Hey Kids! is a weekly feature looking at what’s coming up for families and kids of all ages.
Has summer really finally arrived? Will the good weather last this time for more than a few days?
I’m not holding my breath! This back-and-forth between temperatures and climate sort of mirrors my summer time interests: 1. get out there and do as much as possible, immediately (last weekend we went to the beach, made papier-mache fish and cooked up some strawberry jam, besides the usual swamped weekend-errand running and playground visiting), and 2. relaxing in the sun, reading a good book.
Borges said that he imagined Paradise would be a kind of library, and I agree. From the time I was the littlest child, some of my moments of deepest pleasure have been outdoors, in nature… reading. From The Very Hungry Caterpillar, to Best Friends for Frances, to Little House in the Big Woods, to Dear Mr. Henshaw, to A Wrinkle in Time, I still treasure those hours I whiled away in the sunshine, devouring a book.
Jasper’s not quite up to reading on his own yet, but perhaps this weekend I can read a book (okay, or just a magazine) while he runs through the grass at Dolores Park.
Truly Borgesian
The Mission Branch Library will be supporting three reading programs this summer. It all gets started with a Magic Show this Friday; the program continues for teens, adults, and kids at the library and online.
Friday, June 11, 3 pm. All Ages. Free. Mission Branch Library, 300 Bartlett @ 24th.
Near Books
The San Francisco Public Library’s “Water Your Imagination” summer craft program comes to Bernal this weekend; “wear old clothes”. Saturday, June 12, 1:30 – 3:00 pm. Ages 5-12. Free. Bernal Heights Branch Library, 500 Cortland Avenue.
Make Your Own
The San Francisco Center for the Book offers exhibitions, public events, and over 300 workshops a year promoting “traditional book arts and exploration of experimental book forms”. This week, send your bored teenager off to Letterpress Basics (June 14th, 6:30 pm. $380), or plan ahead and register for “Altered Children’s Board Book” (August 8, 10 am, $95) and “invent your own story”. More classes and registration details. San Francisco Center for the Book, 300 De Haro St @ 16th.
Make Your Own: Content
This weekend at SCRAP, learn Dorit Elisha’s collagraph technique emphasizing mixed media collage, found papers, and printing, and leave with your own hand-printed paper. Saturday, June 12, 1-4 pm. Ages 16 and up. $20, plus $5 materials fee. (415)-647-1746 for registration. SCRAP, 801 Toland St. @ Newcomb.
Pass-a-Long
What would you call a game of telephone played with books? Telegram? Book-o-gram? “A concert tour but with sketchbooks?” Join the Sketchbook Project and maybe make up your own term. $25 gets you a few hours of entertainment, some stories for the kids, and a place in the Brooklyn Art Museum; the sketchbooks will be exhibited in San Francisco in March 2011.
