Our annual gala event, Playdate 2008, and fund-raiser will be held Saturday, May 3rd. In addition to dinner and dancing, we hold a paddle auction of exquisite and exciting items!
Here are some of the featured packages:
The Ultimate Bubble Q: champagne barbeque and grill with tv chef Tyler Florence. We are excited to welcome Tyler and Tolan Florence!
Sea kayak in the San Juan Islands on a Family Multi-sport Vacation.
Our Director, Richard Winefield, was asked recently to testify before a government panel investigating options for funding American museums. He favors a competitive system of petitioning for funds, rather than an entitlement approach of alloted funds via government being distributed to organizations. Read his statement here.
What is your take? Tell us your perspectives if you wish to share them...
We're closed on Easter but don't let that keep you from having a family outing this Easter Weekend. Don't forget the camera!
SF Easter Parade & Spring Festival: A parade, games, ponies, face painting and the Easter Bunny can all be found on Union Street starting at 10 a.m on Sunday.
Easter at the Park Chalet: Egg Hunt, children's music and a delicious Sunday buffet brunch at the edge of Golden Gate Park.
Alice and Wonderland Spring Faire: Falkirk Cultural Center in Downtown San Rafael bring Alice and Wonderland alive, bring a picnic, easter eggs, see puppets shows, meet the characters and have fun this Saturday.
Easter Egg Hunt and Horses: Special needs outreach Miwok Livery Stables opens their doors for an egg hunt at noon in Mill Valley, Sunday.
Breakfast and Egg Hunts: Walnut Creek parks bring hunts and breakfast to families in the East Bay this Saturday.
Ardenwood Historic Farm: Eggs hunt and a parade at this beautiful farm house in Fremont on Saturday.
Also, check out a list of parks in Marin holding egg hunts here.
Give your child a disposable camera and take a walk around the neighborhood, mall or park.
Have them take pictures of different things, buildings and people. (Have your child ask permission before taking pictures of people).
At the end of the walk, talk about what you both saw and what your child took pictures of.
Get them developed and then use the pictures to create a picture book. Tape or glue each photo onto a piece of paper and help your child think up a story to go with all the images.
It's an activity that can be done with your child over the course of a weekend.
Or fish out some old pictures of your own and create a picture book of family memories!
Does your child love using a camera? Or being in front of it? Tell us an anecdote of your child and a camera...
Everyone is going "green" and looking for "organic" products these days. With foreign chemicals being found in everything, contamination being a scare among consumers and environmental concern growing each day, there is a growing interest in organic foods.
All you need is a food processor of any kind, a fork or a potato masher can work as well. Here are some easy tips for making your own organic baby food:
Steam, boil or bake the fruits and veggies to keep as many essential vitamins as possible.
Peel and Pit, take off the skins, seeds, and veins of the food.
No Seasonings, avoid adding salt or spices to the food.
Freeze and Save, use baggies or ice cube trays to portion and freeze foods for later use.
Cook throughly, for meat wash, clean and cook thoroughly before boiling and grinding.
Finding organic foods can be as easy as going to your farmer's markets. Making organic baby food is good for your baby and it's cheaper than buying the little jars of food. If you have a moment to make and freeze some organic baby food, I suggest you give it a try!
Also, here are some companies that sell organic baby food.
www.peasofmind.com - SF company that sells in stores all over the country
One of our most popular elements of the museum is the Willow Sculpture by Patrick Dougherty. His installation was meant to last about three years but the children loved it so much that we try to keep it maintained so that it will last as long as it can. Our staff maintains the maze throughout the year. This week we have closed off access to the Willow Sculpture and have undertaken the upkeep process.
Chip, Adam and Todd have been weaving in new willow into the old willow for the past few days. Though most of the sculpture is made of willow pieces, it is a living sculpture. Some of the willow has rooted to the ground and is growing as it stands.
With passage ways, windows and an open roof..it's easy for children to make believe they are in a whimsical woody secret forest. It's my favorite part of the Museum.
As Executive Director I have high hopes for being able to use our blog to get closer to our users, visitors & customers...you!
So, I'll start by bringing up one of our biggest "improvement opportunities"- our cafe. It serves good, healthy food, but at times the lines are long, and the cafe-experience may not be as pleasant as it could be.
What do you think of our cafe?
Add a comment to this post. It would be great if you could share your experiences with me, and maybe a suggestion or two for how we might improve it.
I never went to Summer Camp as a child. I had very protective parents and I have to say that I was a sheltered child. I wanted to go to the woods, sleep in a cabin and learn to shoot arrows! I don't think that actually happens at summer camps but it always did on TV and I learned everything I know about summer camps from The Parent Trap movie.
Summer Camps at the Museum seem a lot more interesting the movie. Here are some of the week long sessions we offer from June 16 - August 22.
Preschool - Art Dabbler, Treasure Hunt & House of Samba
3/4 Grade - Ecological Arts, Carpenter's Apprentice & Aerial Arts
That's not even all of them, click here for more info. There are no rickety bunk beds, nor swimming in a freezing cold lake, but there is a lot to learn and fun to have. I know I'd love to join some of these sessions. Sadly...I'm too big now.
If you’ve been to Studio 10 lately, you may have noticed a very different project taking place. You’ll find a carpeted area for working, a few tables covered in canvas for supplies and logs for sitting. Our more traditional materials of paper, glue sticks and scissors have been replaced with rocks, stumps, branches, acorns, pinecones and shells. Inspired by the work of guest artist, Zach Pine, this month’s project offers our visitors an opportunity to build, stack, balance and play with entirely natural materials.
Bruce Simon, the Director of Programs and Education, brought Zach Pine in to talk to our education staff about the benefits of working with nature. The concept for this project was to provide natural materials in an indoor setting for our visitors to build with and play with and leave for others to enjoy and reuse. This is unlike any other project we’ve done in the space, so we had a lot of questions on how it would actually work.
We began by collecting materials around our site. We weren’t sure what would be inspiring to kids at this point, but there was a lot of debris around after the recent storms and our exhibits crew began saving clippings for us. The discovery guides started gathering pine cones, Eucalyptus buttons, and leaves while they did their rounds in Look-out Cove. We also received a terrific donation of rocks from American Soil in San Rafael.
The thing that was most surprising to us is that kids ‘got it’ immediately. Kids like to build stuff. It’s a natural drive; they do it all the time. Providing materials and a place for building is all many kids need to get started. Others are a little timid about moving the pieces around, but after a little bit of mediation they often jump right in as w...
