Hosted by the National Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University, the Summer Changes Everything (April 16-17, 2009 in Chicago) covers how to build and strengthen summer programs. Preconference cost: $175

Project Play is an initiative to inspire families and neighborhoods to play traditional backyard games like "Follow the Leader," "Treasure Hunt," or "Kick the Can"-games that demand imagination and foster creativity. Through a series of lively hardcover children's books featuring a group of active neighborhood kids, Project Play provides guidance to parents and children for getting back to basics and enjoying the joy and freedom of playtime. In addition, Project Play encourages parents to make play a priority-for as founder and author Marlene Byrne believes-it is as equally important to be creative and imaginative as it is to be smart.

Ice hockey fans are devoted to their sport, unfazed by the game's physical demands, cumbersome equipment, and the red-hot competition for ice time. Massachusetts is one of the centers of hockey fever in the U.S. So it's only fitting that the gradually growing list of hockey clubs for children with special needs now includes The Boston Bear Cubs, which hit the ice in February. Lisa M. Cataldo explains how the Cubs got their start, and what the club means to its players and their parents.

Summertime. For many, it’s a season of carefree memories colliding with stressful, expensive realities, as busy parents try to figure out how to keep the kids busy, safe and entertained. Linda Baker looks at the challenges, especially for low- and moderate-income families.

The mission of the Foundation for Dreams, Inc. and Dream Oaks Camp is to provide fun, educational and recreational experiences in an outdoor camp environment to enhance the lives of children ages 7-17 with physical and developmental disabilities and serious illnesses.

Why do some teens—and even younger kids—use steroids? Connect for Kids' former staff writer Rob Capriccioso interviews Dr. Harrison Pope, a Harvard researcher, to help understand the subculture of youth steroid use.

Watching the Olympics on television can sometimes seem like a coach potato marathon. But it doesn't have to be that way. The National Association for Sport and Physical Education has some suggestions.

By developing programs for youth grounded in American Indian tribal cultures, the National Indian Youth Leadership project is helping cultivate a new generation of strong leaders. Rob Capriccioso takes a look at the New Mexico-based organization.

Since 1983, the nation has observed National Physical Fitness and Sports Month during the month of May. It's an opportunity to draw attention to physical activity as an integral part to a healthy and productive life and celebrate participation in sports and hundreds of physical activities, reports the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.

This recent CDC survey of 9 to 13-year-olds and their parents sets the baseline for efforts to increase physical activity among kids. The majority of kids (61 percent) reported no organized physical activity like sports, and almost a quarter (23 percent) said they engaged in no active play during out-of-school hours. Parents said transportation problems, lack of local opportunities, expense, lack of parental time and concerns about neighborhood safety were part of the problem.