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

Pixar's Cars

by Michael Rohde

May 18, 2009

Like so many parents, we started out with a vow to keep our kids away from the television. And we did a very good job for two years. But then football season started, and the rain poured, and suddenly we discovered our kids really like watching “ball;” and apparently car and truck commercials are very entertaining. The occasional football game turned to PBS and next thing you know we are semi-regular viewers of Curious George, Clifford, Barney, Sesame Street, Word World, and Sid the Science Kid (who is my personal favorite right after Curious George). I do, however, try to avoid Caillou at all costs. I’m sorry to say it, but Caillou is one very whiny kid and I am not raising my kids in that fashion (we use our words and we do not cry and whine to get what we want).

Watching TV eventually lead us to DVDs. We started out with a collection of Barney DVDs, and a Learning Tree frog video, which teaches phonics. My kids liked that well enough until we popped in Pixar’s Cars, which brought everything else to a screeching halt. Now it’s all Cars all the time. And you know what? It’s a good movie. It’s a really good movie. I really don’t mind watching it for an hour in the morning while we get ready for the day.

You might think I’m stretching it a bit by saying this, but Cars is educational. My kids are learning more words watching Cars than they ever did from Barney. The one caveat there is that my daughter learned the word “wet” from watching Barney jump in the pool, but that’s a whole other story…

Here’s a list of names and words my kids have learned from watching Cars:

• Queen (as in Lighting McQueen)
• Jump (from the opening race sequence after Chick Hicks caused a wreck and ‘Queen has to jump over the wreckage)
• Cup (as in the Piston Cup)
• Frank (the not-so-scary tractor)
• Sally (Miss Sally)
• Race (car racing is very exciting)
• Fast (you know, cause thunder always follows lighting)
• Mac (one of the best scenes is watching Mac drive down the highway making funny faces in the reflection from other trucks)
• Cali (we’re still working on "Cali-for-nia" but Cali works for me)  

My ultimate goal is to teach them to say, "Ka-Chinga, Ka-Chinga," just for the cool factor alone.

Cars is kid-friendly, exciting, fast-paced, funny, very limited on the scary parts (which aren’t very scary after everyone learns Frank’s bark is worse than his bite), and educational.

Here’s a shout-out to all the great folks in Emeryville, CA working at Pixar. The Rohde’s are looking forward to the sequel!

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

99 Things to Do in San Francisco Before Kindergarten: The Full List

by Graham Charles

January 02, 2009

One of my great accomplishments last year was to finish this enormous list of things I think every San Francisco kid should do before the age of 6 or so. The range is vast and yet I'm sure I'm leaving quite a bit off, all the same. Since we originally posted in ten parts, I'm going to reprise the entire list here, complete with check boxes so you can keep track of your progress. (There's  Read more...

Savvy Insider: Tykes on Bikes Parade Sunday!

by Mike Adamick

June 25, 2008

If you're looking to join the Pride parade this weekend, the Bay Area Discovery Museum is hosting a Tykes on Bikes ride that is sure to be a perfect introduction to a great San Francisco event. Jennifer Caleshu, a spokeswoman for the museum, says kids and their parents will meet up by 10 a.m. on Spear Street between Mission and Howard and will be a part of the family friendly contingent that  Read more...