Dig your hands into the soil of the Earth and learn how to grow your own food. Teaching children at a young age how to cultivate food is a priceless ability. These farms, garden clubs and museums across Long Island have everything you need to get started, so head out with your little seedling and plant some fun. And for more outside activities, check out our Spring Fun Guide.

One of the perks of living in a big city is being able to leave the car at home and get around via public transportation instead. Whether you take the T's Green, Blue, Orange or Red Lines, there are plenty of fun stops to make along the way, especially with kids in tow. On the Red Line you can do everything from bask in nature and tour some of Boston’s most historic sites to visit several terrific museums. Here’s what we recommend for making the most of taking your kids on the Red Line.

Many families may have already enrolled their little ones in summer camp, but if you still have a free week or two (or the entire summer) to fill, don't worry. There are loads of new NYC day camps that will knock your kid’s socks off. From an outdoor free-play camp on Governors Island to a soccer-skills intensive and a Chinese language immersion camp, here are 10 new summer day camps for New York City kids.

For further options, check out our Summer Camp Guide and our Camp Directory.

Learning how to ride a bike without training wheels is a major milestone in a child’s life, and while all kids develop at their own pace, the average age to master this skill is somewhere between five and seven years old. That’s good news for my seven year-old son, who wants to go from four wheels to two sometime this summer. I must admit, though, that we’re both a little nervous about the process. He’s worried about falling and getting hurt, while I’m stressed trying to figure out the best way to teach him. And I’m happy to find I’m not the only one: A poll conducted by Schwinn found that 55 percent of parents are nervous about teaching their kids how to ride, and 36 percent wish someone else would do it for them!

But before I source this parenting chore out, I decided to ask some pros for their best advice on the subject and discovered these eight tips for teaching my son how to ride without either of us having a meltdown.

It's easy to forget that living in New York City doesn’t have to mean severing ties with Mother Nature. After years of exploring outdoor spaces in our urban landscape, we had a blast putting together our top 25 places to thrive outside. 

On that list is the Brooklyn Salt Marsh, 530 acres of a grasslands ecosystem located within Marine Park. The marsh is home to birds, including egrets, red-winged blackbirds and the impressive marsh hawk, and is such a treasure the Urban Park Rangers have established one of its 10 citywide nature centers there. So on your next visit, stop by the nature center and let a friendly ranger educate your children on the powerful role the marsh plays in the local environment.

In the meantime, here are 10 great things we discovered during our recent visit.

We recently wrote about Massachusetts spots that focus exclusively on indoor rock-climbing, but in doing so we left out many fitness centers that offer rock walls among other physical activities. So, if parents want rock-climbing for their kids as an option along with, say, swimming in the same building, here are some good places to consider.  

Whether you’ve a newcomer to Westchester, in town for the weekend, or just looking for a day trip, there are plenty of family-friendly destinations in Westchester and the Lower Hudson Valley that are worth the trek. We’ve rounded up our top five picks of places to visit with kids in this area, all of which are easy to plan and easy to reach.

The annual World Science Festival opens June 1 at venues across New York City. Now in its ninth year, the festival adds to its already engaging, kid-friendly lineup a new traveling, interactive mini-fest that debuts in the Bronx and will continue on to other boroughs later this spring.