The August A. Busch Memorial Conservation Area features walking trails, a shooting range, 32 fishing lakes, and a Visitor Center with exhibits. Brochures can be picked up at the Center for self-guided tours of the area. The Center hosts a range of nature classes and workshops for parents and children.

The winner of our 2008 Parents' Picks quest to find the best college prep class for teens in St. Louis, Be Smart Tutoring provides a wide range of tutoring services. Classes include standard academic subjects, foreign language, study skills and test preparation (ACT, SAT, LSAT, GMAT and GRE tests), and computer training. Instructors are credentialed teachers, many with advanced degrees.

Tutors come to any location - homes, libraries, and schools; adults can also receive assistance.

A full-service community center, the Carondelet YMCA features an indoor pool, full-size gymnasium, and several fitness and weight-training rooms.

Youth sports - including basketball, soccer, and T-Ball - are popular here. A range of childcare and summer camps for children ages six weeks through sixth grade is also offered.

Director and full-time teacher Veronica Greene is also the founder of Casa de Ninos Montessori Bilingual Academy, a school that uses Spanish and English in its instruction. Greene is a certified AMI Montessori teacher.

The school offers a range of programs, including a music program led by a specialist, before- and after-school care, a Spanish lending library, once-a-month Spanish school for children on a Saturday; mothers' day out, and Spanish summer camp.

Who wouldn't get excited upon hearing that they're about to embark on a "space mission"? For space enthusiasts, the Challenger Learning Center provides
hands-on, realistic, simulated space missions for people ages six and up (Public missions are geared towards
those 11 and up). The activities here are unique in that they encourage participants to work together and perform activities similar to astronauts, scientists and engineers.

Reservations are required for all public missions, which are held intermittently throughout the year - check the website for schedules. Missions can also be booked for school and scout groups, birthday parties, and corporate team-building sessions.

In the summer, the center's one-week and two-week day camps allow children to engage in all sorts of space themed activities, including hands-on workshops, simulated missions, and field trips. The camps are open to kids between third and eighth grades.

The 4,318-acre Columbia Bottom Conservation Area includes a view of the confluence of Missouri's largest rivers, over 6.5 miles of river frontage, 800 acres of forest, and a 110-acre island. The Conservation hosts numerous family-friendly classes and workshops throughout the year.

IMACS is is an independent teaching and educational research institute based in Florida. It offers classes in several cities throughout the US, including St. Louis and surrounding suburbs. Its classes are designed for above-average and talented elementary and secondary school students, who spend one or two hours each week throughout the year at the institute or daily during summer sessions.

IMACS classes are available after school and on weekends, and some classes are also available during the day at several large independent schools. Sufficiently talented secondary school students can take the IMACS Logic for Mathematics or IMACS Computer Science courses for high school credit at their school's discretion.

La Crèche offers French immersion classes and French-language playgroups for the whole family. Sessions for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers feature songs, storytime, games, and art projects.

Mad Science is the winner of our 2008 Parents' Picks quest to find the Best Day Camp for Big Kids in St. Louis!

The bubbling, gurgling, and smoking live science programs and workshops of Mad Science enthrall youngsters. Rocketry, magnets, polymers - even the science of toys - are subjects covered by this educational company.

Kids can attend hands-on, one-hour sessions after school or participate in class workshops that can be arranged for local schools. All events are taught by trained, qualified, and dynamic instructors.

Mad Science birthday parties last about one hour. Optional add-ons, like cotton-candy making, bubbling potions, and rocket launches are also available for extra cost. Parties can be held at any location, can accommodate any number of children, and are designed for kids ages five to 12. Party prices range from $150-$230.

Mad Science summer camps are aimed at kids ages four to 12 and feature hands-on activities, extended science investigation, group interaction, and amazing demonstrations (which focus on the "theme" of the day). Prices range from $140?240 for a one-week camp.

The 37-acre Mississippi Sanctuary and the nearly 300-acre Olin Nature Preserve are privately owned by The Nature Institute. Both are contiguous lots, located on the banks of the Mississippi River and containing a representative spectrum of the region's landscape features and natural communities, including limestone bluffs, sinkholes, bottom land forests, and upland hill prairies.

The Nature Institute uses the preserve and sanctuary to foster an awareness and appreciation of the natural world through preservation, restoration, and education. Numerous workshops, classes, homeschool programs, and summer camps for youth take place throughout the year at the Talahi Lodge, the facility's environmental education center.

Visitors to the presevers can find an extensive arboretum with hundreds of tree varieties of trees, an impressive network of walking trails, 300 native plant species, more than 150 species of nesting and migratory birds, and nesting and den sites for the endangered Bald Eagle and Timber Rattlesnake.

The preserve is closed to the public from November 1- March 15 each year in order to protect the preserve as a roosting site for bald eagles. In other months, the preserve is open during business hours only, and visitors must check in at the office before hiking or exploring within the preserve.

The winner of our 2008 Parents' Picks quest to find the best eco-friendly place for families in St. Louis, the Missouri Botanical Garden features countless thematic sections filled with unique and colorful foliage, flora, and, yes, even fauna.

The 14-acre Japanese Garden - the largest Japanese strolling garden in the Western hemisphere - is a tranquil retreat, with waterfalls, streams, water-filled basins, and stone lanterns.

The Climatron®, a conservatory housed under a geodesic dome, is great fun, feeling and sounding like a tropical rainforest. Kids love trying to spot the variety of animals that live here, including tropical birds.

Near the Climatron is the relatively new and very imaginative Children's Garden, a two-acre site that features a limestone cave, rope bridges, Spelunker's Slide, a wetland ecosystem, a replica steamboat, a giant tree house, "root" swings attached to a fabricated tree, and a Midwestern prairie village complete with a jail.

Great Green Adventures, a drop-in program for families between April and October, features nature-themed activities in the Children's Garden. It typically takes place Tue-Fri 10am-12n and Sat 1pm-3pm, but call ahead to check before heading out. The website has a complete schedule of kids' activities.

MOBOT offers all kinds of workshops and classes for youth, as well as mutli-day summer day camps. Popular camps include the Healthy Plants, Healthy Kids series and the Henry Shaw Academy.

Hikers and power walkers flock to the three miles of paved trails on the rocky slopes surrounding the Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center. These are strictly walking trails - no jogging, bicycling, rollerblading, or skiing is allowed. As you journey, you may catch sight of chipmunks, wild turkey, deer, and other woodland creatures.

The indoor nature center features educational exhibits, a hands-on kids' area, a resource library, and a gift shop. The center often hosts nature special events, workshops, and classes; check website for calendar.

A neighborhood branch of the St. Louis County Library system, Rock Road Library offers a variety of programming for the community, including weekly storytimes, adult book clubs, teen clubs, and ESL classes. Patrons enjoy their books in the bright, relaxing reading room, which is illuminated by a ring of windows that create a skylight effect.

The library has a computer lab that offers computer training courses. A public meeting room is available for use by non-profit groups.

Predominantly consisting of forests, Rockwoods Reservation features picnic areas and a pavilion, hiking and biking trails, a permanent stream (Hamilton Creek), and the Conservation Education Center, which hosts a variety of family programming throughout the year.

The Reservation is great for exploring wildlife plants and flowers, searching for wildlife, and hiking the Ozarks-like terrain.

At Spanish Clubhouse for Kids, even the tiniest of kids aprenden hablar español; French and Mandarin classes are offered, too. Teachers use theme-related lessons, which include vocabulary, art, games, and songs.

The Education En Casa Program, directed at parents, includes an education booklet, which enables parents to follow each week's lesson with vocabulary lists accompanied by phonetic pronunciation, songs, games, and simple ideas to encourage Spanish use at home.

The Clubhouse hosts computer classes via Imagine Tomorrow instructors, and its Spanish immersion summer camps are quite popular.

At Spanish Clubhouse for Kids, even the tiniest of kids aprenden hablar español; French and Mandarin classes are offered, too. Teachers use theme-related lessons, which include vocabulary, art, games, and songs.

The Education En Casa Program, directed at parents, includes an education booklet, which enables parents to follow each week's lesson with vocabulary lists accompanied by phonetic pronunciation, songs, games, and simple ideas to encourage Spanish use at home.

The Clubhouse hosts computer classes via Imagine Tomorrow instructors, and its Spanish immersion summer camps are quite popular.

At Spanish Clubhouse for Kids, even the tiniest of kids aprenden hablar español; French and Mandarin classes are offered, too. Teachers use theme-related lessons, which include vocabulary, art, games, and songs.

The Education En Casa Program, directed at parents, includes an education booklet, which enables parents to follow each week's lesson with vocabulary lists accompanied by phonetic pronunciation, songs, games, and simple ideas to encourage Spanish use at home.

The Clubhouse hosts computer classes via Imagine Tomorrow instructors, and its Spanish immersion summer camps are quite popular.

At Spanish Clubhouse for Kids, even the tiniest of kids aprenden hablar español; French and Mandarin classes are offered, too. Teachers use theme-related lessons, which include vocabulary, art, games, and songs.

The Education En Casa Program, directed at parents, includes an education booklet, which enables parents to follow each week's lesson with vocabulary lists accompanied by phonetic pronunciation, songs, games, and simple ideas to encourage Spanish use at home.

The Clubhouse hosts computer classes via Imagine Tomorrow instructors, and its Spanish immersion summer camps are quite popular.

Facing a picturesque lake and fountain inside Faust Park, The Butterfly House, a division of the Missouri Botanical Garden, is housed in a soaring glass conservatory.

More than one thousand live tropical butterflies fly freely here, and if you're lucky, one might alight gently on your shoulder. Native and migrating species can also be seen in the outdoor gardens of the Native Habitat.

Craft Saturdays (11am-2pm) is a creative monthly event for children; the 90-minute Camp Bug-a-Loo offers activities several times a month for children ages two to four.

The Education Center is of great value to educators and homeschooling parents: The Homeschool Academy offers a wealth of insect and science classes for homeschooled students ages six to eight.

The Green Center is an arts and environmental organization dedicated to bringing an appreciation of nature to St. Louisans, protecting world ecosystems, and encouraging the creation of art inspired by nature. To these ends, the center offers classes, workshops, Scout programs, summer camps, guided nature walks, habitat restoration programs, and art exhibits.

The Green Center sports the lovely Roger Pryor Memorial Prairie Garden in front of its building. The garden is a 4,000-square-foot "tear-shaped" prairie garden with flowering prairie plants and native prairie grasses.

The site's Woodland Garden features wildflowers - including poppies, ferns, senecio, and various violets - and many trees. The Herb Garden and Endemic Ozark Garden round out the Green Center's outdoor public garden areas.

TutorVista's live online tutoring by trained and certified tutors is convenient and affordable. Subject areas covered include English, math, science, and SAT preparation. Tutor and student talk naturally using a headset and microphone; they share a computer screen that each can see as they communicate, using the same textbook from the student's classroom. One student per tutor ensures that the student gets the full attention of the tutor.

Tutorz facilitates a communication network between student/parents and tutors nationwide, with a database of over 10,000 tutors across the nation. Tutorz recommends professionals based on user ratings, tags, and reviews.

Urban Future sponsors mentoring, tutoring, and career preparation programs to help youth in urban neighborhoods.

The Explore! program allows urban students the opportunity to explore career options through on-site visits, classroom projects in job readiness, and business internships. The Inspire program promotes one-on-one mentoring, while the IMpact program provides tutoring in the four core subject areas of communication arts, math, science, and social studies.

Community members can volunteer with Urban Future as mentors or tutors, or they can donate money to help cover the cost of enrolling students in the programs.

Urban Future sponsors mentoring, tutoring, and career preparation programs to help youth in urban neighborhoods.

The Explore! program allows urban students the opportunity to explore career options through on-site visits, classroom projects in job readiness, and business internships. The Inspire program promotes one-on-one mentoring, while the IMpact program provides tutoring in the four core subject areas of communication arts, math, science, and social studies.

Community members can volunteer with Urban Future as mentors or tutors, or they can donate money to help cover the cost of enrolling students in the programs.

Varsity Tutors is an independent service provided by students and alumni of elite universities. The company offers at-home academic tutoring to high school and junior high school students throughout St. Louis.

Varsity Tutors can also help high school students prepare for the SAT/ACT college exams. All tutors have scored in the 97th percentile or higher on the tests; some achieved perfect scores.

Varsity Tutors is an independent service provided by students and alumni of elite universities. The company offers at-home academic tutoring to high school and junior high school students throughout St. Louis.

Varsity Tutors can also help high school students prepare for the SAT/ACT college exams. All tutors have scored in the 97th percentile or higher on the tests; some achieved perfect scores.

Watson Trails Park and Pool features a nine-hole disc golf course, four tennis courts, a pool, a one-acre lake, three picnic shelters, and plenty of nature trails for exploring and hiking. The park's Activity Center also hosts several youth camps and nature-related classes and workshops.

The Webster Groves Family YMCA features an indoor pool, a full-size double gymnasium, an indoor track, a fitness center, aerobics room, racquetball court, sports fields, a childcare nursery, a family changing area, and equipment checkout for basketballs, volleyballs/wallyball, racquetballs, and racquets. The YMCA hosts a range of classes, workshops, and special events throughout the year.

Worldways' hands-on exhibits give kids the sense that they're really exploring the world, not just walking through a museum. From Port St. Louis to Mexico, the Philippines, China, and Senegal, families can make quite a dent in the world map - in a single afternoon.

Note, October, 2008: The museum is closed until further notice due to lack of financial support.