Children are natural inventors. They're always creating, building and tinkering, and coming up with inventive ways to solve life's problems. Take my oldest son, who after watching me scramble for his little sister's discarded sippy cup for the umpteenth time proposed that we add pop-out wings to her stroller to catch whatever she chucked.

While he never did figure out how to develop that product, he's certainly kept busy over the past few years inventing all sorts of other things at a variety of creative places. Here are eight NYC spots where your budding Benjamin Franklins can be inspired to make robots, model buildings, video games and lots of other cool stuff.

In our Shopping Local Holiday Gift Guide, we highlight our favorite places to buy unique gifts in New York City including craft fairs and holiday markets. But we also love browsing the eclectic wares at all of the pop-up shops that appear in NYC at this time of year.

These temporary retail outlets are often (but not always) set up by businesses that don't normally sell goods directly to the public, or don't have stores in NYC. This holiday, returning pop-up favorites include Wired magazine's tech magnet, along with newcomers like kids' toy and gear great The Land of Nod, Microsoft and a shop dedicated to hot boy band One Direction. Read on for the scoop on ten awesome pop-up shops in NYC this season and find more fun in our Holiday Guide.

My oldest son was four-years-old before we figured out that his constant coughs, colds and bronchial infections were being caused by food allergies. Once we removed the offending items from his diet, he became a different child (though the hearing loss he suffered as a result of us not catching his condition sooner remains to this day).

Because of my own experience, I always urge parents whose kids suffer from mysterious maladies to get them tested, and then follow the prescribed dietary guidelines to the letter. Whether your child has a major issue like Celiac disease or a minor sensitivity, you'll want to be vigilant about what they put into their mouths—but that doesn't mean you'll have to cook every meal from scratch yourself. In New York City, many restaurants are able to accommodate guests with a variety of food allergies. Today, we've rounded up our favorite NYC eateries that offer a wide range of gluten-free dishes and are also kid-friendly, so affected members of your family can eat their cake (and pasta and pizza) and digest it, too.