Preschool

The weekends are nonstop family time, but Mondays tend to be a bit of a drag. Daddy and/or Mommy goes back to work, the weekday grind starts up, the party stops. Walnut Creek’s Lindsay Wildlife Museum’s Monday Meanderings program is the answer to those Monday morning blahs, a weekly 45-minute walk for kids aged 2-5 and their parents. Walkers meet a naturalist at an outdoor location about 20 minutes from the museum (meeting locations are sent out by email prior to the class), and take a walk to learn about the animals and plants in the area.

There are two sessions: from 10-10:45am and 11-11:45am, and only a few Monday Meanderings left before the end of May and summer programming starts up at the museum. So hurry on out to all the remaining Monday Meanderings and maybe Lindsay will offer the program again in the fall. Anything to entertain a preschooler on a Monday.

Monday Meanderings are $10 per session for non-members; call 925-935-1978 or visit wildlife-museum.org.

There’s a brief moment of time in each child’s life before he’s ready for preschool, but already seems to crave some kind of regular playtime with other kids. If you happen to live in or near the Montclair neighborhood of Oakland, the Montclair Community Play Center is Johnny-on-the-spot for those pre-preschool times. Starting at age 18 months, the MCPC has daily “toddler playtime” classes for kids up to 36 months. Caregivers attend with the child, and each day there’s music, snack, messy art projects, and circle time.

Starting at age 2.5 (and continuing through age 5.5), there are also drop-off summer camps that resemble short preschool days; a fine option for kids who haven’t yet gone to school or whose schools don’t have summer programs. You wanted to know what you were going to do with Junior all day during the summer, right? Considering that most summer camps start at age 6 at the very earliest, the MCPC is a valuable gap-filler for parents left in the lurch when school lets out.

Montclair Community Play Center is located at 5815 Thornhill Drive (at Grisborne Avenue), Oakland; call 510-810-0510 or visit mcpckids.org.

Spaces are still available in the super-popular San Francisco Zoo day camps, set to run April 6-10 and April 13-17, during Bay Area school vacations, natch. The buzz on the camps is that little campers are led on adventurous walks to meet the different animals; they get a very intimate view and learn about their care and habitat from zookeepers. The springtime camp is particularly sweet, as that’s when the baby animals are born, and kids can marvel over nests and tiny, floppy baby paws. Then there are animal crafts and activities, and vigorous games. Kids seem to go crazy over it all, which is why the camps sell out every season.

For pre-K and kindergarten-aged kids (age 4 and up), the day runs from 9am until noon; kids in first through fourth grades come at 9am and hang around until 4pm. Early drop-offs (8am) are available for both sets of campers; the older group can also be picked up late at 5pm.

If you want to sign your child up, better hurry because once the camps are sold out, that’s it until summertime.

Call 415-753-7073, email zoocamp@sfzoo.org, or visit sfzoo.org.

It’s not a street fair without a bounce house for kids to exhaust themselves in, and many’s the parent who is happy to walk up and see one, knowing that Junior’s sure to take a nap today. But outside of said street fairs, and the most luxurious kinds of birthday parties, bounce houses are a rare sighting. They’re kind of a pain to keep inflated, and supervised, after all. But the Presidio YMCA seems to manage it, three mornings a week.

At the Y’s Jungle Gym program, kids age 1-5 are set free to tumble across the facility’s big, padded mats, crawl through tunnels, or jump wildly in the Moon Bounce that’s almost always set up. There are balance beams for small daredevils, bikes and space to ride them in, and arts and crafts activities for the kids who get tired. Parents supervise and participate, and there are staff members about to provide advice on equipment and lead activities.

The Jungle Gym is a great way for pre-preschoolers to get their ya ya’s out, particularly on rainy days, and all the equipment might inspire you to play, too. No grownups in the bounce house, though.

Jungle Gym takes place each Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, 10:30am-noon at the Letterman Gym at the Presidio YMCA, 1152 Gorgas Avenue (at Marina Boulevard), in the Presidio, San Francisco. Call 415-447-9680 or visit ymcasf.org.

Berkeley children’s museum Habitot is a tiny little place: and that’s not a criticism. Though it has nice facilities, including an art room, a room set up like a supermarket for pretend shopping, a cushioned faux garden for crawlers, a dress up area, and a water-play space, it just can’t compare with bigger museums like the Exploratorium and the Bay Area Discovery Museum. And that’s just fine, because at those places you end up trailing your child like a tick, wearily standing as he zooms from spot to spot, or losing him in the chaos. Habitot is perfect for parents who want a place they can sit down and kibbitz while children amuse themselves with wholesome arty/educational activities, staying within sight no matter where they roam. You can even bring multiple children–more kids than adults? No problem!

What Habitot most resembles is not a children’s museum, but a very well-equipped preschool. You may on first glance think your kid won’t want to go again after checking out the limited offerings, but every activity at Habitot is well-thought-out, deep and mesmerizing; children spend whole afternoons just washing babies at the water table, or navigating through the wiggle wall. In addition, each week there are special activities: a winter fair, say, with cold-weather games and art activities, or a salute to trains, and the staff is so talented and engaging that kids under 7 or so will want to visit, linger, and return.

There’s no cafe on site, but there’s a peanut-free snack room if you want to bring your own food. Parking in the area can be scarce, but there’s a garage right across the street that charges $5 for all-day parking.

Habitot Children’s Discovery Museum is located at 2065 Kittredge Street (at Shattuck Avenue), Berkeley. Call 510-647-1111 or visit habitot.org.

Got free time on a Tuesday? You’re in luck: Tuesday is the traditional storytime day for San Francisco libraries, which offer storytimes for kids of all ages, particularly the little ones. Here’s a partial list; for more, see sfpl.org.

All Ages

10:30am Main Library, 100 Larkin Street (at Grove Street), San Francisco, 415-557-4554

Age 0-3

10:15am Usually held at Noe Valley Library, but since it’s closed for renovations, programs are temporarily held at Bethany United Methodist Church, 1268 Sanchez (at the corner of Clipper and Sanchez), San Francisco, 415-695-5095

10:15am The Young and the Restless (for one-year-olds only), Presidio Branch, 3150 Sacramento Street (at Cherry Street), San Francisco, 415-355-2880

10:30am Glen Park Branch, 2825 Diamond Street (near Bosworth), San Francisco, 415-355-2858

10:30am West Portal Branch, 190 Lenox Way (at Ulloa Street), San Francisco, 415-355-2886.

Age 3-5

10:30am Anza Branch, 550 37th Avenue (at Anza Street), San Francisco,  415-355-5717

10:30am Ortega Branch, 3223 Ortega Street (at 39th Avenue), San Francisco, 415-355-5700

10:30am Portola Branch, 2450 San Bruno Avenue (at Silliman Street), San Francisco, 415-355-5660.

10:40am Western Addition Branch, 1550 Scott Street (at Geary Street), San Francisco, 415-355-5725

11am Usually held at Noe Valley Branch, but since it’s closed for renovations, programs are temporarily held at Bethany United Methodist Church, 1268 Sanchez (at the corner of Clipper and Sanchez), San Francisco, 415-695-5095

11am Ocean View Branch, 345 Randolph Street at Ramsell, San Francisco, 415-355-5615

If you’re looking for a preschool or daycare option for your young child, Savvy Source is a good starting point. The website, started by two moms who realized there was no comprehensive list of San Francisco preschools, provides basic information about scores of Bay Area schools, with a load of great basic information: the teacher-student ratio, educational philosophy, enrollment process, and the like. One particularly useful feature describes a day in the life of each school, which makes it easy to envision how your own child would fit in, or not.

Savvy Source’s star system of ratings is a bit less useful; since parents have to decide to review a school, there are plenty of schools that have no or few reviews at all. But the background detail is invaluable for parents trying to winnow out a few choices from hundreds. If nothing else, Savvy Source has contact information for all the schools on your list, information that you’d have to spent a lot of time Googling for.

The site also offers information on camps and classes, as well as coverage of other cities (New York, Dallas, Boston), but it’s the Bay Area part of the site that’s second to none, a resource to bookmark.

With the rainy winter days of late, there have been beautiful rainbows in the sky as the sun peeked out in the afternoon. Did you see them? Did you try to explain to your child what makes a rainbow? Did you make a real mess of it? Turn to the nature-savvy professionals at Coyote Point instead.

The next two Toddler Tuesday events are all about color, looking into such matters as why grass is (usually!) green, and flowers are not, why the water in the Bay looks blue by day and black by night, and why rainbows streak across the sky after rainstorms. In typical Toddler Tuesday style, investigations include crafts, learning activities, and a meet-and-greet with a live animal. Come early so you can poke around the museum (the re-arrangeable colored water bottles at kid-eye height are particularly fun for the very young ones).

Toddler Tuesday: Colors of the World takes place on Tuesday 1/13 and 1/27 at Coyote Point Museum, 1651 Coyote Point Drive (at Airport Boulevard), San Mateo. Kids age 2-5; $5 plus museum admission, free-$7. Call 650.342.7755 or visit coyoteptmuseum.org.

As the holiday season approaches, you may be thinking “What’s the perfect gift for a child whom I would like to warp?” What you will be requiring is one of the cuddly plush meat toys from Sweet Meats. Wouldn’t it be precious to watch Junior snuggling up to a hambone or a pork chop this Christmas? And why would you want to buy his big sister a baby doll or a teddy bear when a T-bone steak makes a so much more…interesting…security object?

It’s hard to tell from the picture, but the meaty plush toys are truly soft and cuddly, nice to handle and touch, with a soothing, high-quality weight to them. Designed by San Franciscan Lauren Venell, who had butchers on both sides of her family, the first Sweet Meat was originally just a one-off craft project. People liked her hambone so much that she decided to go into business.

Speaking of that hambone, it has one plastic button that makes it not recommended for pets or kids under 3. But Sweet Meats’ two other designs, the T-bone and the pork chop, are safe for infants and pets. Each Sweet Meat comes in a toy size (about 10 inches) and a pillow size (about 17 inches), and (tee hee!) can be gift-wrapped in white deli paper for an extra 50 cents.

All the Sweet Meats are made from recycled fleece, dyed with non-toxic colors, and manufactured under sweatshop-free conditions.

Available at sweet-meats.com.

One of the things that most freaks out parents whose children are cared for by nannies or daycare workers is the thought that someone else is teaching–or even worse, not teaching–their child etiquette. How can you be sure that Nanny frowns on talking with your mouth full, or that Eli will be corrected if he calls Noah a big, fat, stupid dingleberry on the playground?

Nannies and caregivers can learn the basics of teaching kids how to be polite and kindly at “Let’s Talk About Etiquette,” a 1.5 hour seminar presented by local etiquette academy It’s a Piece of Cake. This class is not intended to delve into the mysteries of oyster forks and finger bowls; instead, it’s a crash course on teaching manners to young ones: when to let someone else have the swing, how to behave on a playdate. Parents can tag along for instruction, but this class is intended for professional caregivers of children preschool age or younger.

Pre-registration is required; to sign yourself or your child’s caregiver up call 415-987-1946 or visit itsapieceofcake.net. The class is from 6:30 to 8pm tonight, 12/3, costs $35, and is held at 350 Townsend Street, Suite 316 (between 4th and 5th Streets) in San Francisco. Other sessions will take place in the spring if you miss tonight’s session.