_NEWSLETTER_

Family First Sunday — Let’s Play Games

Try out Victorian pastimes like rolling a hoop, walking on stilts, and playing hopscotch at the vintage-cool house and gardens. Picnic lunches are encouraged.

When: Sun., 9/8, 11am-3pm; Age 3+; Free with museum admission ($5 for adults, free for children age 11 and under).

Where: Dunsmuir Historic Estate, 2960 Peralta Oaks Court (at Peralta Oaks Drive), Oakland, 510-615-5555, dunsmuir.org.

San Francisco Bike Coalition’s Family Day

Strap on your training wheels and toddler seats and pedal down to Golden Gate Park for a bike parade, a scavenger hunt, and other fun on wheels.

When: Sat., 9/6, 10am-2pm; All ages; Free.

Where: 14th Avenue Picnic Area (JFK Drive at 14th Avenue in Golden Gate Park), San Francisco, 415-431-BIKE; sfbike.org.

San Francisco Birth & Baby Fair

Rev up for parenthood at this information blitz featuring representatives from local birth and parenting groups, maternity and baby gear, and teach-ins on birthing options, cloth diapering, and health during pregnancy.

When: Sat., 9/6, 10am-3pm; Age 18+; $5.

Where: Fort Mason Center Buildings A - E, Marina Boulevard (at Buchanan Street), San Francisco, 415-867-0291, birthandbabyfair.com.

Kidsfaire

Fifteen acres of loud & shiny stuff of interest to parents and kids, including live stage shows (the Lion King, Strawberry Shortcake), kids’ pavilions such as a pirate’s cove and an ice skating rink, rides, and ten million, zillion bounce houses.

When: Sat.-Sun., 9/6-7, 10am-5pm; All ages; $5-8.

Where: Alameda County Fairgrounds, 4501 Pleasanton Avenue (at Valley Avenue), Pleasanton, 925-426-7559, thekidsfaire.com.

A story in the San Francisco Chronicle last weekend makes a very good point: building a dollhouse with your kids can be equal parts science lesson and architecture appreciation primer. Build out the house structure and your child learns principles of engineering and construction; getting the lights on provides a primer on electricity; creating bedspreads and curtains teaches newbies to sew. And certainly after a child glues together her own house, she’ll better appreciate traipsing around Bay Area neighborhoods to ogle the Victorians, Arts & Crafts homes, and other gorgeous architectural styles.

Want to get started? Stoke your children’s interest with a pair of upcoming shows: The CHAMPS Miniature Dollhouse Show & Sale in El Sobrante this Friday and Saturday, 9/5-6, and the 33rd Annual Good Sam Show Showcase of Miniatures in San Jose, 9/20-21.

The Chronicle also has great links to the cream of the crop of local miniature stores, but if you live in San Francisco and don’t feel like a drive to San Carlos or Novato to visit these places, you can find decent miniatures at The Hobby Co. in San Francisco, out on Geary.

By the way, when you read the Chron article, don’t miss the related feature on Stockton miniature maker Connie Sauve, whose gateway drug miniature project was a dollhouse she built as a kid with her father. See if you don’t get a little choked up as the article describes how happily the two still collaborate on their tiny interiors. Man, I’d like to have a relationship like that with my kid when she’s a grown-up. See you at the hobby shop.

Even if it does turn foggy like the weather people say, there’s still plenty to keep you warm this weekend.

Slow Food Nation

The gargantuan three-day sustainable-food event is a sure bet for parents and kids, with many ways it can be enjoyed. You can take the casual route and just bring your children to wander around the food booths and activities at the Civic Center Plaza, or enjoy the live bands (Gnarls Barkley, the New Pornographers) at the Slow Food Rocks event. If you have an older teens (aged 15 and older), you may instead be interested in steering them towards the Youth Food Movement, several days of workshops, sleepovers, and meet-and-greets designed to get young people thinking about healthy living. Finally, you could leave younger kids at home and attend events geared towards parents, such as Saturday’s 2pm panel discussion with Alice Waters, “Edible Education,” a call to action for parents discouraged by the national school lunch program.

When: Thu.-Mon., 8/28-9/1; programs are at various times; All ages; Free-$60 (most events are free but some events, such as Slow Food Rocks, require tickets).

Where: Various locations in San Francisco and the Bay Area, including the Civic Center Plaza, Polk Street between McAllister and Grove Streets, and the Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Avenue (at McAllister Street); 917-539-3924; slowfoodnation.org.

Hop Dogs Dance Party

Get your kid moving to the music at this monthly (last Saturday of each month) dance party featuring DJs, kid-friendly snacks, a quiet lounge area for the overstimulated, and dance instructors ready to teach a dizzying variety of dance styles to students both young and old. Show your kid you’re not too old to do the Cabbage Patch, the rhumba, or the Funky Chicken.

When: Sat., 8/30, 5-7:30pm (lessons are from 5:15-5:45pm); All ages (no adults admitted without children); $6-10 per person (sliding scale) and parking is $1.50 at lot on 17th Street.

Where: ODC Commons, 351 Shotwell Street (between 17th and 18th Streets), San Francisco; 415-863-6606;
hopdogsdance.com.

Sunday Streets

Gavin Newsom’s sweet new Sunday Streets program diverts traffic from big swathes of Chinatown/the waterfront and Bayview Hunter’s Point and replaces the cars with stations manned by local fitness organizations that encourage and equip the strolling masses to try out roller skating, bike riding, yoga, dancing, tai chi and more. Participants can stick to the programs at a certain community center, or walk the route between centers and sample activities along the way.

When: Sun. 8/31 (also Sun. 9/14); 9am-1pm; All ages; Free.

Where: Various locations in San Francisco, visit website for a map of participating community centers and street station locations; sundaystreetssf.com.

Maya’s Mom, a parent’s social networking site with a heavily Bay Area membership, has announced it will shut down on September 30.

Founded in 2006 on venture capital and run by a handful of people out of a house in Palo Alto, Maya’s Mom was bought by San Francisco’s BabyCenter in 2007. The tiny MM team was imported into BabyCenter’s San Francisco office and asked to maintain the Maya’s Mom site as well as using its proprietary social networking software to improve BabyCenter’s boards. Maybe the improvements went a little too well — the MM team noticed some months back that they were spending just as much time working on Maya’s Mom (a paltry 1,500 members, albeit frantically loyal ones) as the BabyCenter boards (tens of thousands of members).

So they pulled the plug, not without some angst on founder Ann Crady’s part. The site’s users are also up in arms, particularly over a suggestion in Crady’s shutdown announcement that jilted users should just migrate over to BabyCenter. One irritated loyalist said on her own blog entry on the topic:

So why would Maya’s Mom think that when they close their doors on September 10th I’m going to follow them to the new and improved BabyCenter site? I understand that they were granted a fantastic opportunity and I think it’s great that the Maya’s Mom team jumped right into spruicing up the BabyCenter community site. Good for them. But to go and shut down their own site and casually invite people to “come relocate to the BabyCenter community” because they are too busy to manage two sites is absurd. That “the design and features will be familiar to me” is just not enough. Transfer my account, my friends, my groups, my pictures, and everything else I’ve spent well over a year collecting, and maybe, just maybe I’ll join the new site. But transfer just my “member since date” and my “note count” and expect me to do everything else myself and I’m outta there.

School starts Monday, so now’s the time to hunker down in town and have some close-to-home fun.

Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival

Introduce your children to mom and dad’s music at this giant outdoor music fest featuring Radiohead, Tom Petty, Beck, Wilco, and scores of other musical greats. Of particular interest to kids: Jack Johnson’s 7:40pm set on Sunday. Maybe he’ll play something from Curious George!

When: Fri.-Sun., 8/22-24; 5-10pm Fri., 1-10pm Sat. & Sun; Age 5+; $85-$695 (for 3-day VIP tickets).

Where: Various stages in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco (see website for details); SFOutsidelands.com.

Breakfast with Enzo

The zippy and talented Enzo Garcia and his guitar (and banjo, and musical saw, and accordion, and…) get kids and parents tapping and dancing along at this weekly sing-along.

When: Fridays, 10am & 11am; All ages; $6 per person.

Where: Fort Mason Center, Room C260, Marina Boulevard (at Buchanan Street), San Francisco, 415-561-2958; enzogarcia.com.

Sing-A-Long The Little Mermaid

Dress up as Ariel or Ursula and sing along to the subtitles while the movie plays on the giant Castro screen. The best costume wins a prize!

When: Daily Fri.-Thu., 8/22-28; 2 & 7:30pm; Age 2+; $10-15.

Where: Castro Theatre, 492 Castro Street (at Market Street), San Francisco, 415-621-5288 x15, thecastrotheatre.com.

Fairy Music Farm Grand Opening

Celebrate with snacks, pomp and circumstance as Children’s Fairyland celebrates the opening of its Fairy Music Farm Tunnel, a 118-foot tunnel journey that explores music through hands-on exhibits and art.

When: Sat., 8/23, 10:30am; Age 0-8; Free with admission ($6 per person).

Where: Children’s Fairyland, 699 Bellevue Avenue (at Grand Avenue), Oakland; 510-452-2259; fairyland.org.

Name murals and wall-hangings are one of the primary means for mass-manufactured pastel crap to sneak its way into your house. Give your kid’s room a much hipper look with the New Skool Alphabet, wooden plaques spray-painted with graffiti-esque letters.

Each plaque is hand-painted by Nate1, impresario of San Francisco-based New Skool, which is best known for its “baby DJ” shirts and onesies silkscreened with headphones. Imagine the possibilities! You can spell out your kid’s name: Meghann or Bryce would look awesome in graffiti script. Or you can sprinkle the nursery with hip-hop slang. Nate1 suggests DOPE.

Available at Wishbone, 601 Irving Street (at Seventh Avenue), San Francisco, 415-242-5540, wishbonesf.com.

Art, indoor camping, hula class, and a whole lot of men and women swanning around in velvet.

Golden Gate Renaissance Faire

Forsooth, young maidens and masters, hie thy heinies to this celebration of all that is Elizabethan for jousting, swordfighting, juggling, country dancing, flowing dresses, and giant turkey legs.

When: Sat., 8/16 ,10am-6pm; Sun. 8/17, 10am-5pm; All ages; Free-$18.

Where: Speedway Meadow, MLK Drive (at Middle Drive West) in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, sffaire.com.

The Family Studio: Me, Myself, and I

Explore the way artists portray themselves in self-portraits with a special family gallery tour of the Frida Kahlo exhibit, hands-on activities, and kid-friendly lectures from SFMOMA docents.

When: Sun., 8/17, 11am-3pm; Age 4-11; Free admission for each child and up to four adults per child.

Where: SFMOMA, 151 Third Street (between Mission and Howard Streets), San Francisco, 415-947-1292, sfmoma.org.

Camping Out Week

The East Bay children’s museum focuses on the great outdoors with safe indoor activities that help kids practice skills like building a teepee, going fishing, and campfire storytelling.

When: Ongoing through 8/16; 9:30-4:30pm; Age 3+; Free with museum admission, $7-8.

Where: Habitot Children’s Museum, 2065 Kittredge Street (at Shattuck Avenue), Berkeley, 510-647-1111, habitot.org.

Prenatal/Postnatal Hula Class

Get those hips loose for baby-dropping or back to shape after you’ve bred with this basic beginner level hula class. Bring your baby in a carrier or have him dance alongside you at the weekly class.

When: Ongoing each Friday morning; 9-10am; All ages; $5 per adult.

Where: Hawaiian Cultural Center, 423 Baden Avenue, South San Francisco, 650-588-1091, info@apop.net.

Not for your little one the harsh dyes and artificial fabrics you’ll find at the cheapie clothing stores like Target and Old Navy. No, your baby will be swaddled in the softest natural fabrics, preferably those featuring gender-neutral designs and simple graphics. San Francisco designer Rachel Pearson has the number of all the progressive parents in the Bay Area, crafting clothing under her Speesees label that’s almost fiendishly cute and high-minded.

Pearson began her line with organic cotton onesies a few years back and kept expanding, to pants, t-shirts, hats, dresses, and bibs, even a few toys. Everything is colored with low-impact dyes and easy on the eye: uncluttered shapes, sophisticated colors, nothing cloying or tacky. Baby kimono onesies are easy to wrap and unwrap on a squirming infant in need of a change; baby yoga pants are loose enough to comfortably accommodate the cloth diapers many hipster parents prefer. This is the kind of clothing that you hang on to for baby #2 or #3, or reluctantly pass on to your friends, telling them “This was my favorite onesie.”

You can buy Speesees clothing at various San Francisco boutiques, like Ladybug Ladybug in Noe Valley, or at Rainbow Grocery and Whole Foods stores, but once you get addicted you’re going to need to visit the Speesees store, 2325 Third Street (at 20th Street), Suite 342, San Francisco. Call 415-552-5808 or visit speesees.com.

Street fairs, hula hoops, and more San Francisco fun this weekend.

World Hoop Day

Members of local hooping clubs help kids to get fit, not fat, with this day-long event offering hula hoop lessons, dance, hoop, and fire performances, live music, and giveaways of tricked-out hoops. Bring a potluck dish to share; swiveling your hips can sure work up an appetite. Peter Pan-themed costumes are encouraged and doggy fashion shows will take place at 3 and 6pm.

When: Fri., 8/8, 1-9pm; Age 3+; Free.

Where: Great Lawn on Treasure Island, Palm Avenue (at Ninth Street), San Francisco; 917-204-7721, worldhoopday.com.

Nihonmachi Street Fair

Live music, arts and crafts booths, and children’s activities are featured at this Asian cultural fair, but most people come to eat the delicious street food, watch the lion dancers (performing Saturday at 11am) and the Taiko drummers (Saturday, 5pm).

When: Sat.-Sun., 8/9-10; 11am-6pm; All ages; Free.

Where: Japantown, Post Street (between Laguna and Fillmore Streets), San Francisco, nihonmachistreetfair.org.

Book Reading: The Transgender Child

Intended for families with children who “step outside of the pink or blue box,” this book by Rachel Pepper and Stephanie Brill covers gender variance from birth through the college years. Parents are encouraged to bring their children to this reading.

When: Sun., 8/10, 4pm; Age 4+; Free.

Where: Books Inc. Opera Plaza, 601 Van Ness Avenue (at Golden Gate Avenue), San Francisco, 415-776-1111, booksinc.net.

Cool Globes: Hot Ideas for a Cooler Planet

Teach the kids about global warming with this public exhibition of 35 artist-sculpted globes illustrating possible solutions for combating climate change.

When: Daily, ongoing through October 13, 2008, open for public viewing anytime; All ages; Free.

Where: Crissy Field Promenade, North of Mason Street along the waterfront (at Crissy Field Avenue), coolglobes.com.

If you have an impressionable small child who worships Barbie dolls, you will probably want to stay far, far away from the San Francisco Altered Barbie Exhibition, the annual gallery show that stars Barbies worked into a number of scenarios Mattel would never go for. On the other hand, if you have a child who you want to teach some lessons on objectification, femininity, and cultural norms, the Altered Barbies are a lot more instructive than a lecture.

What will your child take away from a viewing of “Dykes on Bikes” Barbies? How about a Barbie dragging along a crucifix, or a Barbie riding on a chaps-wearing Ken’s back, hand up to give him a good smack? Hmm, maybe you’ll want to steer the kids away from that one.

Children who grew up in the Age of Bratz may not get the humor — why is it funny, exactly, that the Altered Barbie show casts her as a kung-fu warrior, a punk rocker or a conjoined twin? This show may engender some uncomfortable questions — and interesting discussions with sophisticated children who understand there’s heavy irony underlaying most of the sculptures, photographs, and videos on display.

When: Daily through 8/17, 12-5pm; All ages; Free.
Where: Art 94124 Gallery, 3900-B Third St. at San Francisco, 415-240-2202, alteredbarbie.com.