We Angelenos love our holiday lights, and we are blessed with an abundance of viewing opportunities. But sometimes logistics can be an obstacle, particularly for families with small children. Where do we park? How far do we have to walk or drive? Can we find all the displays…? One simple and family-friendly solution is the Zoo Lights display at the Los Angeles Zoo. This large scale sparkle, which replaces the old Griffith Park Lights drive-through event, puts everything you want to see within the grounds of the LA Zoo, and parking is free (merry Christmas to me!).

Free museum admission is not just for kids in the summer months. More than 2000 museums across the country have joined the Blue Star initiative, offering free admission to active military personnel and their families* all summer long, from Memorial Day (Monday May 29 through Labor Day (Monday September 4). Spread the word; if you don't have active military in your own family, let your friends know that from the Automobile Driving Museum to the Santa Monica Aquarium and a whole slew in between, the men and women who protect all of our families can treat their families this summer.

Something tells me it's all happening at the zoo, particularly when it comes to teaching kids about conservation. While most Earth Day celebrations are limited to a single day, the LA Zoo extends its Wild For the Planet through four weekends.

LA really loves its Halloween. You can spook yourself silly just about anywhere: the aquarium, every last theme park, at pumpkin patches, farms, and railroads. So it makes sense that the Los Angeles Zoo and all of its party animals would want to get in on the action.

Unlike many other Halloween fests, Boo at the LA Zoo is not designed to scare the bejeebies out of you. Its haunts are played for fun, or to provoke amazement at animal oddities. The Zoo never loses sight of its greater mission: to inform kids about animals. So amidst the decorations and silliness, Halloween is presented through a lens of education and animal facts.

Summer vacation ain't what it used to be. The majority of school districts now opt for an August start date, with only a few stragglers sticking with the old-school, post-Labor Day start. Don't just assume you know when school starts based on last year, as there's always a bit of shuffling of the schedule. This year Glendale leads the back-to-school race with a party-pooper start date of August 8, while last out the gate is Torrance, at a more traditional September 8.

Wondering where your district fits in, and how much time you have left for these 50 Free Things To Do in Summer? Read below for our list of start and finish dates for the 2016-2017 school year in and around LA County! And if what you read makes you wonder about what other school options are available to you, maybe our school guide can help.

Normally, we encourage you to play it safe: no running with scissors, wait half an hour after eating before going for a swim, that sort of thing. But now we’re telling you throw caution to the wind and go poke a wild animal. Heck, say cheese and take a selfie with it. The Los Angeles Zoo is offering a new and unique experience that allows kids to have an up close and personal interaction with the wildest of creatures: a 1500 pound hippo. And her mother.

The stars are aligned this weekend. Kinda literally like. As in Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, bam, bam, bam, all in a line. Except they're planets, not stars, which I would know if I studied my science. And I don't think they're actually in a row or anything—  more that they're all chillin' in the sky at the same time. 

You can study other disciplines this weekend and learn more about dinosaurs, noisy land critters, noisy sea creatures, noisy people, silent people, and waffle-ology to name a few. (You're going to be so smart!)

Hey! What's that in the sky?! Not a bird, not a plane, and not in the sky; it's Supergirl, only now she's a writer of kids' books (talk about a superhero!). More proof positive that this weekend is going to be out of this world.

Keep reading to plan ahead for this celestial weekend…

It should come as no surprise that the rains have finally come.  We've been getting warnings for like a decade now, or maybe a year,  but they've said "Hey. It's gonna rain. You should get a raincoat, and maybe an umbrella." Which I'm sure you've totally done because we parents are all about planning ahead.

Like for this weekend, for instance. You can plan ahead for this summer, or, if you didn't plan ahead, you can still catch CHILL and the Mummy exhibit before they close. You know who did some major planning ahead? Mummies. For this life and the next. You know who didn't plan ahead? Those mammoths who got caught in the tar pits.  "Hmm, I think I'll check out that black gooey stuff ..."  What happens in the tar pits, stays in the tar pits... 

As for my weekend, I am planning to 1) stay dry and 2) get wet in the process. I will accomplish this by going to indoor activities, (of which there are many, it being January), but getting wet on the way in because I may or may not have an umbrella yet. All my bases covered, and it's not even baseball season yet!

Keep reading to plan ahead for this wet-or-dry weekend…