Rainy Day

Warm enough for you there in the East and South Bay? Sure would be nice to go to the movies. What’s on? Let’s see here. WALL-E? Seen it. Iron Man? Sure, if you want to raise a sociopathic arms dealer. Journey to the Center of the Earth? I didn’t get a lobotomy to go with the C-section, so no.

Sample the popcorn-fare instead at AMC’s Summer Movie Club, weekly $1 movies each Wednesday until August 6. No San Fran theater is offering the program, but theaters in Emeryville, Saratoga, and San Jose are. This week’s feature in Emeryville is the fun Shrek the Third. Go princess squad!

When: Wed., 7/16, 10am; All ages; $1.

Where: AMC Bay Street 16, 5614 Shellmound Street Ste. 220 (at Christie Avenue), Emeryville, 510-457-4AMC, amctheatres.com.

For a city with such crappy weather, San Francisco has a shortage of indoor play spots. When you wake up to pea-soup fog for the third day in a row and you know the playground’s going to be bone-chillingly cold, where do you take a kid who needs to run and scream? The library? You’ll be tossed out on your ear. A coffee shop? Good luck facing down the gauntlet of hairy eyeballs from telecommuters trying to work. The Randall Museum? Great idea! So great that approximately 2,000 other families are crowding its play space.

That’s exactly why Peekadoodle Kidsclub has a shot, if it can manage to sign up enough members to make a go of it. Located in a magnificent spot at the corner of Ghirardelli Square, Peekadoodle is a spacious, well-appointed members-only play space for kids and comfy lounge for moms. Opened in February by mom-preneurs Kayla Lee and Ellen Park, the club is intended for kids aged 0 to 5.

“We send them off on their sixth birthday,” says Lee with a smile. She was the one with the idea for Peekadoodle, during a Chicago summer when her son was small. “It was 100-plus degrees outside, and I found an indoor place to play that was $100 a month. One hundred a month and nothing there but a play space, and I was happy to pay it just to get out of that heat. I knew we could do something better.”

They have. I visited last week with my 3-year-old, and both of us were bowled over by the accommodations. A big play-den filled with miniature wooden San Francisco icons like a Victorian house, cable car, and the Golden Gate Bridge! Friendly staffers overseeing the play as moms and nannies lolled on long benches, reading magazines! Kid-sized toilets in the bathrooms! Washers and dryers by the changing tables in case someone has a blowout! The rooms where kids can take cooking, language, music, and other classes were spiffy too, particularly the small-scale kitchen, and the food at the cafe is delicious.

The downside, of course, is the price. Membership at Peekadoodle starts at $100 a month, and most everything else — classes, food, childcare if you want to play on the computers or work out uninterrupted — is extra. The small hotel-style workout room is free, a plus; as are the computers in the lounge, and the free Wi-Fi. The convenient underground parking is a huge plus, but again, it’ll cost you: $2.25 for 90 minutes if you get a validation from Peekadoodle, but then $2.25 every 20 minutes thereafter.

If I had the extra cash, I’d be at Peekadoodle in a second. It’s posh, friendly, relaxing, safe, and my kid went insane for it. If you find yourself with kicking-around money, check it out. Work-at-home parents in particular might find Peekadoodle cost-effective. With on-site childcare available for a mere $5 an hour, Peekadoodle makes a lot of sense for telecommuters. Hey, maybe you could write membership off as a business expense? Check with your accountant on that one.

900 North Point St., 415-440-7335, peekadoodlekidsclub.com.

I know several San Francisco moms whose kids take swimming lessons at La Petit Baleen in San Bruno, so I assumed they’d be jumping ship for the new location in the Presidio.

“Absolutely not,” one mom assured me. “The kids fall asleep in the car on the ride home. And besides, if I drive to San Bruno, I can experience the wonder of Mollieland.”

Mollieland is the child-minding center at Mollie Stone’s (upscale, expensive) grocery store. As long as they stay in the store, parents can drop off their potty-trained kids aged 2-12 in a clean, attractive little room staffed by a smiling babysitter who urges them to play games, fiddle with the computers, color, or encrust something with stickers. The kids are on closed-circuit TV, so parents can stop by the monitors in the store and make sure their kids aren’t screaming.

It is so much fun, says my savvy mom friend, that her children regularly beg her to take them grocery shopping (!) and to leave them in Mollieland longer (!!), and my friend gets to slowly peruse all the types of cheese, and maybe even sit down and have a salad from the superbly appointed salad bar, in total, blessed silence. There’s a Peet’s coffee too.

Since I regularly find odd items in my cart due to my daughter’s sticky fingers, or my own distractedness, see you there.

Mollie Stone’s Market is located at the Bayhill Shopping Center, 851 Cherry Ave. (at Bayhill Dr.), San Bruno. Call 650-873-8075 or visit molliestones.com. There is another Mollieland at the San Mateo location, 49 42nd Ave. (at El Camino Real) but none in San Francisco. Hey, Mollie Stone’s: Where is the love?

Cinemark’s Summer Movie Clubhouse, ten weeks of bargain-basement-cheap film showings for kids, is probably an easier sell in cities where it’s actually hot in the summer. No one weathering a San Fran summer is dying to spend a couple of hours in an air-conditioned theater…although at least it’ll keep you off those windy playgrounds.

The weekly special engagements are $1 a throw or $5 for a card good for all showings, and take place at several Bay Area theaters, including San Francisco’s CineArts @ Empire in the West Portal. All of the screenings are revivals, a treat in a summer when the new kids’ movies all look like crap. The first movie is Annie. Just try to leave without getting It’s The Hard-Knock Life stuck in your head.

When: Tue., 6/17, 10am; All Ages; Free.

Where: CineArts @ Empire, 85 West Portal Ave. (at Vincente), San Francisco, 1-800-FANDANG, theater number 963, cinemark.com.

San Franciscans with fond memories of Playland at the Beach (or who just get a thrill out of circusy old San Francisco) will no doubt want to make a trek to the brand-spanking-new museum, Playland-Not-at-the-Beach.

The El Cerrito museum pulls together artifacts from many private collections including that of proprietor Richard Tuck, who rescued many curios from the garages of original Playland neighbors. Highlights include fascinating historical photographs, exhibits spotlighting circus sideshow acts like the Fiji Mermaid, vintage movies of Playland and the Sutro baths, sculptures of Playland’s coasters, and other weird and wonderful stuff, like a miniature circus diorama that took 50 years to carve. Playland also has a room full of creaky old pinball/arcade machines, all free with the price of admission so you needn’t play quarter-dispensing machine for your children.

One more thing Playland-Not-at-the-Beach has — its very own Laughing Sal. But wait (you may be asking yourself, as I did)–isn’t Laughing Sal currently terrifying children at the Musee Mechanique? Ah, it turns out that Playland at the Beach’s Laughing Sal was only one of many. There’s another one at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Who cares about authenticity, anyway? Laughing Sal laughs and stares at you with her dead soulless eyes as your frightened children cling to you. What more could you want?

Like a preview? SFGate has a nice video of the place.

Playland-Not-at-the-Beach is located at 10979 San Pablo Avenue in El Cerrito, and is open by appointment only, Saturdays from 10am-5pm, and some Sundays. Admission is $5. To make a reservation for a visit, call 510- 232-4264 ext. #25 or visit playland-not-at-the-beach.org.

Along with meals in white-tablecloth restaurants and morning sex, you can wave goodbye to going to grownup movies once you spawn. Bringing a tot, even a quiet and tiny one, into a film guarantees almost as many glares as breastfeeding a three-year-old on a Muni bus.

So why not frequent one of the many baby-friendly movie showings in San Francisco? Great! Except, there aren’t any. The Red Vic discontinued its Bring Your Own Baby monthly showings (lack of attendance) and the Metreon shut down its weekly Reel Moms screenings. Things got so bad I personally resorted to attending preschool film events at the public libraries.

But I won’t need to watch those wavery filmstrips anymore, now that the Vogue Theatre has launched its Tuesday Baby Matinee series, a film fiesta for parents/caregivers and their young monkeys. Thankfully, they have avoided the Metreon’s mistake and are programming gentle adult fare instead of kids’ movies (which you can go to anyway, am I right?). The lights are raised, the sound is lowered, and no one’s going to give you the stink eye if your baby bursts into hysterics just as Patrick Dempsey lays one on Michelle Monaghan (oh, is that a spoiler? My bad). There’s not much room for strollers inside the theater so leave them at home if you can; or use the hourly parking at the JCC around the corner at California and Presidio and leave the stroller in the trunk. You bring the Junior Mints and I’ll share my Boudreaux’s Butt Paste.

When: Tue., 5/13, 11am; All Ages; Adults $7.50, Kids under 2 free.

Where: Vogue Theatre, 3290 Sacramento (at Presidio), San Francisco, 415-346-2274, Voguesf.com.

Outdoor festivals abound, but if you’re not at the Maker Faire, you’re so square.

Maker Faire

There’s one event this weekend that should have been red-circled on your calendar for months: Make magazine’s Maker Faire. The family-friendly weekend-long San Mateo conference is intended for creative weirdo types: sculptors, knitters, robot makers, and the like. Ideally you’ll be there all weekend enjoying the exhibitions, workshops, and vendor booths, but particularly appealing to kids will be the the Life-Size Mousetrap, the Bike Rodeo and Power Tool Drag Racing, while parents should make sure to attend Saturday’s lunchtime lecture, Five Dangerous Things Your Kids Should Do. In between, make sure to get a good viewing spot for the Diet-Coke-and-Mentos Fountain (going off at 4pm daily), listen to live music, stroll around the Expo Red kids area, and bring some discarded wearables for the Swap-o-Rama-Rama (plus a bag to carry the new clothes you scoop up).

When: Sat., 5/3, 10am-10pm; Sun., 5/4, 11am-6pm; All ages; Free-$25 daily.

Where: San Mateo Event Center & Expo Address, 2495 South Delaware St. (at Concar), San Mateo, makerfaire.com.

Cinco de Mayo Celebration

Everybody’s Mexican today at the Cinco de Mayo celebration in Dolores Park. Bring a blanket, spread on some sunscreen, and watch performances from Latin music and dance troupes.

When: Sat., 5/3, 10am-4pm; All ages; Free.

Where: Dolores Park, 18th St. (at Dolores), San Francisco, 415-647-1533, sfcincodemayo.com.

“See Me” Let’s Go!

This free city-sponsored party is gentle fun for the little ones: bounce houses, face-painting, puppet shows, storytelling, live music. UCSF doctors and dentists will also be there to do on-the-spot health and developmental screenings.

When: Sat., 5/3, 11am-3pm; All ages; Free.

Where: Civic Center Plaza across from City Hall, Polk (between McAllister and Grove), San Francisco, 415-934-4849, first5sf.org.

Stay Tooned, Kids!

Offbeat animated offerings for sophisticated cinephile kids. Short films screened during this San Francisco International Film Festival event include “When I Grow Up,” illustrated conversations with children about their dreams.

When: Sun, 5/4, 10:15am; Age 7+; $10-12.50.

Where: Sundance Kabuki Cinema, 181 Post (at Fillmore), San Francisco, 925-866-9559, fest08.sffs.org.

Holy moley, it’s already the end of April. Did you plan to let your kid hang around the house all summer, starting fires and eating handfuls of Cap’n Crunch? No? Then you’re going to have to figure out what to do with the little darlings, and your best friend in this endeavor is the monthly Bay Area Parent magazine, which publishes a mammoth, essential Summer Survival Guide each springtime. Every blessed page of it is online, so you don’t have to go scouting for it at libraries or grocery stores. Just about every article is clip-and-save worthy: primers on local ballparks, beaches and pools, calendars of local outdoor concerts, spotlights on unusual summer camps. Fire up your printer, drag out your calendar, and schedule yourself an unforgettable summer.

Yeah, I thought it was a great idea to rent The Secret of Nimh for my sensitive two-year-old daughter. Talking animals! What could go wrong? Cue dark-and-creepy scenes of lab rats being experimented on…and she watched the rest of the movie from my lap.

Why oh why didn’t I consult Commonsense Media before I rented? The San Francisco-based organization runs a sort of Consumer Reports for kid media, and would have told me that The Secret of Nimh contains animal-torture scenes. I will never again rent my kid a video, buy a game, or watch a TV show without checking Commonsense Media’s highly specific, darned high-quality reviews. In fact, I may stick to their lists of recommended media picks. Let’s see, I’ll start with Smart Movie Girls and then move on to Best Movie Moms…