14 Things to Do With Kids at the Texas Renaissance Festival

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The Texas Renaissance Festival is back in town, and if you and your family have never been, make this year your first. As the state's largest festival of its kind (and one of the biggest in the country), it is an experience like no other - and it's just a short drive from Houston. Even its 200-acre location has an eclectic story; a former strip-mining site turned Renaissance theme park complete with authentic art, larger-than-life statues and structures, and a village of shops, restaurants, and stages that look like they've been plucked from another era.

The Texas Renaissance Festival has things to do for families and kids, making it a great weekend getaway from Houston.

Things To Do in Connecticut this Weekend: Pumpkins, Scarecrows, County Fairs

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A corn maze is open in Middlefield! Photo Courtesy of Lyman Orchards

This week the calendar says we are officially entering fall...and that means we can turn our attention to pumpkins and harvest fun. Head over to Seymour for the annual Pumpkin Festival, or travel to Pumpkintown, USA to see the famous collection of jack-o'-lantern people. Kids love making their own scarecrows in Simsbury. And corn mazes are cropping up everywhere!

There also are plenty of other activities this week. Newtown is hosting a free program about polination and Norwalk is celebrating its first-ever Norwalk Strong. And this isn't even counting all the traditional county fairs, like these in Guilford and Orange.

These fall weekends are particularly action packed so make sure that you subscribe to our weekly newsletters and follow us on Facebook and Instagram so that you won't miss any of the fun! As always, our event calendar is constantly being updated with the latest activities. Have fun!

Things To Do in Chicago this Weekend with Kids: Youth Art Fest, Oz, Free Museums

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In celebration of all things Oz, visit the Midwest Wizard of Oz Festival in Tinley Park. Photo courtesy of the event

Kid-friendly art walks, harvest festivals, and cultural celebrations top the calendar for Chicago families this weekend. To start with, there's the usual full complement of fun fall festivities, including the Oak Brook Autumn Fest, Oak Park's Oaktoberfest, the Autumn in the Park Festival in Palos Park, Bolingbrook's big End of Summer Carnival, the Geneva Autumn Fest, and Naperville's activity-packed Harvest Pow-Wow where kids can learn about the harvest traditions of Native American cultures. The Chicago Japanese Matsuri bids summer farewell in traditional Japanese style with games, crafts, and tasty food.

The day culture fans have been waiting for arrives on Saturday with Smithsonian Free Museum Day: 20+ museums and institutions offer free ticketed admission, including the Adler Planetarium, but don't wait to book your tickets. Also on Saturday, the YAS! Youth Arts Showcase Fest in Millennium Park highlights the creativity of Chicago kids with exhibits and performances. Stick around for another creative, only-in-our-city event that night as the Moonlight Parade at the Bean fills Millennium Park with drummers, glow sticks, and lanterns.

This weekend is also opening day for the Chicago Children's Museum's exhibit devoted to the art of Mo Willems, much-loved author of the Knuffle Bunny and Elephant and Piggie books. Art-loving families can also stroll the Beverly Art Walk or explore the Andersonville Arts Week Fest this weekend. 

Ready for Halloween yet? Pull out your ruby slippers and your lion costume early for the weekend-long Midwest Wizard of Ozfest in Tinley Park, with puppet shows, performances, and photo-ops on the Yellow Brick Road. 

And those are just the highlights! There's lots more to do in this weekend's roundup and in our jam-packed Event Calendar.

HudsonWay Immersion School Brings Mandarin and Spanish Bilingual Education to NYC and NJ

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Founded in 2005 by an expectant mom committed to giving her soon-to-be-born twins a bilingual education, HudsonWay Immersion School (HWIS) has grown from a home-based class of five kids into an academically rigorous, full immersion Mandarin and Spanish language program for children ages 2 through grade 8. Beginning in PreK, HWIS's core curriculum is taught in both English and the selected foreign language, with the goal of helping students develop advanced cognitive skills, higher second language proficiency, strong social skills, and an increased awareness of the many diverse cultures in our ever-changing world.

Over the last 14 years, the bilingual school has expanded to two campuses in Stirling, New Jersey and New York City, including a brand new facility in Midtown West that just opened in time for the 2019–20 school year. With all this momentum, we sat down with the mastermind mom behind HudsonWay Immersion School, Sharon Huang, to learn more about the unique dual language program and the new Manhattan campus.

Music Classes for Children in Hartford County and Central Connecticut

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Kids get to sample some instruments and make some noise at Kindermusik. Photo courtesy of Kindermusik with Jen

Not simple a source of creative expression, music has been known to be critical for brain development, fostering self-esteem, improving language, and building many other great skills. Here's an extensive list of schools that offer instrument lessons (piano, violin, and more) or other music class programs (from movement-based classes to vocal instruction). For even more fun ideas, check out our Connecticut Classes and Enrichment Guide.

Halloween's Best Ghost Trains and Spooky Rides for LA Kids

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Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Haunted Hayride

So you've already been to the pumpkin patches, and you're ready to take Halloween to the next level; you're ready, in fact, to put it in motion. We know several deadly ways to take this haunt on the road before it's time to trick-or-treat, with everything from an old-fashioned train ride through fields of pumpkins, to a spooky tour through the bowels of a haunted ship, or even a scream-filled hayride through fields of zombies. Whatever Halloween means to your family, you can make it a ride at one (or more) of these vehicular annual haunts. After all, the family that hunts down armies of zombies together stays together.

Note that this post is currently being updated for 2021.

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