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Friday, August 24

Fantastic Fridays featuring Breakfast with Enzo! Bring the kids to Crissy Field Center's Fantastic Fridays program featuring local tot idol Enzo for a regular Toddlerpalooza. Enzo plays a variety of instruments and has been wowing the preschool set for years with his fun and interactive music show. There are two shows at 10:00 and 11:00 am. The cost is $10 per child, accompanied by a parent or caregiver (stay as long as you like!) More info: www.parksconservancy.org

Enjoy Jazz & Blues by the Bay this Friday at Gabrielson Park in Sausalito from 6:30-8:00 pm. For more info, call (415) 289-4152.

Saturday, August 25

Once again, the Marin Symphony Family Concert will be taking place on Sunday, September 30 at 3:00 pm in the Marin Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium at Marin Center in San Rafael. The theme of this family-friendly concert is “Heroes and Villains”. The Marin Symphony’s Family Concerts are special one-hour programs designed to introduce children to the wonders of symphonic music. Narrated by KDFC radio’s Hoyt Smith, the concert features John Williams’ “Superman March”, Beethoven’s Wellington’s Victory, “The Queen of the Night Aria” from Mozart’s Magic Flute, and other pieces by Grieg, Holst, Stravinsky, Rossini and Handel.

Now that summer is almost over, I finally got a chance to take my kids to Wildcare located in downtown San Rafael. My son had been wanting go, because the Wildcare Nature Van showed up for a presentation at his preschool a few months ago. This unique place, located adjacent to Albert Park in San Rafael, is a small urban wildlife rehabilitation center for thousands of ill, injured, or orphaned wild animals from around the Bay Area. They also undertake wildlife and nature education and operate a 24-hour Living with Wildlife Hotline.

There are countless spectacular views in Marin and many of those views can be enjoyed on the many bike paths that the county has to offer. Growing up in Marin gave me the chance to try a lot of the different bike paths, and of course now I take my children to them as well. Most of the paths are mixed-use, and are appropriate for bikes, walking, big wheels, tricycles, strollers, and other kid-friendly conveyances.

Summer’s still here, and if you’re looking for fun and educational things to do with your kids during the month of August, then look no further than your local children’s museum. The Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito and the Habitot Children’s Museum in Berkeley are two of our favorites.

The Bay Area Discovery Museum offers a Special Summer Series that includes art, science and music workshops on Wednesdays at 2:00 pm for ages 4 and up.

August 1: Seaside Songs
August 8: Science by the Bay
August 15: Masterpieces, Summer Drawing Series
August 22: Prolific Puppetry

I rediscovered a wonderful scenic walking path a few weeks ago that is perfect for the babies in strollers or for kids on foot or on a bike. The starts at Creek Park, which is right across from Marin General Hospital. Parking can be a little tricky, depending on the time of the day, but it’s worth the trip. As soon as you get out of your car, you can’t miss the spectacular view of Mount Tamalpais. The nice wide bike path is great for strollers, and follows Corte Madera Creek. The creek has lots of birds, like egrets, blue herons, and black-crested night herons, as an assortment of ducks swimming around in the water, so there’s some nature involved for children to see. The path leads to the College of Marin and on into Ross if you follow it far enough.

My son recently told me that he wanted to try yoga, probably because I do a class here and there myself. I couldn’t find any kids’ classes that we could attend in town, but after a brief search online, I did come across YogaKids an award-winning series of DVDs from Gaiam.

The tiny Sonoma county hamlet of Duncan's Mills stands in for the battlefields of Virginia during the annual Civil War Days, this weekend, July 14 and 15. It's a great event for families, who are free to wander both the Federal and Confederate encampments and get a taste of what daily life was like in the 1860s. Battle reenactments are at 1 and 4 pm on Saturday, and 11 and 2 pm on Sunday. We've actually been to this event before (way back in the days Before Kids (B.K.) and it's pretty impressive. As a word of warning, it's probably not a great event for smaller children. It's noisy—muskets and cannon are LOUD, and of course there's simulated violence in the battles depicted. If your kids are sensitive to that sort of thing, or if you want to avoid the difficult questions about war and misery and death and all that bad stuff, then you may want to skip the battle parts. Offhand I'd say kids 4 and over would probably find it a lot of fun.

Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for kids 6–12, and free for kids under 6. Parking's an additional five bucks per car. For more information and directions, visit www.civilwardays.net. If you haven't been to Duncan's Mills, it's up along the Russian River on the way to Jenner in Sonoma County. Take 101 north to River Road in Santa Rosa, then head west on River Road and eventually you'll run into it.

The beloved and timeless tale of Peter Pan comes to life as Sharon Boucher brings 100 of Marin’s most talented children together to perform this magical tale. Watch Peter Pan fly with Wendy, John and Michael to Neverland as he encounters Captain Hook and the pesky pirate crew. The performances will be from Thursday, July 26 to Sunday, July 29, 2007 at the Showcase Theater at the Marin Center in San Rafael, so bring the entire family. The performance days and times are as follows:

7/26 Thursday: 7:30 pm
7/27 Friday: 7:30 pm
7/28 Saturday: 2 pm and 7:30 pm
7/29 Sunday: 1 pm and 5 pm

Prices are $16 in Advance and $19 at the door. For more info or to purchase tickets, go to their website or call the Marin Center Box Office at 415-499-6800.