This week, make bedtime stories an adventure.

Kids are being invited to wear their pajamas for an evening story hour Wednesday at Saint Joseph's College, 278 Whites Bridge Road in Standish, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Elementary education majors will be reading to children grades K-3. Kids can also participate in various activities and munch on snacks. The event is free. Books and activities will reflect winter themes.

Kids are invited to bring a blanket or a favorite teddy bear. No registration necessary.

Future bedtime stories programs and themes include Feb. 11 (Valentine's Day), March 25 (springtime activities), and April 29 (celebrating Maine). For more information call 893-7723.

Maine's state parks are not just for summertime fun.

It's hard to remember that right now, when it is 5 degrees outside. But to remind you of that, there's a statewide initiative called Take It Outside which provides information on things to do with kids outside. Especially things at state parks.

For instance, the next Take It Outside event will be a children's ice fishing derby Sunday at Lake St. George State Park in Liberty, on Route 3 about 25 miles east of Augusta. It'll be from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The Bureau of Parks and Lands will provide everything families need to fish, including instruction, traps and bait. They'll even cut the hole in the ice for you.

There'll also be other winter activities, a warming hut, coffee and hot cocoa, and lunch. To pre-register and for more information, call Lake St. George State Park at 589-4255.

The only cost is the regular park off-season admission, $1.50 for adults and free for kids under 12.

Other Take It Outside events planned in the coming weeks include "Family Fun Day" events at Mount Blue State Park in Weld on Feb. 7, and at Aroostook State Park in Presque Isle on Feb. 21. The Web site also includes information on lots of other park events this winter, such as ranger-led hikes at Bradbury Mountain State Park in Pownal and nature programs at Wolfe's Neck Woods State Park in Freeport.

For information on outdoor family events, check out the Take It Outside Web site.

Learning about Martin Luther King Jr., and all he stood for, is certainly worthwhile for kids.

One way to make it fun might be to attend the Bowdoin College Library's annual "Children's Celebration of Martin Luther King Day."

The free event will be next Monday, Jan. 19, from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in the Lancaster Lounge, Moulton Union, Bowdoin College, Brunswick.

The event will feature storytelling, refreshments, games and crafts, as well as appearances by children's book authors Rohan Henry and Charlotte Agell.

For more information, call the Bowdoin Library at 725-3280 or go to its Web site.

Maine's public libraries are a great source of free family fun, from story hours to crafts sessions to book-themed parties.

But most of us only take advantage of the stuff at our nearest library, the one in our town. Why not shop around at area libraries to find as much free family entertainment as possible?

One way to do that is to search the events calendar on a Web site maintained by the Maine State Library called Maine Libraries.

The searchable calendar lets you plug in dates and then choose the type of event you're looking for, such as children's events, book sales, films, lectures, performances, or workshops.

If you plug in children's events for this coming week, for instance, you'll find there's a story and song time for babies at the Hollis Center Public Library, a fiber arts workshop for kids ages 8-12 at the Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick and a story and craft event at the Zadoc Long Free Library in Buckfield.

Plus a lot more.

The calendar listings include links to the specific library's Web site, so you can get a lot more information on each event.