School’s almost over, and if you don’t want your kid cluttering up the couch all day you’d better schedule him up. A fertile source of activities: the vast slate of classes and day camps offered by the San Francisco Recreation and Parks system. There are so many selections that you’ll probably find classes you’ve paid hundreds of dollars for offered free, or for a nominal fee.
Now, you can sign up for classes using SF Rec’s online portal, but the catch is that first you must have a “family account,” an enormous pain to get since you generally must take a raft of paperwork, in person, to McClaren Lodge in Golden Gate Park during business hours (read: the hours you work somewhere else). But for the next two weeks during open registration, you can instead visit SF Rec’s satellite offices (here are a list of those; call the location to confirm hours). You still must bring the same pile of paperwork, but at least now you don’t have to drive across town if you live far from GGP.
Once you have the account, signing up for classes is a cinch– and since getting the account is so difficult, most classes are wide open. Is your child interested in swimming? Ceramics? Yoga? Baking? Well, she might be, after this summer.