Being Savvy: Activities, things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in San Francisco, CA

Fountain of Fun -- Yerba Buena Waterfalls

by Mike Adamick

My daughter is obsessed with puddles -- jumping in them, creating them, bringing them home in buckets and naming them Roger. (Seriously, kid, what's your deal?) And don't even get her started on fountains. If we're in a hurry and I see one, I have to cross the street to avoid it, otherwise we'll be stuck for a solid half hour.If you've got a water-obsessed toddler (see yesterday's post), the ... Read more >

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Room to Run Golden Gate Park Children's Playground

by Mike Adamick

I've said it before, and I'll say it again (seriously, you're going to get sick of it), but nothing wears out my kid like the children's playground in Golden Gate Park. If I need to ensure a solid nap in the afternoon (and who doesn't really?), I pack a load of extra clothes and a vat of sun screen and head for the park.From climbing walls to endless ladders, cement slides to slippery puddles, ... Read more >

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Cheap Treats: Exploratorium Free Days

by Mike Adamick

My friend Peter over at The Poop let everyone know about the free days on the first Wednesday of the month at the Exploratorium. Bad, bad move. That place is a zoo on free days!And yet ... it's still worth it. The Exploratorium is a gem. Even on the most crowded days when every hands-on exhibit is teeming with toddlers, you just know simply being there is educational enough for any child. From ... Read more >

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Planes, Trains and Sitting Quietly on MUNI

by Mike Adamick

We take the bus and trains quite a bit, whether we're on our way to playgroup or downtown to meet Emmeline's mom for lunch. And while most of the time the kid is more polite and accommodating than your average MUNI rider, there are times she acts, well, like a 2-year-old.Easy snacks. Illicit sips of milk. Books. These things help to an extent on our "off days," but nothing seems as sure fire as ... Read more >

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Free Museum Weekend! Chihuly at DeYoung

by Mike Adamick

My poor wife -- she plans a nice Father's Day weekend for us, and then I learn that Target has sponsored an entire free weekend at the DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park to commemorate the opening of the brand-new Chihuly exhibit. This is a tough one.If you've seen a Dale Chihuly exhibition before, you know this is a visual, sensory treat any child would go nuts over -- and any adult would also. ... Read more >

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Chopstick Bird Houses Make Takeout Fun

by Mike Adamick

Well, maybe not as fun as the sweet deliciousness that is garlic noodles with pan-seared shrimp, but still pretty fun -- and a whole lot more eco-friendly.OK, I am blatantly stealing this -- untested -- from Apartment Therapy, because while the idea looks fantastic for adults, I'm guessing it will be even better for kids. But it basically involves building a simple bird house from those ... Read more >

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Surviving Muni: Thank God for Pirate's Booty

by Mike Adamick

I wear a bracelet that my mother-in-law purchased from indians in a remote outpost of Panama, and every now and then my daughter will demand to take a turn with it. Unfortunately, it's tied on and can't be removed without breaking it. Thankfully, I found a great substitute that is A. pretty (relatively), B. healthy, and C. a great life-saver on long MUNI trips.If you've ever strung popcorn on a ... Read more >

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Giants Fan Lot Open All Year

by Mike Adamick

I'm a huge fan of baseball and rather militant anti-TV parent, but I do make an exception every now and then. But usually only when it comes to baseball. If the Giants are playing an afternoon game, I'll haul my daughter on the couch and try to teach her the finer points of the game. Which is to say, we both usually get a nice sun-warmed afternoon nap.Most of the Giants games are played right in ... Read more >

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Playground Resource: Golden Gate Mothers Group

by Mike Adamick

If you're going to be out and about in a new part of town and want to hit a playground along the way, the Golden Gate Mothers Group offers the best resource I've seen for the city's parks and playgrounds -- complete with brief explanations of what's available and photos, too. Plus there's a fantastic map for pin-pointing the parks.We find it very useful when we know we're going to be doing ... Read more >

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Noe Valley Library's guest sing-alongs

by Mike Adamick

We attended a movie screening for the book Knuffle Bunny at the Noe Valle branch library last week, and it was a ton of fun to see the favorite book come to life in an animated short. Emmeline loved it, and it seemed like every other kid there did, too.We also found out that this week -- tomorrow, in fact -- the Noe Valley branch will be hosting guest musician Bonnie Lockhart for a half hour of ... Read more >

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Savvy classic: The herb garden

by Mike Adamick

Dana and I both love to cool and we are slowly passing along some of our kitchen secrets to our daughter, Emmeline. One of those secrets is that I can't keep basil alive for the life of me. But I still try. And now Emme does, too.In a planter in the backyard, we installed some oregano, basil, mint and parsley and whenever we need something for a recipe, we send Emme out back to pick the correct ... Read more >

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Savvy Urban Hiker: The blackberries are back!

by Graham Charles

Time to send your kids into the underbrush again! Blackberries have been popping out on sunny hillsides since July, but now's the season for the fogberries: the super-tart smaller blackberries that didn't get quite as much sun as their midsummer cousins. There are dozens of little blackberry pockets around town; here are a few of my favorites: Mountain Lake Park in the Richmond. ... Read more >

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Savvy Weekender: Play in the street on Sunday!

by Graham Charles

My wife and I will encourage our two-year old, Fern, to play in the middle of the street this weekend, although to be fair, we're going to be very selective about which street. First priority, of course, will be the hula hoop contest south of Market, or maybe we'll run the bases at AT&T Park or else we'll be break dancing in Chinatown. All of the above, of course, are part of this ... Read more >

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Savvy Urban Hiker: Glen Canyon Park

by Graham Charles

For me, one of San Francisco's charms is that it continues to reveal hidden surprises even after I've lived here nearly 20 years. Glen Canyon Park rates as one of those surprises, a little trail along wild (if pokey) Islais Creek, right in the middle of town. Avid hiker though I was, I never even found this park until Fern, my 2-year old, started to get excited about hiking with me. About ... Read more >

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Parents Entertaining Parents in San Francisco

by Graham Charles

The list handed down from Savvy headquarters today is "things to do with other grownups, with or without kids in tow." I found this a tricky one to compile for a bunch of reasons, not least that I don't really know much about being a grownup. Still, I am very social, so I threw together five of my favorite San Francisco adult-oriented destinations -- no, we'd better call them ... Read more >

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Talk Like a Pirate While You Clean Up After Them

by Graham Charles

Can there be any more jam-packed weekend? First comes Talk Like a Pirate Day on Friday, September 19th, followed the very next day by International Coastal Cleanup. As residents of the peninsula that is San Francisco, it naturally falls to us both to care for our environment and be goofy within it, so this coincidence of scheduling is more than fortunate. Let's start with Friday's ... Read more >

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"It Takes Two": The Best Kid Activities to Do With a Friend

by Graham Charles

As soon as my two-year old daughter and I started going on outings with other kids, I realized that a two-adult, two-kid ratio is a hundred times less challenging than one to one. Even when there are three or four kids, having two adults around softens the corners of parenting stress immensely. This week's Savvy National list is "things to do that are more fun with a pal," which is ... Read more >

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Record a "Happy Birthday" Video

by Graham Charles

Fern has seven grandparents and a bucketful of uncles, aunts, cousins, and friends sprinkled around the country, so we do a lot of long-distance connecting. One fun way we've found to keep in touch is to record a video of Fern (and us, unfortunately) singing "Happy Birthday" to each relative. Luckily, this is very easily done, and there are several methods: If your computer has a ... Read more >

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Walking, Unafraid of Cars: John F. Kennedy Drive on Sundays

by Graham Charles

San Francisco is one of those unique cities where you can feel fully urban and still be surrounded by nature. We go to the beach or hiking in the Presidio so often that I frequently forget how some of our best walks aren't on the wild outskirts but right in the middle of town. Case in point: John F. Kennedy Drive, the main strip through Golden Gate Park. Every Sunday, it's closed to motor ... Read more >

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99 Things to Do In San Francisco Before Kindergarten, Part 3: Outdoor Adventures

by Graham Charles

Welcome back to our series on those unmissable things to do with your kids in San Francisco. As you'll remember, I'm splitting this enormous topic into thematic groups of ten. Last week I mentioned the ten museums large and small that you should enjoy in the pre-kindergarten years, and Mike started the whole thing off with the initial top ten. This week, I'm going outside to the top 10 outdoor ... Read more >

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Go-Go Dancing Penguins, and Other San Francisco Halloween Spots for Kids

by Graham Charles

Where to go on Halloween in San Francisco? Your best bet, of course, is your own neighborhood, but not every San Francisco region boasts the right climate for trick-or-treating with preschool-aged kids. Luckily, there are a few spots that consistently draw crowds of trick-or-treaters and gawkers -- and even if they're not right next door, they're worth the trip. By far my favorite is in ... Read more >

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Museumette: The Bay Model Visitor's Center

by Graham Charles

Continuing my series on the tiny and odd museums of San Francisco, we head north this week to Sausalito's Bay Model Visitor's Center. This quirky site was originally a working model -- it's a 1.5 acre indoor representation of the bay, filled with water to a couple of inches, that the Army Corps of Engineers used to image current and flow. The actual science has been replaced by computers, ... Read more >

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99 Things to Do In San Francisco Before Kindergarten, Part 4: Food!

by Graham Charles

San Francisco is a foodie town, so it makes sense that we should spend the first few years of our kids' lives indoctrinating them into our ways. For this installment of the San Francisco "top 99," I'm going to focus on some food experiences you should try to have with your preschool kids. I'm leaving out a thousand restaurants, of course -- feel free to school me down in the comments!31. ... Read more >

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San Francisco Stories: Where to Listen in The City

by Graham Charles

Listening to stories read aloud is such a ubiquitous part of childhood that it's easy to forget it's happening. Sure, we read to our 2-year old daughter Fern at naptime and bedtime, and probably at least once or twice a day besides, but it's like brushing her teeth: it fades into the background of our parenting tasks.Which is why it's nice to get out into the world and attend a public ... Read more >

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99 Things to Do In San Francisco Before Kindergarten, Part 5: Adventures

by Graham Charles

These not-to-be-missed activities could fit under one of the other categories, but even more, they all entail a sense of adventure, of your kids stretching a little farther than they think they can. Can a 5-year old really walk all the way across the Golden Gate Bridge and back? Possibly not, but then again -- possibly yes, and it's worth letting them try it.41. Walk across the Golden Gate ... Read more >

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