Prospect Heights is a small Brooklyn neighborhood that's in the middle of all the action. Nestled between Crown Heights, Boerum Hill and Fort Greene, It's brownstone Brooklyn at its best, with tree-lined streets, eateries galore, and a mix of longtime residents and new transplants. Much like the rest of the borough, the community has seen its fair share of gentrification; however, it remains quite diverse, and is a wonderful place for families to live or visit.

An array of kid-friendly cafes, bars, restaurants and shops line Vanderbilt Avenue, and Washington Avenue is another thriving commercial strip. The southern periphery of Prospect Heights features some of Brooklyn’s most famous landmarks: the Brooklyn Museum and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (both of which we also covered in our Crown Heights Guide, since they're literally on the cusp of both neighborhoods), along with the central branch of the Brooklyn Public Library and the northern edge of Prospect Park. Meanwhile Barclays Center (also covered in our Fort Greene Guide) is located in its northwestern corner.

Throughout May, we'll be writing about the best places for families to see, eat, play and experience in Prospect Heights. For the purposes of our posts, our geographical boundaries are Flatbush Avenue to the west and Washington Avenue to the east, Atlantic Avenue to the north and Eastern Parkway to the south. We kick off our coverage with the top 20 things to do in Prospect Heights with kids.

I used to run screaming when I came across bugs, spiders and bees. However, something recently happened that made me look at these creepy crawlies in a whole new way: my 7-year-old son became fascinated by them. He started spending hours hunting for ants in our backyard, digging for worms in our garden and researching different types of spiders on the Internet. Convinced he will one day be an award-winning entomologist, I set out to find ways to encourage his new hobby and discovered the perfect destination for bug lovin' NJ kids: Insectropolis in Toms River. This cozy museum is housed in an unassuming warehouse, and it's filled with insects and spiders from around the globe. If your child (or you!) is as obsessed with insects as mine, this bugseum makes for an awesome and relatively inexpensive outing for the entire family.

Kids complaining that they're bored? With plastic drinking straws, tape and some scissors you can create a set of panpipes that will change their tune in no time at all. With your flute finished, you can play a song and lead a parade. If your children are old enough, you can even give them a physics lesson.

In what now seems like a prior lifetime, I had a marginally profitable career as a sports writer and editor. Having kids may have changed my professional priorities, but my love of sports has endured and is something I share with my 9-year-old. So of course, when offered the chance to introduce him to my old world during a tour of Yankee Stadium, I jumped at it. The fact that he's an even bigger baseball and Yankees fan than I am was just icing on the cake (or maybe whipped cream on the sundae, in this case).