A weekly meeting keeps this family strong (and the trophy motivates the kids)Who will win the Boone Family Child of the Week trophy this Sunday? Will it be eldest son Anthony Jr. for continuing to balance his studies with his hectic volleyball schedule? Or maybe Laurel for working hard to make friends at her new middle school? Or maybe Logan or Nigel for keeping their room clean, handily passing the random inspections — heralded by the cry of “Room check!” — their mother springs on them throughout the week? Whoever does win gets more than just bragging rights and a weeklong warm fuzzy.

This city-savvy survey of 29 family activities from Summerlin to Boulder City will keep your kids’ minds and bodies plenty busy Centennial Hills: Learning naturallyDespite rapid growth, this suburban community in northwest Las Vegas has managed to maintain its rural flavor. There are historic parks, orchards and more modern amenities, such as libraries and community centers.

AMUSEMENTSKing Putt Entertainment Center 27 S. Stephanie St.

Technically, public school is for everyone — in the sense that it’s free, open to all and provided by the state. But what if it’s not for your child — in the sense that he or she craves a nontraditional type of gray-matter stimulation? In such cases, parents can find navigating the alternatives a daunting and frustrating task.

These prodigies are off to a fast start thanks to their naturalgifts — and supportive parentsAnnick HaczkiewiczThis queen of the greens might be future golf royaltyThirteen-year-old Annick Haczkiewicz (hutch-kuh-veech) has a regular Friday night skins game that is anything but regular: “I play with a bunch of older guys that are like 80 years old and stuff, and we play for money,” she says, and often enough, Haczkiewicz wins. The older fellows like to give each other the gears about losing to a small girl, but really you can’t blame ’em — Haczkiewicz has a 2 handicap and a killer short game.

An unorthodox couple finds grace in the challenges of co-parentingFamily life now commonly comes with challenges that were exceptional a couple generations ago: divorced parents, joint custody, two-home arrangements. Diana England and Tammy Goodrich have all these, plus some other potentially complicating factors: They’re a same-sex former couple who adopted their children, Audrey and Logan, birth-siblings now 7 and 6 years old, respectively.

I wish I had the willpower to ignore that frequently flung stale crust of a question that we Las Vegans have confronted countless times, perhaps launched from the lips of visiting relatives, out-of-town friends or parachuting journalists — How can you raise a family here? — but, no, can’t do it. Besides, this inaugural Desert Companion Family issue calls for a rallying cry, no? I won’t sugar-coat the realities facing families in Southern Nevada — we need better schools, more parks, stronger communities, maybe a dozen or so fewer billboards featuring strippers spilling bulbously out of lace contraptions — but, come on, we’re hardly the monstrous child-gnashing neon family death machine the perpetrators of the stereotype seem to wish true.

Families reflect on the special places where they come together to work, play and share their livesThe family that gardens togetherTiffany, John, Madison and Molly WhisenantTiffany: The backyard sold us on the house. Before we moved in, we came here several times and sat on the back porch swing.

10-year-old Kieran Robson says his family owns at least 40 soccer balls.Forty? “More like 100,” says his 13-year-old sister, Joey.

12 places where kids with special needs can join sports, learn to dance and just have funParenting a child with a disability can be very isolating, and the search for activities that cater to these children is often fruitless. But there are some fantastic local spots that welcome and serve children with special needs.