August is the new September. As July unfurls before us, we have to face the fact that, in most districts, August means back to school already. Most Los Angeles area schools now start their school years smack dab in the middle of summer, though one or two districts still cling to the time-honored "wait until Labor Day" approach. All of this can make summer camp complicated to maneuver for some families, even as others are knee-deep in homework.

From West Covina's August 5 start date (really, West Covina?  Really?) to Torrance’s September 10, don't just assume you know when school starts based on last year! Check our list of start and finish dates for the 2015-2016 school year in and around LA County before booking the family vacation.

It's summertime (for reals this week!), and the fun is coming fast and furious. Time to indulge in your post-solstice favorites: Hollywood Bowl will have you singing all the way back to the future, or you can just bowl.  You can wherefore and wilt thou with the Shakespearean troupe in Griffith Park (free all summer long). Speaking of free, there are a ton of free movies and free concerts and, really, aren't the best things in life free?

Here are a few: Free fan fest. Free pirate invasion. Free bike ride. (Free bike expo). Free Chinatown Summer Nights. Free movie. Free movie. Free movie. Free concert. Free festival.

And our favorite free, the Land of the Free, has its special day coming up. Nothing says summer like the Fourth of July!  We've got the scoop on America's birthday and all the best fireworks next week, (and one display this weekend, if you want to get an early start).

Keep reading for our favorite picks for this weekend...

You know it and I know it: for all intents and purposes, the summer has arrived. All but a few outlier districts have stuck a fork in it and declared this school year done––which means a whole lot more Minecraft bonding time ahead for you and your kids.

Panicking much? No worries, we're here to help. We can point you toward awesome camps (that even still have openings!), majorly cheap or free movies and concerts, and the most supercute fun events that will have your kids thanking you for the rest of the summer. (A mom can dream, can't she?)

And we pause now for a public service announcement: next Sunday is Father's Day. Given that most schools are no longer going to be in session (see citation above), it's on you to see to it that Daddy has something waiting for him under the Father's Day tree (no citation available). When in doubt, you can't go wrong with a lovingly constructed craft. Or anything that is free.

We now return to our "Is it summer already" favorite picks for this weekend...

Who are the people in your neighborhood? And no, I'm not talking about Ernie and Grover (though they're cool, too); I'm talking about the people that you meet... in Pasadena, or when you're walking down the street... in Long Beach.

This weekend is all about spending time in your neighborhood or, if you don't like your area, checking out someone else's. There's a carnival in Palos Verdes, music in the streets of Pasadena, community shindigs in South Robertson and West LA's Pico, and a celebration of Northeast Los Angeles.

Want to look further afield? The Ocean Institute dives into the world's oceans, the Aquarium of the Pacific turns its attention to the Pacific Islands, and the Hammer is making plans to settle the Moon. (It's a nice place to visit; not sure I'd want to live there.)

Keep reading for some of our hometown picks for this weekend...

Party over here! Party over there! Holla! Mommy P in the house! Or in this case at the Autry, chilling with our SoCalMoms peeps and getting our family fun on. Come on down and touch some Aquarium of the Pacific sea life, snap yourself silly in the photo booth, get glammed from nails to hair, and watch the kid bands battle it out. It's going to be epic.

Or you can just walk it off. Or ride. Or dance. In Pasadena, you can show you don't need no stinkin' car to get where you're going. At South Coast Botanic Gardens, you can run-stroll in solidarity with fellow moms. So you think you can dance? Try shaking your tail feathers with Ernie, Cookie, and Elmo.

Whatever you're up for, we can help you figure out how to do it, whether you want to catch a new flick, an old one, or several in a row. Whether you want to pick a good book, or fine berries, or stars out of the sky, we're here for you. Come say hi.

Keep reading for some of our favorite picks for this weekend...

So here's the funny thing (and I'm sure it will make you laugh): I'm going through and updating events, and I'm noticing that a lot of annual summer favorites already have their schedules up. A summer concert series here, a movie series there; no surprise that baseball games are up—they already started—and Hollywood Bowl, of course.

But I'm seeing more and more summer series locked and loaded, ready to go, which is weird, because it's totally still spring; I can tell that from the calendar. May is spring unless there was some act of Congress I missed, and then it hits me: next weekend = Memorial Day. Memorial Day = unofficial start of summer. Transitive property, yada yada, I'm sorry, what? Summer???

And now you see that the laughing I said you would be doing is of the "or else I might cry" variety. Schools start letting out over the next few weeks; I'm sure you've got your camps picked out and know exactly what you're going to do with your kids all summer, and all I have to say to that is, "Ha! Ha Ha!"

Keep reading for some seriously funny events this weekend...

Big things are happening this weekend: big, big, big. I know they're big because they have "big" in the title, and that's not a word we use lightly around here. We've got The Big Parade, in which Angelenos walk all over town (Angelenos walking—that's big news). We've got Big Sunday Weekend, with thousands of families working together to help make the world a better place.

Another big thing is Cinco de Mayo, very big in these parts, and I know it's big because cinco is five and you need all the fingers on one hand to count that high. You'll need way more than five fingers to count all the Cinco de Mayo celebrations going on. (Lucky for you we've got them listed in our handy-dandy Event Calendar).

And what big thing should we close with? The Big Grand Butterfly Release? Big Bird Day LA? Breakfast with the Bigguns Gibbons? I'm going to go a different way: next Sunday is Mother's Day, and I want something big. You have been warned.

Keep reading for our biggest picks for this weekend.

Science, Earth Day; Earth Day, science. One follows the other, but which came first? Did someone say, "Science rocks! Let's apply it to the Earth!" Or was it, "The Earth is so cool; I wonder what the science behind it is?"

Either way, there are going to be a lot of inspired kids this weekend. Inspired to be primatologists and engineers, chefs and yogis, artists and opera singers. Kids will be running away to join the circus and skating off to Pixie Hollow.

It looks like it's going to be one big party in LA this weekend. Or maybe a bunch of little ones. Or maybe some smaller ones and then a supersize, I-didn't-know-there-were-that-many-people-here party. All I know is: it's gonna be super fun.

Keep reading for the most earthy events this weekend... scientifically proven!