Indie Essentials: 25 Must-Play Video Games – Astoria
Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Avenue between 36th and 37 Streets
Through Sunday, March 2
Free with admission: $12 for adults, $6 for children ages 3-12
We doubt you'll have to sell your kids on checking out this exhibit featuring 25 video games they can actually play, including the super-popular Minecraft. All the games on display were created by small independent producers, so you won't find Super Mario Bros. and its ilk here. Instead, try your hand at the 2013 winners of IndieCade as well as influential releases from the past decade. While this exhibition isn't aimed at children, it's appropriate for ages 8 and up, and all families receive a family gallery guide.

Human Plus: Real Lives + Real Engineering – Corona
New York Hall of Science, 47 111th Street between 47th and 48th Avenues
Through Sunday, May 4
Free with admission: $11 for adults, $8 for children ages 2-17
Find out how technology is being used to extend human abilities in this cool interactive exhibit. Kids can check out a DJ station controlled by the movement of a wheelchair, feel music through their fingertips, and learn about amazing prosthetics including a hand made out of Legos and the climbing contraption built for Aron Ralston (the hiker forced to amputate his own forearm who was the subject of the film 127 Hours).

The Power of Poison – Upper West Side
American Museum of Natural History, 79th Street at Central Park West
Through Sunday, August 10
Free with General Admission Plus One: $27 for adults, $16 for children ages 2-12
My son and I recently explored this offbeat exhibit and really enjoyed ourselves. It's organized into two parts connected by a live dramatic presentation. You start off in a Colombian jungle where you're introduced to poisonous plants and animals (including live specimens). Along the way you learn about poison through lore, legends and literature. Find out why Lewis Carroll called hatters mad in Alice in Wonderland, if Snow White would have really died from eating a poisoned apple and just what those witches in Macbeth were brewing up in their cauldron. The second section of the exhibit is completely interactive with three stations where you use clues to figure out which poison caused each scenario: a dead owl, a sick dog and a deceased ship's captain. In between the two areas, you watch a live show set in an old-fashioned crime lab about an arsenic murder. Great for kids like mine who are fascinated by ghoulish mysteries.

You Make the Call: Learn To Be An NFL Official – Upper West Side
Children's Museum of Manhattan, 212 West 83rd Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway
Wednesday. January 8-Friday, February 28
Free with admission: $11
CMOM celebrates the upcoming Super Bowl in New Jersey with an interactive exhibit about what it takes to be an NFL official (a.k.a. referee). Kids can make calls at the instant-replay station, work up a sweat on the obstacle course or do the funky Zebra Dance comprised of various football signals.

Tropical Paradise – the Bronx
The New York Botanic Garden, 2900 Southern Boulevard
Saturday, January 18-Sunday, February 23
Free with All-Garden Pass: $20 for adults, $10 for children ages 2-12
The garden's beautiful Victorian-style glass greenhouse is abloom with lush, colorful plants and flowers that are indigenous to warm weather climates in Africa, the Caribbean and South America. After exploring the buds, head to the Everett Children's Adventure Garden to learn more about the flora, pot plants and create a nature notebook.

The Little Prince: A New York Story – Murray Hill
The Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Avenue between 36th and 37th Streets
Friday, January 24-Sunday, April 27
Free with admission: $18 for adults, $12 for children ages 13-16, free under age 13
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the author of The Little Prince, may have been French but he wrote the beloved children's novella while living in NYC. His original manuscript is on view in this exhibit, which also features illustrations, rare editions of the book, and photographs and other memorabilia belonging to Saint-Exupéry. Though not specifically created for children, the display is kid-friendly with a colorful, carpeted reading area stocked with copies of The Little Prince in both English and French. Plus there's a bilingual gallery guide for families and a few cool kids programs coming up, including the activity-packed Spring Family Fair in April.

Gridiron Greats: Vintage Football Cards in the Collection of Jefferson R. Burdick – Upper East Side
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street
Friday, January 24-Monday, February 10
Free with suggested admission: $25 for adults, free for children under 12
More football fun in honor of the Super Bowl: Check out vintage football cards including the rare John Dunlop Harvard University card, cards of Hall of Famers Jim Thorpe and Knute Rockne, and local NFL legends Frank Gifford and Tom Landry.

Cabinets of Wonder: The Art of Collecting – Hudson Square
Children’s Museum of the Arts, 103 Charlton Street between Hudson and Greenwich Streets
Tuesday, February 4-Sunday, June 1
Free with admission: $11
A contemporary art twist on the German concept of Wunderkammer, a.k.a. cabinets of curiosities: massive collections of bizarre items, natural objects and other minutia. CMA's interpretation features emerging and established artists who recontextualize these collections as art. Does your kid collect interesting items? The museum is looking for small private collections to add to the display. As always, CMA will offer thematically related art workshops in conjunction with the exhibit so check the calendar for details.

City as Canvas – East Harlem
Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue at 104th Street
Tuesday, February 4-Sunday, August 24
Free with admission: $10 for adults, free for children under 13
Get a taste of what NYC used to look like at this exhibit, which features more than 150 vintage graffiti works, including pieces by legendary artists like Lee Quiñones, LADY PINK and the late Keith Haring, as well as photographs of subway art long since painted over. Since it's not a hands-on display, try visiting when the museum is hosting one of its many interactive family programs like Flipping Out (Saturdays, March 1 and 8), when kids can create graffiti flip books, or Mural Mural on the Wall (Saturdays, May 10, 17, 24 and 31), when families can paint large-scale NYC-themed murals. Check out our full review for more details.

Bonus: Some of our exhibit picks from fall are still on view, like Art Spiegelman's Co-Mix: A Retrospective at the Jewish Museum. Plus, if you haven't made it out to the Queens Museum since it reopened, winter is a great time to visit.

Looking to save money? Check out our list of free museum hours to find out when you can visit some of these institutions at no cost.

Note: Due to negative reader feedback, we decided to take Report on the Construction of a Spaceship Module at the New Museum off of our list due to mature content.

Find out about other great kid-friendly exhibits in our Museum Guide.