Time for some family-friendly Fringe!

The Fringe Festival can be tough for families with young children. On the one hand, arts-loving parents are tempted by a Fringe guide bursting with internationally hailed performers; innovative, under-the-radar acts; and compelling homegrown options. On the other, Fringe lasts 16 days - and babysitting is expensive. So why not make it a family affair? Here are some of 2015's kid-friendliest shows.

Fringe has two parts: FringeArts Curated and Neighborhood Fringe. The former events are invited, produced by FringeArts. Neighborhood Fringe is independent - outside the curated framework - but often just as good (and, depending on one's tastes, sometimes better) than the curated works. It's Fringe; no guarantees.

This year, two of the 12 curated shows - Still Standing You and Underground Railroad Game - contain nudity. The rest may or may not appeal to young audiences. However, no one knows your children and their limits and interests better than you do.

Sprawling Neighborhood Fringe contains scores of events for all ages in every discipline. Dance lovers might enjoy watching students from the renowned Rock School for Dance Education perform a series of short dances in Red Tutu. If ballet is too sedate, try Vervet Dance's Boing! This Philadelphia company punctuates its contemporary style with a thousand bouncing Ping-Pong balls, pots, pans, and all the attention-grabbing action a fidgeter could want.

Of course, once you've started with bouncing, flying items, it's natural to continue to a Fringe favorite, Innovative Juggler Greg Kennedy. Trained as an engineer before he took to juggling, he uses sleight of hand to spice his show with math and science.

Often, just attending a performance will spark a child's creativity, and three events - FAMILY: Portraits and Stories; Give Me a Hand!; and Outside Sound - let audiences interact with the material. Best of all, they're free. FAMILY artist Linda Dubin Garfield's interactive installation uses mixed-media work created by previous workshop participants depicting what family means to them. Visitors may add their own creations. Materials are provided.

Give Me a Hand! by Laurencio Ruiz and Casa Monarca, which is devoted to preserving and promoting Mexican culture, targets preschoolers with bilingual dialogue, magic tricks, puppetry created with recycled and found objects, and opportunities to give a hand and help bring the puppets to life.

Outside Sound is a collaboration of composer Chris Coyle and adult artists with disabilities who work with the Center for Creative Works and SpArc Philly. At the Free Library of Philadelphia, kids can experience disciplinary cross-pollination as Coyle plays music inspired by the art on display.

For small spectators who just want to spectate, there's plenty of traditional theater. Viscosity Theatre's Fish & Beauregard tells an original tale of a carnival-prize goldfish whose caretaker plans to set his new pet free in a lake, but runs into heavy weather. A version of George MacDonald's The Light Princess, about a royal with gravity issues, was produced by the U.K.'s National Theatre in 2013, with music by Tori Amos. Here, Philadelphia stage veterans Anthony Lawton and Alex Bechtel present an original musical adaptation.

Finally, kids love watching kids, and The Fall, by Shadow Company of Yes! And . . . Collaborative Arts - an interpretation of Pandora's Box plus modern allegory - drafts high schoolers to craft props, adapt myths, and create a music-, movement-, and mask-filled show.

There are more options than these - take a look through the Fringe guide online to see else what might appeal to your own boundary-breaking, genre-bending, Fringe-friendly children. Who knows? Maybe next year's guide will include their own production, inspired by what they've seen here.

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More details at fringearts.com

Red Tutu By the Rock School for Dance Education, 1101 S. Broad St., Sept. 9, $10.

Boing! Mascher Space Cooperative, 155 Cecil B. Moore Ave., Sept. 18 and 19 $10.

Innovative Juggler Philadelphia School of Circus Arts, 5900a Greene St., Sept. 4-13, $20.

FAMILY: Portraits and Stories The Book Trader, 7 N. Second St, Sept. 6 and 13. Free.

Give Me a Hand! Casa Monarca, 1448 S. 17th St., Sept. 11 and 12. Free.

Outside Sound Free Library of Philadelphia, Central Library, 1901 Vine St., Sept. 16. Free.

Fish & Beauregard: South Street Magic, 617 E. Passyunk Ave., Sept. 5-9. Free.

The Light Princess Lantern Theater, 923 Ludlow St., Sept. 11-13, $10.

The Fall Arch Street United Methodist Church, 55 N. Broad St. Sept. 11 and 12; Yes! And . . . Collaborative Arts, 21 W. Washington Lane, Sept. 18 and 19, $7.

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