do if you and your child are separated, to avoiding hipsters filming you as an annoying breeder and posting it on their blogs, we have some tried–and–true tips that will keep your trip safe and relatively hassle-free. Here are 10 strategies for getting around NYC on the subway with a baby or toddler.

It can be hard for someone who lived in Soho as a kid to see the neighborhood clearly now. Mostly we see what it’s not anymore as we think back to the days of abandoned streets, five-floor walk-ups to unfinished lofts, and the artists and art galleries that occupied the area. Today, the heart of Soho has become NYC’s biggest outdoor shopping mall and, especially with the closing of the Scholastic Store, it doesn’t seem like the most kid-friendly corner of the city. However, just as we can look past the shiny new storefronts to see the beautiful old cast-iron facades that sit above them, there are some wonderful experiences for families in this historic neighborhood—if you know where to look.

Throughout March, we'll be writing about the best places for families to visit, shop and eat in Soho and adjacent neighborhoods Little Italy and Hudson Square. For the purposes of our posts, our geographical boundaries are Houston to Canal Streets between the Bowery and the Hudson River. We kick off our coverage with the top 35 things to do in Soho and its surrounding environs.