The Year of the Dragon kicked off on Monday, and many of the big celebrations happen this weekend, including Lunar New Year parades in Manhattan and Brooklyn. This weekend also marks Tu B'Shevat (Jewish Arbor Day), and there are festivals at the Museum at Eldridge Street and Central Park's Dana Discovery Center.

It's also a great weekend for music. Families can choose from cool classical, jazz and rock concerts, including live performances by Erin Lee and the Up Past Bedtime Band and the genre-busting Hot Peas N’ Butter.

Those are just a few of the great things going on this weekend. Read on for all of our picks and remember, you can find additional ideas in our Winter Fun Guide and our Event Calendar.

If you're on a quest to see how many times you can get your kids to say, "Wow!" in a two-hour period, take them to see Cirque du Soleil's OVO at the Santa Monica Pier - they'll break all previous records. In fact, allow us to make it easier for you: even though we've already given away a family four-pack of tickets to see OVO, now that we've seen for ourselves what a fabulous show for kids it is, we're giving away another set of four tickets to the February 1 performance! Read on to see how to enter!

We love taking the kids to indoor concerts when it's cold outside. It's a great way for them to shimmy and shake away the winter blues. Unlike sing-alongs or jazz concerts, pop and rock bands really let little music lovers blow off steam.

Lots of our favorite kids' groups are playing this winter, like The Deedle Deedle Dees and Suzi Shelton, but we've also included less well known groups we love. Whether you want to see a big name like Dan Zanes or are hoping to discover a new musical obsession, here are 13 cool kids' concerts in New York City.

Happy 4,709! As you've probably heard, the Chinese New Year began on January 23, and it's the Year of the Dragon - associated with wealth, power and courage! I don't know about you, but I could use a little of all of that right about now. To honor the dragon (perhaps running into a little wealth, power, and courage en route?) we offer a list of All Things Dragon in LA, to show our little dragons more of what this year of fiery, auspicious legend has to offer. You can start with Chinatown's Golden Dragon Parade, of course, as well as a few other Chinese New Year Festivals, then move on to some less obvious dragons...

We usually do these links posts once every two weeks, but so many stories caught our eye over the past seven days, we couldn't wait to share.

This batch is heavy on education-related news, including a stomach-churning breakdown of public school lunches, major budget cuts to after-school programs and a new definition of autism that could change available services.

Before you grab a bottle of aspirin (or vodka), not all of the news is bad. We've also got info on a new Montessori that's open 24/seven, the annual Doodle 4 Google competition and an open call for young circus performers—and we're not clowning around.

Boston Children's Theatre's latest production, Calvin's Monster, comes to the Boston Center for the Arts for two weekends, beginning February 4, and a Mommy Poppins Boston family can win free tickets to see the show.

Calvin's Monster is a musical based on the book Fairy Tale Moments by Marcia Trimble, in which eight-year-old Calvin learns how to overcome his fears - with a little help from his fairy tale friends. Performances are February 4, 5, 11, and 12, and tickets are good for any performance.

For your chance to win the Family 4-Pack of tickets for the show, just send me an email by Thursday, February 2 at 5pm. The winner will be randomly drawn and notified that evening.

As you could probably tell from my posts about indoor play spots, outdoor playgrounds and toy stores, I love raising my daughter in Park Slope. One of our favorite things to do in the area is hit one of the many inexpensive drop-in sing-alongs and interactive storytimes.

Now that winter's here, we attend at least one of these every week. It's a great way to get out of the house and give my toddler a little playtime. From the local Ys to the Brooklyn Public Library's central branch to various cafes, we've been to 'em all. These are the sing-alongs and storytimes we think are worth the schlep.