For the Family

New Year's at Noon

. Kids can welcome in 2008 before anyone else at the Garden State Discovery Museum in Cherry Hill on Monday. Kids will gather around a giant clock for a noon countdown. Once noon hits, kids will put on top hats and tiaras. So get ready to ring in the New Year 12 hours early!

Video Game Creation.

Kids ages 7 and older are challenged to design, create and edit their own two-dimensional arcade-style video game during an eight-week session at the Lumberton Gaun Community Center. Kids can design the action, create the characters, and decide the objectives and outcomes. Participants can take home a CD with their game.

Design A City.

Kids ages 9 to 11 can have their own Kid Nation. Kids will add the roads, traffic lights and other essentials of a modern city during an eight-week class in which they can design their own city. Participants will use Lego RCX microcomputers, Lego building sets, sensors and software to build a futuristic city.

New Year's Eve on the Battleship.

End 2007 with a bang as the Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial has its annual New Year's Eve events: the Family Overnight Encampment and the Festivities on the Forecastle. Stay a few hours or the whole night. The Overnight Encampment gives families the chance to spend the first night of the new year aboard the historic battleship and take in a view of the midnight fireworks over the Delaware River. Families will sleep in the bunks where the crew once slept and eat dinner and breakfast served from the chow line. They also can tour the ship and ride in the 4D Flight Simulator. There will be music, prizes, food and bar service.

- Jennifer Wichterman