Your Weekend: The Best Family Events-Sept. 19, 2018

Our picks for the weekend's best family events.

Cover Kids 2019 Presented by Hawaiʻi Dental Service

This Saturday will be the last chance for your keiki to enter for free in HONOLULU Family’s 2019 Cover Kids Search. Four winners will be featured on the cover of HONOLULU Family magazine next year. Just bring them to the center court at Kāhala Mall to meet our professional photographer, Karen DB, and the HONOLULU team. Public voting begins Oct. 29 with winners announced in December. If you can't make it this weekend, you can enter online for $10 a child.

Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day

Download a pass for free admission to some of O‘ahu's museums for “Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day.”  ʻIolani Palace, Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor, Hawaiʻi State Art Museum (where admission always is free) and the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i's Historical Gallery will waive fees for the day. This will be a great opportunity for keiki to visit airplane hangars, walk inside a royal palace, learn about Japanese culture and view contemporary art. Download a ticket for free admission for two people off of the Smithsonian Magazine's website.

  • All ages
  • Free. One pass per e-mail address.
  • Saturday, Sept. 22. Times vary depending on location.

Family Day Open House at Hawaiian Mission Houses

Want to know how folks lived more than 100 years ago? Visit Hawaiian Mission Houses for free this Saturday during its annual Family Day Open House. Kids can try lauhala weaving, candle-making, 19th-century games and quill writing. Free tours of the 1821 Mission House, 1831 Chamberlain House and Hawaiʻi's first printing press will be offered every half-hour from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Kids also can try their hand at an old-fashioned water pump–but save that for the end of your visit as kids most likely will get soaked.

  • All ages
  • Free
  • Saturday, Sept. 22. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
  • Hawaiian Mission Homes, 553 S. King St.
  • missionhouses.org

Ko Olina Children’s Festival

The 5th annual children’s festival at Ko Olina Resort promises to be a fun-filled afternoon of slime making, Disney•Pixar short films, mariachi music, golf lessons, keiki-friendly foods, face painting and tattoos, arts and crafts, and much more. Click here to view the jam-packed schedule of activities. Bring beach mats, low-back lawn chairs, or towels to spread out on the lawn for the feature movie, Coco, which begins after some live entertainment, which starts at 4:30 p.m. The festival is a fundraiser for the Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women & Children. For discounts to the event, we recommend pre-purchasing online tickets in exchange for wristbands at the entrance.

Want to know more about what to pack, what you'll find to eat and where to find a cooling off station? Read our Inside Look: 16 Tips for the Ko Olina Children’s Festival.

  • All ages
  • $10 for military-dependent kids 4 to 12 years; $15 for non-military kids 4 to 12 years; $20 presale for adults with military ID; $25 presale for non-military adults; $30 at the door; free for all kids 3 and younger.
  • Saturday, Sept. 22. 2 to 8 p.m.
  • Kohola Lagoon 1 and Halawai Lawn, Ko Olina Resort. 92-1480 Aliʻinui Drive, Ko Olina.
  • koolinachildrensfestival.com

The Secret of Flowers

This Sunday, Hawaiʻi Nature Center will offer a botany workshop for preschool and kindergarten-aged keiki. They’ll walk away with an understanding of why bees are drawn to flowers, how bees pollinate flowers and how plants produce fruit. Kids should be dressed to frolic and dig outdoors under the sun.

  • For kids 3 to 5 years
  • $10 for nonmembers. $5 for members.
  • Sunday, Sept. 23. 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.
  • Hawaiʻi Nature Center. 2131 Makiki Heights Drive.
  • hawaiinaturecenter.org