Last week, a shelter for wild animals in Germany took in six wild boar piglets. They were only 3 days old and shivering from the cold. As soon as the newborns arrived, the shelter’s French bulldog, whose name is Baby, went right over to the piglets and started snuggling with them to keep them warm, according to Norbert Damm, who works at the animal sanctuary.

Parents who take their young children to music, swimming and art classes often stop arranging such activities once their kids are older and in school all day. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Parents are great playmates, and there are plenty of fun and different activities you and your parents can enjoy together, including exercising, painting, woodworking, camping, cooking and hiking.

But do you know why February and not March or May?

In 1926, historian Carter G. Woodson decided that the contributions of African Americans should be recognized as a way to overcome prejudice that existed in the country. He thought that one week in February that included the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln, the president who freed the slaves, and Frederick Douglass, the famous former slave, would be the perfect week. (Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, and Douglass was born in February 1818; the exact date isn’t known, but he came to celebrate his birthday on February 14.)

Animals

1. Panda

2. Golden lion tamarin

3. Naked mole-rat

In sports, lots of kids know about Jackie Robinson. While it’s hard to believe, there was a time when blacks were not allowed to play major league baseball and other sports. Robinson became the first black player when he joined the Brooklyn (later Los Angeles) Dodgers in 1947.

Hundreds of the gray-white birds with curly neck feathers are bumping into one another in a patch of unfrozen water at a shipyard near Makhachkala, a city in Russia’s Dagestan province.

Yeah, we thought we’d get your interest with that last one! Here are two contests that are aimed at kids who are creative, bright and inventive. In other words, you. They both have March deadlines, but today is a great day to get started!

Swiss scientists said last week that they plan to launch a “janitor satellite” specially designed to get rid of space junk, the orbiting debris that can damage valuable satellites or even manned spaceships.

That’s a lot of birthday candles and may seem like a long time. But some things live to be much older. An Asian elephant is expected to live to be 86 years old, and a macaw, a kind of parrot, can live to 100.

Ages 8-12. $16.99.

Do you like to cook or bake? If you answered “no,” how about this question: Do you like to eat?

Okay, now that we’ve gotten everyone to say “yes,” let’s talk about this delicious and exciting book.

Many community centers, parks and businesses in the area offer all-ages classes and events or those specifically geared to parents and older children. Here are a few suggestions.

The Washington Post Magazine is having its annual Peeps Diorama Contest, in which artistic people everywhere create scenes using marshmallow Peeps treats as the characters. Dioramas can re-create events in the news or scenes from books or movies.

It’s okay if you haven’t heard of him. Until two weeks ago, hardly anyone knew about Lin. No NBA team drafted him after he graduated from college in 2010. Lin got cut by two teams, before making the New York Knicks team this season. But Lin mostly sat on the bench.

If you guessed cotton candy, you’re wrong, but we appreciate the way you think.

If you guessed the cherry blossom trees around the Tidal Basin, you’re brilliant.

When: Through March, indoor animal exhibits are open every day from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Parking opens at 8:30 a.m.

Where: The zoo is located at 3001 Connecticut Avenue NW.

Cost: It’s free to enter the zoo, although you do have to pay to park at a zoo lot.

Welcome to the winter zoo.

If you’ve ever gone there with your school on a spring field trip or tried to be patient as your parents hunted for a parking space there in the summer, you know how crowded the zoo can get. It’s sometimes hard to get close enough to really see the animals.

The mighty Miss Malone of the title is 12-year-old Deza Malone, who was a character in Christopher Paul Curtis’s very popular novel “Bud, Not Buddy.” Deza is the smartest girl in her class, and she dreams of going to college and becoming a teacher. But she is living during the Great Depression, a time when economic troubles meant that many people didn’t have jobs. Deza’s father moves from Indiana to Michigan in search of work, and her brother Jimmy goes to Chicago to find work as a singer. But what Deza and her mother want more than anything else is to have their family back together.

We here at KidsPost would never say that you should avoid sweets altogether. (In part, because we couldn’t do that, and it seems wrong to suggest you try to!) But there are ways to enjoy the sweetest parts of the holiday and still keep healthful eating in mind. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics came up with these suggestions, some of which may surprise you — and your parents.

Two Sundays ago, Stanley was three shots ahead with just one hole to play in the Farmers Insurance Open. All he had to do was score a 7 or better on the par 5 18th hole. That’s easy for a talented pro like Stanley.

A soccer match in England had to be halted this week when a stray cat wandered onto the pitch. (That’s what a soccer field is called in England — where, while we’re mentioning different names for the same thing, soccer is known as football.)

Dueling with lightsabers, seeing models of spacecraft that were used in pod races, creating the voices of clone troopers.

And for one day, about 40 kids got to play at Skywalker Ranch, the place where “Star Wars” creator George Lucas does his work.

Sasha: “What did you do at work today, Dad?”

President Obama: “I fired a marshmallow cannon in the State Dining Room.”

The conversation may not have actually happened, but the firing of the marshmallow cannon absolutely did.

It was reported that the newborn baby began to cry as the clock struck 12, and many feel that his voice is as real today as it was 200 years ago. Dickens grew up to become one of the world’s most famous and beloved writers. His characters are known throughout the world.

●“Charles Dickens: England’s Most Captivating Storyteller” by Catherine Wells-Cole (Templar Books $19.99), uses pictures from his original books and photos and other pieces of art. Readers “see” Dickens’s life story and important parts of the stories in his books. By opening pretend letters and tickets to Dickens shows, diary entries and newspaper stories, readers gets to puzzle through a whole new level of understanding that will help later when reading Dickens’s longer books.

The military wants to be able to use bug-size robots to fly into areas without risking human lives. They call their robots MAVs, short for micro air vehicles.

Don’t worry, they soon will be!

What’s going on is the earliest stage of the presidential election campaign, when individual states help choose the final candidates to run for president. The presidential election will be held November 6, and the process leading up to that is pretty long and complicated.

Maybe the way to start thinking about it is by asking a different question. Not what or why, but how. How did the artist make this? And how does it work? Just like a car, art is a kind of machine. But instead of carrying you from Point A to Point B, art is designed to carry your imagination.

That’s the most boring thing you’ll read about him in this story.

Consider this: For most of the people who have been president of the United States (and there have been only 43, and they’ve all been men), that title would be the highlight of a lifetime, the accomplishment to be most proud of, the first thing to appear on your gravestone.