Third Sundays: Free drop-in workshops, adults and kids work together to create artworks inspired by art on display. Themes vary each month by exhibit.

Through May: This season, The Living Desert offers guests a once in a lifetime experience – riding a camel in the desert!

Wednesdays: An opportunity for new moms and dads to get out and see a movie that they want to see (not an animated or children’s film), without having to leave their baby at home or worry about their little one disturbing other guests.

Businesses, city and community agencies that provide an activity-filled, drop-off evening for kids on selected Fridays or Saturdays for 3-6 hours.

Ongoing: The Dino Lab is a specially designed lab where visitors can watch as paleontologists work on dinosaur fossils for the new dinosaur hall.

First Saturdays: Free craft workshops for kids (5-12, with adult); projects range from toolboxes to frames.

Sundays: Parents enjoy shopping for local and organic produce, artisan vendors and plants and flowers. Kids have fun with balloon making, face painting, train rides, petting zoo and bounce-house.

Sundays: Tour the Tallship “Pilgrim,” an authentic replica of the two-masted brig that Richard Henry Dana Jr. sailed into Dana Point Harbor in 1834.

Selected Saturday nights year-round: A comical murder-mystery dinner set onboard a moving vintage train.

Fridays: The public is invited to get up close with the ocean’s ultimate predators at the Aquarium of the Pacific for free during Shark Lagoon Nights.

Second Sundays: Admission is free on the second Sunday of every month. Join the museum for all day family fun on these special days. Call for monthly themes.

Ongoing: Visit the Animal Center and educational exhibits, climb the haystacks, play in the sandbox, visit the Chicken House, plus see rabbits, cows, pigs, horses and even emus and alpacas.

Last Mondays: Spend a few hours enjoying family play, for families with children on the Autism Spectrum.

Third weekends: Free model train rides are offered by Orange County Model Engineers.

Various weekends throughout the year: Ever wonder what happens in the museum at night? Kids (5+) find out by touring galleries, exploring some of the ancient fossils in the collections and taking an close look at some live creatures.

Fridays: Preschoolers explore movement as they hip hop, skip, move and put their body in motion!

Ongoing: Kids can explore a giant wooden ark populated with hundreds of artistically created animals made out of recycled materials, plus conduct a storm, make rain, feed the animals and listen to stories.

Third Wednesdays: Gather the family for a night of playing a variety of new games, including Wii, at the library!

Mondays: Krikorian Premiere Theatres offers a baby-friendly environment so you can enjoy a movie with your child without the worry of disrupting others.

Thursdays: Join Ms. Stacy for a musical morning of singing, movement and plenty of mind and body exercises for your little ones.

Ongoing: Meet your favorite athlete and get their autograph! Frequent signings, register early as space and time are limited.

Weekends: Get up close and personal with a single work of art at this half-hour, hands-on gallery experience geared for families with children ages 5 and up.

First and third Sundays: Help restore the Bolsa Chica wetlands.

Ongoing: Bringing together dance, acrobatics, live video, filmed sequences and animation, the show takes spectators on a fantastic voyage through the history of cinema and its genres, and into the heart of the movie-making process.

Saturdays: Free instruction and equipment use on Saturday mornings (8+). First-timers are required to attend a safety orientation; held at noon weekly.

Ongoing: Visit an old-fashioned feed store with small barn animals.

Third Saturdays: Learn more about our fragile wetland habitats and how to protect them.

Weekends: In the Caravan Safaris, guests go inside the Safari Park’s field riding in open-air vehicles, so guest can photograph animals such as giraffes and rhinos up close, that are just inches away. $90-150 per person (6+).

Ongoing: The Newport Beach Public Library has developed a service for children and their families called Dial-a-Story.

Second and fourth Saturdays: Free Build and Grow kids’ clinics offered monthly with a range of projects.

Ongoing: Apple stores offer free computer classes (5+) teaching the basics of Macs and their software.

Fridays: Every Friday night is Date Night with Frogg’s Bounce House. Drop the kids off and enjoy a night out!

Sundays: Drop-in programs for families include arts, crafts and stories on various topics.

Ongoing: The following locations offer volunteers (all ages) the opportunity to help clean and restore coastal lands.

October-March: A variety of family-friendly shows at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.

Third Saturdays: Guides will point out the common plants, animals and birds and discuss history, endangered species, and restoration.

Ongoing: Free admission is offered on varying days at the following museums.

Tuesdays: This special street fair takes place along a closed-off section of Main Street and includes a farmer’s market, bounce house, street performers, restaurant samplings, sidewalk sales and specials from local restaurants.

Second Saturdays: Pumping demonstrations, antique displays and tours of old Fire Station No. 10.

Tuesdays: Kids of all ages are invited to join Pottery Barn’s story time. Become a member and receive a Book Club Card at the first story time visit and a special gift after attending five story times.

Sundays: Dana Wharf Sportfishing offers a dockside experience for young fisherman.

Wednesdays: Join the museum every Wednesday for a “paint date” in the Family Art Center for lots of creative play for the right side of the brain.

Saturdays vary per month: Kids (3-5, with parent) meet live animals and learn what makes them special, then create a craft and listen to a story about the critters!

Sundays: Visitors experience critter encounters with the Museum’s own resident critter friends!

First Fridays: On the first Friday of every month, Averyboo Arts makes it special for all the little ones out strolling with their grown-ups in Bixby Knolls, Long Beach.

Wednesdays: Calling all toddlers, preschoolers and their adults! Join the Fullerton Museum for docent-led stories, games, and crafts in the galleries.

Second and fourth Saturdays: Skatelab offers one-hour group lessons for more than 13 years. The Ice Breaker Clinics are only available to first-time visitors to the park with their mom or dad. Safety gear provided.

Weekends: Families will learn through play with hands-on activities.

Weekends: In the 30-minute “Gold Rush,” kids can get their hands dirty panning for gold, then “buy” food and supplies with their earnings in the general store.

Saturdays: Kids (3+) can create crafts like a stick puzzle, collage mirror or a royal crown.

Ongoing: The audience is always part of the show when the world famous Bob Baker Marionettes perform in-the-round.

Weekends: The Art Odyssey for Families is a 45-minute journey through the galleries featuring a fun, activity-filled visit for kids (5+) and adults to enjoy together.

First Saturdays: Guides will point out the common plants, animals and birds and discuss history, endangered species, ecology and restoration.

Third Sundays: Watch short-legged but swift Dachshunds race, like nothing you’ve seen before!

First Sundays: Learn about diverse Native American cultures.

First Sundays: A day full of family programs with entertainment, music, dance and spoken word programs and an arts and crafts marketplace, plus activities just for kids, including story telling and arts workshops.

Sundays: A popular storytime (all ages) at a funky neighborhood coffeehouse.

Weekends: Take a four hour, round-trip train ride through the citrus and avocado groves of the Heritage Valley on vintage coaches with an open-air observation car.

First Saturdays: Kids make car-centered crafts.

Sundays: Programs designed especially for families to make art, explore the museum, join a bilingual gallery tour or take in a performance.

Third Sundays: Bring the whole family to the Autry for a day filled with activities. Each month will feature a different theme related to the exhibitions and programs, including hands-on activities, live music, family and docent-guided tours,Gold Rush and storytime.

Ongoing: Families (3+) can “Roar & Snore,” on an overnight tent-camping experience that overlooks the plains of “East Africa” inhabited by giraffes, rhinos and antelope.

Locations that offer the opportunity to ice skate outdoors.

A variety of restaurants that offer kids eat free days.

Second Saturdays: Come and explore Asian American and Japanese American books. All day craft activities include creating your own kamishibai story, make a notebook, design a bookmark or make an origami book and pencil.

Fridays: Open to all K-8th graders and includes three hours of rated chess, pizza and soda.

Wednesdays: Join the Community Treehouse for stories. Go early and play!

The Long Beach Depot for Creative Reuse – Free Creative Reuse meetup on Saturdays from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. where kids make things from recycled items (8+).

Movies at discounted prices and baby-friendly theaters.

Second Wednesdays: On the second Wednesday of every month, IKEA hosts a free kids’ (10 and younger) birthday party from 4-6 p.m. Each birthday kid can invite two friends, along with a parent.