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

Christmas in June

by bonggamom

June 25, 2009

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It's hot, hot, hot, and the weekend is all set to be hotter still.  Families everywhere could sure use a nice, cold snowfall -- and this weekend, you can experience the next best thing.  Disney's A Christmas Carol Train is making a stop at Middle Harbor Shoreline Park in Oakland this weekend.  From 9:00am - 7:00pm on Friday and Saturday, and 9:00am-4:00pm on Sunday, the train is making a cross-country tour to promote  Disney's A Christmas Carol, set to open in November 2009.  

Disney is certainly pulling out all the stops (including whistle stops) for this movie.  The fun will start for your little one as soon as you arrive at the train station, which will be decked out for the holidays with holiday decorations and snow.  Ahhh, the thought of a huge pile of snow in the summertime, like a gigantic snowcone, certainly inspires lots of merry thoughts.  And if that's not enough to get you into the holiday spirit, wait till you see and hear old-fashioned carolers (and thank your lucky stars that you're all wearing tank tops and shorts instead of those stuffy Victorian outfits).   And of course, your little train lovers will enjoy looking at the train itself --  four custom-designed vintage rail cars,  full of behind-the-scenes attractions, entertainimg demonstrations, and fun activities.  

The inside of the train promises to be just as interesting as the outside.  It will feature beautiful displays from the Charles Dickens Museum and from the movie itself (concept art, models, costumes, etc..) and interactive exhibits (don't miss the face-morphing booth).  At every station, they'll be setting up makeshift theaters to provide guests with some great movie viewing opportunities (a Behind-the-Scenes look at the making of the movie, as well as a 3D sneak peek of the movie itself).  

Check out the latest details about tour stops and scheduled events at www.christmascaroltraintour.com

Car Racing with Little Ones

by bonggamom

June 23, 2009

For today's post, I was planning to take my cue from our national Being Savvy blog's focus on summer road trips, and write about what to pack when going car camping with the little ones.  But we have just returned from a weekend of watching NASCAR racing at the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, which, of course, my preschool boys totally lapped up (get it -- lap, racing?  ha ha).  There are still lots of racing events at the Infineon Raceway scheduled this summer (we'll probably be back for the drag racing in July), so I thought save the Car Camping post and talk about packing for Car Racing instead.  If you have preschoolers who would like nothing better than to see cars zooming around a racetrack (and getting to sit in them at the displays outside the grandstand), here are five things you definitely have to pack for the races:

1)  A sweater.  It doesn't cost anything to throw a sweater in the car, and the past two times we've been to this raceway we've ended up shivering all day because the breeze wouldn't stop blowing.  Learn from our mistakes!

2)  Drinks.  You'll need to hydrate frequently because shade is hard to come by here, and it's highly likely that the sun will be beating down on you for most of the day.  You can buy drinks from vendors, but a bottle of water costs $4 and lemonade costs $6.  Enough said.

3)  A hat and sunscreen. Said sun and lack of shade means your little ones' smooth, delicate skin will get quite a bit of exposure, so cover them up as best as you can.

4)  Earplugs.  Dozens of high-performance cars zooming round and round a track.... it's deafening!  The noise can be quite unsettling for young children, and can damage their eardrums.  Talke along some child-sized earplugs (which can be purchased at drugstores).  If you forget, a wad of tissue paper will certainly help them be more comfortable.

5)  Toys.  You probably already know that you should always pack a couple of small toys just in case your child decides he's had enough.  But I thought I'd remind you.

Pint-Sized History Lessons: The USS Hornet

by bonggamom

March 23, 2009

Like most little boys (and many little girls), my sons often dream of soaring up in the skies in a jet plane.  They let their imaginations take flight with nothing but a plastic airplane and visions of dogfights, 360-degree loop-the-loops, and landing their planes on a huge aircraft carrier at sea. 

Fortunately for them, and for all other pint-sized fighter pilots in Silicon Valley, we've got a real aircraft carrier moored just a hop, skip and a jump away:  the USS Hornet.   It was once a working vessel and participated in World War II, the Vietnam War, and the first manned space mission, Apollo 11.  A national treasure, it's now peacefully moored at historic Alameda Point on the San Francisco Bay, and is a museum open to the public.

Last weekend we took our three kids there and they had a blast.  From the moment we drove up beside the gigantic vessel and boarded her gangplank, their jaws dropped and stayed that way for the next three hours.   The huge aircraft hangar is filled with various warplanes, helicopters and exhibits related to the Apollo 11 mission.  There's also a flight simulator where, for an extra $6, you can hop into a flight simulator and pretend you're flying an F-15 over land and sea.

Much of the ship is open to visitors; some areas require joining a guided tour.  It's free with admission, but it's a 45-minute tour and it does get techinical, so it may be difficult for preschoolers to follow.   Popular explore-on-your-own areas include the rooms where officers and crew ate, played, worked and slept.  Our kids were delighted at the sight of rows and rows of uncomfortable-looking bunk beds in the crew's quarters; they didn't like the small jail cells in the brig quite so much!  The whole place is run by volunteers who know the history of the vessel inside out.  Many served on similar aircraft carriers -- and all of them are more than happy to regale you with tales of life at sea. 

Unfortunately, we got there too late to experience one of the highlights of the museum: the "fighter jet elevator".  Every 3rd Saturday of the month is Living Ship Day, when visitors get to experience the aircraft carrier "in action":  meet former crew, participate in "mission briefings", and sit in the cockpit of a fighter jet.   Best of all, visitors get to stand on alongside a fighter jet and hitch a ride on their "aircraft elevator", as it is lifted from the lower hangar decks onto the flight deck and placed into launch position.  We arrived just as the elevator was making its last trip, so if you want to avoid looks of disappointment on your little ones' faces, make sure you get there before 2PM .  Then again, the whole experience is extremely noisy, so if your little one is sensitive to noise, you may want to avoid it altogether.  No worries -- whether you catch that elevator or not, there's certainly enough to experience at the USS Hornet to feed your child's sense of history, and fuel his imagination, for many fantasies to come.

Before Kindergarten....

by Shawn Burns

January 27, 2009

I have three and a half years. Three and a half years until my daughter starts kindergarten. In days that's over 1300. Minus the weekends that leaves about 950. 950 weekdays until there are no more weekdays. Until all of what used to be our days become school days, days apart. So. Time to start planning. What shall we do with our precious time? What ought we do? What can we not  Read more...

List Day: Consumable Gifts

by Shawn Burns

December 16, 2008

Today on Savvy Source we're talking about "consumable" gifts. Not "gifts you can eat" but gifts that you use up, like gift certificates and memberships. My favorite gifts as a kid were always bookstore gift certificates, and I think my post-Christmas Certificate-Shopping-Spree kept the local bookstores in business through March. But not everyone is like the nerdy kid I was (am?), so  Read more...

Toys we can't get enough of

by Bonggamom

December 09, 2008

My preschooler's Christmas wish list looks awfully a lot like the one they had last year. That's because their favorite toys are the ones that grow with them. The ones that work with their existing collection; we can just keep adding to them. The ones they can play with again and again, day after day, because these toys are powered by their imagination, which kids have in limitless supply. The  Read more...

Weekend Outlook: December 5th-7th

by Shawn Burns

December 03, 2008

Even if you aren't going to be participating in or enjoying any of the activities and events I talked about yesterday you can still have a great time with your kid(s) this weekend around the Peninsula. And for the sake of variety this will be a concert/theater-free Weekend Outlook. I know you must be played out (that's kind of a pun). This Friday from 3-4pm is the first in Hidden  Read more...

List Day: Holiday Traditions

by Shawn Burns

December 02, 2008

I'm a new-ish Holiday Dad, and this year marks my first real opportunity to immerse my daughter in the local holiday celebrations and know that she'll get something out of it. Of course there are holiday events all up and down the Peninsula and in the Silicon Valley this month, but for today's List Day at Savvy Source we are charged with presenting a list of local traditions, and not  Read more...

List Day: Holiday Traditions

by Shawn Burns

December 02, 2008

I'm a new-ish Holiday Dad, and this year marks my first real opportunity to immerse my daughter in the local holiday celebrations and know that she'll get something out of it. Of course there are holiday events all up and down the Peninsula and in the Silicon Valley this month, but for today's List Day at Savvy Source we are charged with presenting a list of local traditions, and not  Read more...

Weekend Outlook: November 21-23

by Shawn Burns

November 19, 2008

This weekend, like last weekend, seems to be full of stage productions geared toward kids. I didn't really want to list a bunch of plays again but I just can't help it because the ones I came across look too cute/fantastic/strange to just ignore. Also, this month at Savvy Source our focus is on Books and Stories, and although storytimes are great to go to (and I include a unique one  Read more...

Park Day: Discovery Meadow

by Shawn Burns

November 10, 2008

This weekend we took our little girl down to San Jose to the Children's Discovery Museum . But this post isn't about the CDM . While we were waiting for the doors to open (because we were there an hour early because we were stupid and were fooled by Daylight Savings Time) we took full advantage of what lies right outside the CDM: Guadalupe River Park's Discovery Meadow . It's not a  Read more...

Extra-pre-school Activities

by Shawn Burns

June 17, 2008

'Tis Tuesday, and Tuesdays around here are List Days. Today our List assignment is to help all of you parents-of-preschoolers find some things for your youngins to do once pre-school ends for the day (or before pre-school starts, or once pre-school is over for the year). Erin is not yet in pre-school, but now that I've been able to think about this for a while I've compiled a list of  Read more...

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

by Shawn Burns

May 23, 2008

Erin loves the train. This is a deep affection, born of many trips down to the CalTrain station in Menlo Park, bodes well for a future filled with moving parts, engines, and wheels. And although a the moment she is only excited by trains whizzing by, I can tell she is growing fascinated with cars and trucks. Soon her fascination with all things mobile will grow to envelope aerial autos: planes  Read more...