HARVEST HOMECOMING at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (Oct. 20, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.). Was there ever a culture that didn’t love food? This new festival highlights several harvest traditions, including those of Haitian Vodou, early America and the Jewish holiday Sukkot. Children can press cider, decorate pumpkins, go on horse-drawn hayrides and visit a family fairground that offers carnival games, brussels sprouts bowling, and spinning and weaving demonstrations. Urban Advantage, an educational partnership, will enlist young botanists in a Family Science Day at the conservatory, with plant investigations and dissections, and those who can’t wait for end-of-October spookiness can take part in a music-filled Halloween children’s costume parade at 4:30 p.m.

718-623-7200, bbg.org

‘MOZART: THE MAGIC FLUTE’ at the Kaye Playhouse (Oct. 19, 10 and 11:30 a.m.; Oct. 20, 10 and 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.). Professor Treblemaker, the mischievous fictional character who hosts the Little Orchestra Society’s L.O.S. KIDS series, usually has something up his sleeve, and this weekend that something is pretty big: an opera. In Craig Shemin’s script, he wants to hide “The Magic Flute” within a concert setting, and for assistance, he turns to none other than that work’s composer, Mozart. It’s safe to assume that they, some singers and the society’s musicians, led by the guest conductor Carlos Ágreda, will make operatic excerpts blend in easily with the series’s usual orchestral fun. Young listeners can also look forward to hearing portions of Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” and “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.”

212-971-9500, littleorchestra.org

[Read about the events that our other critics have chosen for the week ahead.]

SCAVENGERS & DECOMPOSERS WEEKEND at Wave Hill (Oct. 19-20, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.). For many kids, nothing says Halloween like a good gross-out. This garden event in the Bronx promises several, but the intent isn’t holiday ghoulishness. Rather, Wave Hill plans to illustrate the importance of natural recyclers like dermestid beetles (the flesh-eating variety). Young visitors can observe them in action as well as interview entomologists and handle harmless creatures that break down dead organic material. Other highlights include the Boneyard, where children can try to reassemble an animal skeleton, and Decomposer Detectives Family Walks, in which the object is to seek out creepy-crawlies. Need a costume idea? An art project invites participants to dress up and parade as snags, which are standing dead trees. On Saturday the naturalist Brian Robinson will present Vulture Culture, a program with live birds, and on Sunday Ed McGowan, director of science at the Trailside Museums & Zoo, will host Secret Lives of Scavengers, featuring motion-activated camera images of wildlife consuming dead deer. To quote “The Lion King,” it’s the circle of life.

718-549-3200, wavehill.org

WEST AFRICAN FAMILY DAY WITH IMANI FAYE at the Joan Weill Center for Dance (Oct. 19, 5-6:30 p.m.). Sometimes an African adventure is only steps away. Ailey Extension, the public dance and fitness program of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, will get everyone’s feet moving in that direction at this festive family workshop. Open to children 10 and older, the instruction will focus on traditional dances, including two from Guinea: the sofa, which is associated with hunting, and the sinte, which is celebratory. Faye, a performer and choreographer on the Ailey faculty, will teach the moves while the Bambara Drum and Dance Ensemble provides the rhythms.

212-405-9000, aileyextension.com/familyday