If your family is getting ready to welcome the Elf on the Shelf back from the North Pole, we have a few fun new ideas for you this holiday season. Elves typically arrive sometime after Thanksgiving and return to the North Pole on Christmas Day, giving families 30 days (or so) to fill with hilarious Elf on the Shelf antics.

Like a good houseguest, Elf on the Shelf should be able to keep his mischievous acts generally mess-free and super easy to set-up, so we've put together a list of 30 simple but impressive elf antics. Many of these activities can be worked into your morning routine or popular holiday activities while requiring few extra props. We've also included some great excuses for those mornings when, whoops, the elf forgets (read: you forget) to move! (Pro tip: set a reminder on your mobile phone or electronic calendar to “move your elf” after you tuck the kids in each night.) 

Find more fun things to do this season in our Christmas and Holiday Fun Guides.

Some of the best kids' movies were made decades ago. If you're looking for the perfect flick to please everyone tonight, we suggest putting the new releases aside for now and introducing kids to these classic family movies.

Get the popcorn popped, the kids snuggled up on the couch, and now you're ready to peruse this list of our top 50 kids' movies sure to win over the pickiest of film critics. From The Wizard of Oz to Sandlot and everything in between, it’s time to turn down the lights and enjoy some quality time with the entire family.

Crafting the perfect science fair project is a right of passage for most elementary-school kids. The ideal experiment involves a few key ingredients, a little bit of parent involvement, and can be completed in under two weeks.

Traditionally, science fairs take place in fifth grade, but many schools are now incorporating STEM experiments into the curriculum as early as kindergarten, so we've put together a list of 19 easy science fair project ideas, ranging from the tried-and-true “exploding volcano” to extracting DNA from a strawberry. There are chemistry science projects for 5th grade and plenty of hands-on, get messy ideas for the youngest inventors.