Last week the kids and I had the incredible opportunity to check out
Zeum located in downtown San Francisco. Joy Daniels, the PR and Marketing manager of Zeum, invited us for a personal tour and, being the last week before school started, we gladly took her up on the offer.
First off, I can't believe I never knew about Zeum. It's a multimedia, art-integrated museum located just behind the Carousel. The Carousel, oddly enough, almost EVERYONE knows about. I did a little back-research on the place before I decided to take Alexi with me. A few people mentioned it was mostly geared for older kids. I also looked at the website and it seems that way as well, though it did mention a toddler zone. Well, just for the record, Alexi went and he had a blast!
We arrived and Joy met us at the entrance. We hit it off immediately, and I can honestly say I'd enjoy hanging out with her without the kids anytime! She was friendly and easy to talk to, and the conversation was fresh and engaging. She told me a lot about the museum and how it offers many cool programs including apprenticeships for high schoolers, birthday parties and field trips. The field trips sounded the most amazing to me! A professional educator collaborates with your teacher
before the field trip to create a visit that will integrate with the class' current curriculum or study theme. How cool is that?
The whole downstairs was completely "touchable" for Alexi and Matthew, my 8 year old. When we first rounded the corner there was a green screen play structure with slide (this is where Alexi spent the majority of his time). A special camera loaded with some nifty software superimposed my tot onto a computer screen of fiery flames...that'll teach him next time he misbehaves! Math ran in the other direction toward the nearest computer monitor and set to work. I didn't see him again for another 30 minutes. The whole downstairs floor was pretty open so I could see both kids as they ran around and explored the puppet theater, dress up station, and block building space. Matthew eventually set up shop in the Animators Studio and didn't come out for over an hour.
The Animators Studio was something most kids don't get to see or experience till their first year of film school. There were tables of tools and "gut clay," or trash clay, that Math used to flesh out his designs over wire frames. Then he was given more expensive, colored clay to "skin" his creations. Math decided to make a scary flying ghost so the animator assistant provided him with some fishing line (hey, they thought of everything). After he'd made his ghosts, he chose a set complete with model ghost house and backdrop. A mounted camera was connected to a computer with
iStopMotion software, which was pretty easy and intuitive to use. After some simple instructions he put together the short clip that's shown at the bottom of this post. They e-mailed me the clip before we left. All tolled the whole process took about an hour start to finish...and he was totally engrossed the whole time. Kid was on fire, he was so interested and excited!
There were a ton more things to explore at
Zeum (a music production lab where you can make your own rock video, a multimedia lab, and lots more). If we'd had the time (and Alexi hadn't hit his breaking point...you see, he needs to eat a lot) we'd have stayed another 3 million hours, I'm sure. While there were a lot of things for the big kids to do, I have to say, Alexi had his fair share of things to play with, too. I'm glad I brought him.
After we left the Zeum, we checked out their store (hey, it's hard to resist). We picked up some great birthday gifts for some upcoming parties that weekend. Then, as luck would have it, the
Metreon was right across the street. We had ourselves a wonderful lunch at our favorite Pizza joint, and then took a ride on the Carousel before heading home. In all, a very fun day in The City!
Lilith Park
The nicest thing about OSF is most of the actors in the company are down to earth, friendly, and typically live in town. Last year, we took the backstage tour and were guided by one of the leads from the show we saw the previous night! Matthew thought that was totally cool! We learned about how sets were designed, and how costumes are made. We even hung out in the green room, and learned more about life as a new actor!
Mark Bredard, our tour guide and principle actor
If you've ever been to Paxton Gate you know it's like a David Sedaris Wonderland Emporium. Seriously, they have some really weird stuff in there! But fascinating...
They also offer kid yoga classes in the back room Mondays 2-4. You need to enroll ahead of time with the instructor.
The Community School of Music and Art in Mountain View is by far the most amazing place! I signed Math up for a comic book drawing class last month and he's been digging it big time! The class has some classic components like learning basic anatomy drawing and pen and ink filling, but it's also very fun and laid back. Math is learning a lot, but having a blast all the while. I have a feeling we are going to be here a lot for the foreseeable future.
Learning the ropes
Inside the Anthropology Museum
I love collegiate gothic buildings
This is the kind a thing you see in college towns
I grew up in museums as a child. My dad was in the military so we traveled all over, and we lived in Europe for several years. We explored places like the Louvre (the Mona Lisa is tiny), the Palace of Versailles (almost got kicked out for sitting on some old chairs), perfume factories, glass blowing facilities, old castles, zoos, planetariums, art museums, natural history museums, science museums, the list went on and on...and my sister and I complained the WHOLE time. "This is BORING! We want to go home! Why did you bring us here??? We want to go to Disneyland!" And over and over they told us, "Someday you'll appreciate this, damnit!" So now, as a parent, I realize the value in what they were trying instill in their unwilling, wretched children: Art and history and exploration is COOL! And Disney World, while entertaining, doesn't even compare to the real thing...
The San Jose Museum of Art is a great kid resource in the south bay. It's not too big, they usually have a wide selection of different art mediums to look at, and the ticket admissions are more than reasonably priced. They also offer youth and summer programs that look like a lot of fun!
This is a well known hang out for parents of toddlers in the Bay Area. If you have a kid under the age of 5 you’ve probably been here, but it’s worth mentioning for the newly relocated.
Today we made the trek up to San Francisco proper to see de Young Fine Art Museum’s Chihuly installation exhibit. Dale Chihuly is a Tacoma, Washington glass blower who makes the most whimsically beautiful glass pieces I’ve ever seen. His work makes me think of something akin to a Dr. Seuss book, only better!
First we stopped at the Metreon to partake in my favorite wood-fired pizza at Firewood Cafe. I know the Metreon location is kindof a tourist destination, but I love their pizza, and the atmosphere is very kid friendly. The Castro location is also very kid friendly! Anyway, we ordered two Italian sausage pizzas, one pepperoni, and my sister ordered the turkey sandwich. We all were very pleased with our selections, but for me, the spicy olives are the best part.
Then we set off to de Young. We weren’t too smart with our planing. If I were to do it over again, I’ve have ordered tickets ahead of time using WillCall via Ticketmaster, but the show itself was fantastic! My older son (7) really enjoyed all the different ways the glass was molded into things he recognized (shells, flowers, etc), and my toddler liked all the brilliant colors. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to bring strollers into the exhibit. They had a free coat check, and I was thankful I remembered to bring my ring sling.
Math dancing with his cat
