The best places to visit in New York with kids

Kids can explore the art world at a museum designed just for them. The 10,000-square-foot institution has more than enough room to house its 2,000-piece collection of international children's art, including a huge center gallery to display it in. Artists lead workshops in classrooms, studios or the media lab—which boasts a sound station, clay bar and video-making equipment. CMA's WEE Arts Program ($395 per semester) fosters artistic expression in kids as young as 10 months old, while the Art Colony day camps ($595 per week) engage kids ages 6 to 15 in disciplines like drawing and sculpture. Kids can work their bodies as well as their minds on the museum's second floor, where they'll find interactive art displays and a ball pit.

Exhibits and programs at this kid-focused arm of the New-York Historical Society transport children back through 350 years of U.S. history (with a special focus on NYC). Galleries highlight the lives of kids who grew up to become famous doctors (James McCune Smith), athletes and political figures (Alexander Hamilton), and Little New-Yorkers classes invite kids to get in on sing-alongs and crafts. Other family programs include cooking classes, scavenger hunts, games, and story hours.

Home to the largest and arguably most fabulous collection of dinosaur fossils in the world, AMNH’s fourth-floor dino halls have been blowing kids' minds for decades. Roughly 80 percent of the bones on display were actually dug out of the ground; the rest are casts. The thrills begin when you cross the threshold of the Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda, where you’re confronted with a towering barosaurus rearing up on its hind legs to protect its young from an attacking allosaurus—an impressive welcome to the world’s largest museum of its kind. During the museum’s mid-1990s renovation, several specimens were remodeled to incorporate new discoveries. The Tyrannosaurus rex, for instance, was once believed to have walked upright, Godzilla-style; it now stalks prey with its head lowered and tail raised parallel to the ground. The rest of the museum is equally dramatic. The Hall of Human Origins boasts a fine display of your old cousins, the Neanderthals. The Hall of Biodiversity examines world ecosystems and environmental preservation, and a life-size, 100-foot-long model of a blue whale hangs from the ceiling of the Hall of Ocean Life. The impressive Hall of Meteorites centers around Ahnighito, the largest iron meteor on display anywhere in the world, weighing in at 34 tons (more than 30,000kg). The spectacular $210 million Rose Center for Earth & Space—dazzling at night—is a giant silvery globe where you can discover the universe via 3-D shows in the Hayden Planetarium and light shows i

Here, kids can get hands-on with hundreds of interactive exhibits and activities that bring science, technology, engineering and math to life. Built for the 1964 World's Fair, NYSCI is home to a revolving lineup of displays about light, 3-D printing, outer space and robots, plus the new Design Lab, where kids can tackle activities at five stations: Backstage, Sandbox, Studio, Maker Space and Treehouse. Kids can also climb on a rope web and play minigolf ($6, kids $5) at the massive Science Playground and Rocket Park.

This nearly 40,000-square-foot institution houses exhibits that make learning about culture, history and science a blast for kids ages six and under. Explore the benefits of good nutrition from "EatSleepPlay," a Dora the Explorer play area, and immersive exhibits that rotate in and out of the five-story space. CMOM also hosts classes and workshops—from Gross Biology for kids who love burps and germs, to the Music in Me!, a toddlers' program by Laurie Berkner—all designed with the latest child-development research in mind.