Children who regularly participate in creative activities develop superior critical-thinking skills and make much better partners when family-game nights turn into rap battles. Enhance young minds with today's Groupon: for $10, you get $20 worth of activities and playtime in the Lily-Pad Lounge at Frogs & Pollywogs in Albany.

Frogs & Pollywogs hosts a lively schedule of creativity-building activities. On Tuesdays, preschool art classes ($5/class; $20/five-class punch card) give budding aesthetes a more effective outlet than finger painting on antique chaise longues, and tots learn avant-garde popsicle-stick applications with a two-hour Wednesday Crafternoon session (typically $3–$5). Semiweekly stints at Froggy Day Camp ($5/hour; maximum of four hours/child) can punctuate a youngster's idle summer, and parent-supervised, unstructured playtimes ($3/all-day pass) give kids a safe setting for socializing Mondays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

This Groupon's value can also be applied toward weekend Lily-Pad Lounge rental ($50/two hours) or inclusive birthday parties (up to ten children: $100) where staffers unfurl curlicue streamer decorations, plan age-appropriate party activities, and teach tykes how to make small talk about politics.