Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in san francisco, CA

Life is Good

by Michael Rohde

May 13, 2009

This Saturday there are first-time festivals at Golden Gate Park, sing alongs, street festivals, and carnivals. On Sunday, you can rest (speaking as the Dad of two-year old twins, comments like that are meant as sarcasm…there's no such thing as "resting" when you have two-year olds...).

Life is Good Festival
The first Life is Good festival is a free, family-friendly day in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park at Speedway Meadow on May 16, 2009 from 11am to 5 pm. The outdoor bash features great live music from ALO, Martin Sexton, and The Sippy Cups, classic backyard food, and a colorful mix of good-time games and activities for all ages. From seed spitting and badminton to soccer kicks, tug-o'-wars and football flings, they promise a day of big smiles and healthy play.

Dream Circle Spring Sing (Bay Area Discovery Museum)
Saturday, May 16, performances at 11am & 12:30 pm
Members $8; General $10
Tim Cain, Cindy Cohen, Miss Kitty and Cristopher Smith – all under one roof! Join BADM for a delightful sing-along concert with Marin’s best loved children’s entertainers. Kids of all ages will be delighted to raise their voices and sing some favorite songs with this incredibly talented foursome. Ballerinas will have a chance to pirouette and doggies will be called upon to hop up and down. There will be lots of dancing, clapping and tapping fun.

Asian Heritage Street Celebration
Saturday, May 16, 2009 from 11am to 6pm. Two stages of music, arts and crafts, food, prizes, karaoke, traditional and pop culture J cars, Thai kickboxing, carnival rides and games. Free admission.

Splish Splash Peabody Bash
Time to celebrate the arrival of Spring! Please join the Peabody school for a whale of a good time at their Carnival this Saturday from 11am to 3pm. They will have carnival games for children of all ages, a silent auction, a jumpy house, a rock climbing wall and a raffle for the adults with food and fun for all! The carnival takes place on the school yard at 250 7th Avenue, between California and Clement Streets. Don't want to mess with parking? No worries, take the 2 Clement, 1 California, 44 O'Shaugnessy or the 38 Geary bus lines.

If you missed it yesterday, there's still time to enter the contest to win tickets to see Sesame Street Live in June at the Oakland ORACLE Arena (details).

Class is in Session

by Graham Charles

January 09, 2009

There are many opinions about classes for preschoolers -- you know, those weekly hour-long affairs where your baby can try her hand at swimming, art, or any of a dozen other disciplines. We take a serial approach -- my daughter Fern takes just a class or two at a time. We also avoid any instructors with performance expectations, and believe me, they're rampant, especially among some ballet  Read more...

99 Things to Do In San Francisco Before Kindergarten, Part 10: Monthly Adventures

by Graham Charles

December 22, 2008

Finally we come to the bottom of our list of San Francisco treats -- those toddler hot spot and unmissable adventures that every local kid should experience before kindergarten. I've saved something a little different for the final installment: stuff we try to find time for every single month.  To me, raising a child isn't about providing rare points of high excitement to punctuate an  Read more...

Winter Book Reviews, part II

by Graham Charles

December 04, 2008

The Savvy Moms-in-Chief have asked us to take a look at some of our favorite books over in the Books section of the national site; here are my first five favorite books and what I had to say about them. Want more? Click on the "Books, Toys, and More" link above. Madeline , by Ludwig Bemelsman Madeline is a great role model -- a brave heroine who bends the rules just a little and then  Read more...

99 Things to Do In San Francisco Before Kindergarten, Part 7: How to Remember You're a Local

by Graham Charles

November 24, 2008

Sometimes having kids can make you forget what a truly unique place we live in, so for this week's installment I present ten things to do with your preschoolers and toddlers that make you feel authentically San Franciscan. 61. Visit Mission Dolores -- don't miss the cemetery -- and then head up Valencia for tapas. 62. Hike San Francisco's last wild stream - Islais Creek -- at Glen Canyon  Read more...

The Exploratorium for Toddlers

by Graham Charles

November 14, 2008

Now that the rainy season has befallen us so decisively, our thoughts as parents turn oxymoronically to indoor "outings." The Academy of Sciences is a gem when not crowded, of course, but I've been surprised at how many parents of young children ignore the Exploratorium. Many friends of toddlers I know have suggested that this hands-on science museum is targeted at reading kids of  Read more...

Noe Valley Library's guest sing-alongs

by Mike Adamick

July 28, 2008

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...

Kids music made awesome: Barenaked Ladies style

by Mike Adamick

July 15, 2008

Because this is apparently shaping up to be "buy stuff week" here at the Savvy, I thought I'd share what has to be the best news coming out of the children's music scene since Peter Yarrow and Leonard Lipton came up with a little dragon named Puff. Seriously, it's that good. The Barenaked Ladies have a children's music album now -- Snacktime. Strike that. It's a record "children will enjoy" --  Read more...

Littlest Moby: Street Percussion Opera

by Mike Adamick

May 30, 2008

The highlight of this budding experiment I call parenthood was when Emmeline broke out with the chorus from "American Pie" during what was supposed to be a lively rendition of Itsy Bitsy Spider. Music appreciation is something we both enjoy, even if her tastes skew slightly more '80s punk than her friends. (Tiffany is punk, right?) Thankfully, there are bountiful options in this city for  Read more...