Posts Tagged ‘golden gate park’

Outdoor festivals or indoor science fun: your choice.

Life Is Good Festival

Kid-focused festival features live music (Sippy Cups!), art activities, and old-fashioned games like badminton and tug o’ wars.

When: Sat., 5/16, 11am-5pm; All ages; Free.

Where: Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park, John F. Kennedy Drive (at Crossover/Transverse Drive), San Francisco; lifeisgood.com.

Kids ‘n Kites Festival

Look! Up in the sky! It’s a cat! It’s a whale! It’s a bunch of kites for kids to fly or just watch. There’ll be food, art activities, and free kites too.

When: Sat., 5/16, 11am-4pm; All ages; Free.

Where: Central Park Softball Complex, 40500 Paseo Padre Parkway, Fremont;  510-790-5541; fremont.gov.

The Science of Ice Cream & Chocolate

Learn the scientific principles behind the making of these two favorite treats. Hands-on science activities are bookended by tastings from Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream and Ghiradelli Chocolates.

When: Sat., 5/16, 11am-2pm; Age 4+; $5-8.

Where: The Junior Center, 558 Bellevue Avenue, Lakeside Park, Oakland; 510-839-5777; juniorcenter.org.

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.

There are a lot of upscale playgrounds in San Francisco, with murals and spiffy new play equipment and water features, and you probably have a few favorites. But what you need in an everyday playground is a little more basic: places to sit in the sun and/or the shade, easy access to a toilet and water fountain, plenty of space to play, a decent play structure that’s neither splintery nor covered with obscene graffiti.

The often-overlooked Panhandle Playground at Masonic Street between Oak and Fell Streets in the Golden Gate Park Panhandle is just the kind of place you might adopt as your go-to playground, particularly if you have a small child. It has a nearby bathroom that’s surprisingly clean, a low-to-the-ground water fountain in the enclosed playground space, gates that are difficult for escape-minded young kids to open, and long rows of benches for caregivers. The playground was thoughtfully designed, with benches surrounding the play space and giving parents a clear line of sight into practically every area. Or, in other words, you can safely sit on your butt and have a cell-phone conversation, maybe even flip through a magazine, while half-watching your children amusing themselves on the wooden play structure or in the sand. Just try that at nearby Golden Gate Park children’s playground, where your child can be lost in the vast play expanse in seconds, leaving you anxiously tracking him under slides and around swings. Nuts to that. Come and have a gossip with me at the Panhandle Park instead.

Oh sure, we all want the kids to be groovy and creative, preferably in a manner that does not leave the cracks of your hardwood floors permanently encrusted with glitter. But it can be frustrating to make a commitment to a regular series of classes, especially for the younger ones. Do you really want to drag your temperamental two-year-old to class every single week?

A better option may be the drop-in art classes for kids age 3-10 each Sunday in Sharon Art Studio in Golden Gate Park. For a mere $5, young artists can experiment with different materials — cloth, clay, paint — and techniques — print-making, kite construction, sculpture.

A wonderful thing about this class is that it doesn’t require pre-registration like most Rec. & Park classes, a pain-in-the-butt process in which you must submit proof of a child’s age (school records, a birth certificate) in person at specific park locations.

Come by the Sharon Art Studio (directly next to Golden Gate Park’s children’s playground, MLK at Bowling Green Drive) at 10am or 11:30am each Sunday for the hour-long class. Call 415-753-7004 or visit sharonartstudio.org.

If you enjoy the drop-in thing, there are also regular drop-in arts classes for young children aged 18 months to 5 years at Precita Eyes (Mon.-Thu., 10:30-11:30am, precitaeyes.org), free all-ages family painting classes at the Red Poppy Art House (Saturdays, 1-4 pm, redpoppyarthouse.org), and family ceramics at the Randall Museum (Saturdays, 10:30am, randallmuseum.org) for parents and kids age 3 and up.

And hey, if you go to the Sharon Art Studio, don’t forget to ride the carousel!

If you haven’t found an excuse to visit the sparkling, magical Golden Gate Park children’s playground yet (and you should find one ASAP because this is the cutest playground in S.F.), here it is: starting today, the vintage Herschel-Spillman carousel is open every day until Labor Day.

Whirling around under the round ceiling on a gorgeously painted horse, pig, or chicken while the creaky band organ plays and the bored attendee plays with his Game Boy…this is what childhood memories are made of. And at just $1.50 a ride for adults, 50 cents for kids aged 6-12, and kids under aged five riding free, it’s a shockingly affordable sweet memory.

The carousel is open 10am-4:30pm every day and is located right beside the children’s playground, MLK at Bowling Green Drive in Golden Gate Park. Don’t forget to bring extra clothes for little kids as the playground’s water feature is a guaranteed soaker. You may also want to carry along porta-potties for the newly potty-trained, as the nearest restrooms are a bit of a hike. Questions? Call (415) 831-2700.