Maybe you need the arts even more when you've been laid off. If so, you're in luck because tickets at Kumu Kahua Theatre are only $5 on Thursdays with "proof of unemployment." Other Thursday discounts include senior ($11) and student ($5) tickets. Everybody else pays a discounted $13 on Thursdays to see plays, by Hawai'i playwrights, about life in Hawai'i. Playing now: "The Statehood Project." Coming next: "Voices From Okinawa."

Get tips on cheap or free family fun each Tuesday from Leslie Lang and Kris Bordessa, authors of our new blog, On the Cheap! at http://onthecheap.honadvblogs.com. Together they also write the blogs www.HonoluluOnTheCheap.com and www.BigIslandOnTheCheap.com.

— Leslie Lang and Kris Bordessa

A-Z AND THE FAMILY TREE

BLOGS KEEP THE FOCUS ON FAMILY

If you're raising a family or prefer to experience the highs and lows of parenthood vicariously, head over to www.honoluluadvertiser.com/blogs to read The A-Z Files and Family Tree blogs. The latter, by assistant features editor Treena Shapiro, focuses on kids and other bright shiny objects, while the former, by Zenaida Serrano and her husband, Andreas Arvman, touches on marriage, parenting and anything else of interest that falls between A and Z.

Looking for an online community of local moms? Navigate over to www.HawaiiMomsLikeMe.com for discussion boards, tips, calendars and more.