Hey Kids! is a weekly feature looking at what’s coming up for families and kids of all ages.
“I have to run around in the open air all day, I have to sleep outside and, most of all, no showers,” I whined to the Husband on day two of our annual Memorial Day camping trip.
My 6 year-old boy Ernesto stared at me in disbelief for a handful of moments, his eyes at their widest when he exclaimed, “Mamma, but that’s exactly why camping is soooo great– I want us to stay here forever!”
So we did… well, it was only three days. But it felt like forever to me, the accidental camper.
We came home on Monday evening, my boy determined to become camper extraordinaire, and I set on finding enough amusement for him in our fair neighborhood that he will not give tents and sleeping bags a second thought until next Memorial Day.
Enjoy the first installment of my undertaking!
Urban Farming
Learn about gardening at the Alemany Farm community workdays. This great family activity is held every Saturday from noon to 5pm, as well as the 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month. I know it has made its appearances before in our column, yet I could not think of a more appropriate way to salute the bittersweetness of San Francisco summers!
Worth Crossing the Bridge
On Sundays in June at 11AM at The Marsh Berkeley, children of all ages can be thrilled by all kinds of extraordinary things, spinning flying saucer bubbles and fog filled square bubbles, all by the one and only Amazing Bubble Man.
Local Art Making: scribbles and doodles, noises and strums
MAPP (Mission Arts and Performance Project) is gifting Mission families with an evening of arts and performance around the neighborhood on Saturday from 5:30pm to sundown at Parque Niños Unidos. The Treat Commons Garden, at the corner of 23rd and Treat, will host GardenART featuring “nature sketching, artmaking, garden tours, exhibited works, and live music performances by soulstress Monica Fimbrez. Expect interactive discussions on gardening, food, urban farming, art and nature.”
Tonight at Southern Exposure, an artist run community, a participatory performance of Misha Glouberman’s Terrible Noises For Beautiful People is being held as I write. Probably not terribly suited for beautiful children, though the 6 weeks workshop that it launches might definitely be of interest for musically inclined and harmonically experimental teenagers.
Trading Instruments
If you have instruments or other music paraphernalia to sell or trade, head to Esperanza Gardens on Florida and 19th on Saturday, where the folks at Zambaleta are hosting a Musical Flea Market. A boon: attendees can use the Gardens’ wood burning oven to make pizza.
Honing Fine Motor Skills
The Bernal Heights Library will offer a class in the Japanese art of origami on Saturday 2-4pm. It is free and suited for children of all ages, thought parents must be in attendance for any kid under 8.