FREE ALL DAY!

Enjoy a day of toys, toys, and more toys at the National Museum!

Generously sponsored by Target, these special Saturdays are filled with fun activities giving families unique ways to learn, play, and grow together.



All Day Craft Activities:

Be creative and build your own character using air-dry clay!

Fabricate your own furry friend!

Ruthie's Origami Corner: Boo! Make an origami ghost.

*Special Toy Drive: Bring a new, unwrapped toy to the National Museum and we’ll donate it to the Children’s Hospital of L.A.

Schedule:
11:00 AM - Doors open.

1:00 - 4:00 PM - Kidding Around The Kitchen will help you create your own fruit buddy. This food art project is fun enough to play with but yummy enough to get them to eat a variety of fruits.

1:00 PM – Hear award winning author Ken Mochizuki read his new book, Be Water, My Friend, about Bruce Lee’s early childhood, and also Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story, which tells the inspiring story of Chiune Sugihara.

2:00 - 3:00 PM – Hula hoop Workshop! Become an expert hoop dancer.

3:00 PM – Prepare to be amazed and amused by Jersey Jim, the comedy magician.

4:00 PM - Doors close.

About Our Friends:
CHILDRENS HOSPITAL:
Helping a child "just be a kid" while in the hospital can be crucial to the recovery process. Through the generosity of our community supporters, approximately 500 toys per week are given to patients, based on the guidelines below:
*One toy per week that a patient is in the hospital
*One toy for a procedure or surgery
*One toy for a birthday
*Additional toys may be given if children cannot bring toys from home

Please help the Children’s Hospital by bringing a toy to the National Museum. Toys have to be new, and wrapped. New books are acceptable too. For more information please call (323.361.2371) or visit them at www.childrenshospitalla.org.

KIDDING AROUND THE KITCHEN:
It is such a common problem in today's world that families rarely get to eat together anymore.

Kidding Around The Kitchen shows that families can make and eat food together without a lot of fuss or a huge time commitment. The family food demo helps families with tips on smarter shopping, fun recipe ideas, advice on how to incorporate healthier choices when possible and advice on how to delegate tasks in an age-appropriate way. This family food demo is a “how to” get everyone involved in the family meal.

Kidding Around The Kitchen is for families that have full plates in life as well as wanting a full plate of food to enjoy together. It's about time well spent. You'll see your kids get a we did it attitude!! This family food demo works on the try it premises all while empowering the kids and family. If we can do it, so can you!!

Kidding Around The Kitchen is an adventure in fun, food and family. We are not only making food, we are making memories.

For more information on Kidding Around The Kitchen visit: www.kiddingaroundthekitchen.com.

KEN MOCHIZUKI:
Ken Mochizuki is a published author and a narrator of children's books and young adult books. Some of the published credits of Ken Mochizuki include Baseball Saved Us, Be Water, My Friend, Beacon Hill Boys.

BE WATER, MY FRIEND
By Ken Mochizuki. Illustrated by Dom Lee.
Mochizuki tells the true story of the formative years of Bruce Lee's early life growing up in Hong Kong in the 1940s and 1950s, before he became an international film star.

PASSAGE TO FREEDOM
By Ken Mochizuki. Illustrated by Dom Lee. Afterword by Hiroki Sugihara.

As a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania in the 1940s, Chiune Sugihara had a chance to help thousands of Jews escape the Holocaust through Japan, but it was against his government’s orders. When his five-year-old son Hiroki asked, “If we don’t help them, won’t they die?” Sugihara decided to assist the refugees.

Based on Hiroki Sugihara’s own words, Passage to Freedom is the first fully illustrated children’s book to tell Sugihara’s heroic story, highlighting his courageous humanity, and the importance of a child’s opinion in his father’s decision.

Paper: 32 pp.

[Purchase a copy of Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story at the Museum Store Online]

HIPHOOPS:
Hiphoops are fitted from high-grade, polyethylene plastic, then hand-wrapped with specially designed cloth tape. Their large size and heavy weight makes for easy maneuverability, while cloth tape provides additional friction. Those who may never have been able to hula-hoop as children are surprised and delighted at the ease with which they are able to keep HipHoops airborne.

For more information or to book your own party, visit: HipHoops.net.

JERSEY JIM:
Jersey Jim is very proud of his home state. "The home of Frank Sinatra, Bruce Springstein... and Tony Soprano!"

When Jim first drove West, he had his mechanic check his oil, his tires, his transmission. "When he heard I was driving to Los Angeles, he checked my Karma."

Jim has been a magician since the age of 12, when he received his first magic kit. By 14, he was performing at birthday parties and challenging local police officers to handcuff him like his hero, Houdini. (And, like Houdini, Jim always escaped.)

Jersey Jim's Comedy Magic show is a labor of love. Jim draws on his experience as a graduate of the prestigious UCLA film school and as a working screenwriter to create original and hilarious routines that you will see from no other magician. Jim also designs and builds his own one-of-a-kind equipment.

Jim is a pupil of the world-famous and famously funny British magician, Gazzo Osborne. Jim is also co-author of Gazzo's book, "The Art of Krowd Keeping," a comprehensive study in audience management, which has been hailed as a classic in the field.

Jim is a member of the Writers Guild of America, holds two California teaching credentials, a BA in film production, and an MFA in screenwriting.

Whether it's a black tie corporate affair, a bustling trade show booth, strolling magic in a restaurant, or a birthday party, Jersey Jim's Comedy Magic is ready to amaze, amuse, and create magical memories to last a lifetime.

For more information or to book your own show, visit: http://www.jerseyjimmagic.com/.

2009 Target Free Family Saturday schedule

November 14 – Merry Melodies

December 12 – Let's Celebrate!

Other Family Events at the National Museum

October 24: Fall into JANM Comfort Foods Cooking Workshop

December 5: Winter Family Breakfast Feast Cooking Workshop>