Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

A Summer Unstuck

“My kids are like druggies,” lamented my friend Nancy. “If you give them sugar or TV, they don’t want to stop.”

I sympathized. “I know what you mean about the TV. Between that and the computer and the video games, I feel like I’m engaged in the care and feeding of zombies. I’m seriously considering making this an electronics-free summer. Now I just have to figure out how to occupy them without spending much money.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

“If I tell them to go play, they refuse,” said Nancy. “I find I have to let them ‘discover’ things, so I do what I call ‘featuring.’ I’ll take most of the toys out of the play area and leave just a few. We’ve been reading Robin Hood, so I left out the dress-up clothes and things that fit with that. Or I’ll mix up uses for certain rooms — I just made the sun porch into an engine room, with a big table and lots of toy trains. Or I’ll move a blanket around the backyard — one day a picnic in one spot, the next book-reading somewhere else.”

Nancy’s kids are still pretty young; Sande’s run from six to teen. “Sometimes, my husband will set up a tent in the yard. We’ll grill something for dinner. The kids will play in the tent all day and then sleep in it at night. And of course, there’s always the beach. We like to go to Coronado in the late afternoon with a picnic dinner. And I know you want to avoid the TV, but if it’s really, really hot, I might turn on the air-conditioning and do an indoor movie marathon. I’ll play things like Belles on Their Toes, Cheaper by the Dozen. I make popcorn and give out some old movie-theater-type candy. It’s a great way to make kids game for old movies.”

Lissa suggested tweaking routines — “maybe going to a different grocery store — an Asian supermarket or an Italian deli store. I let the kids wander the aisles, pick out something to bring home and try. Last week, we decided to visit as many bakeries around San Diego as we could. I found New York Bakery in El Cajon [619-283-6886], where they had these anise-flavored S cookies that I used to get in Queens. The owners were so nice — they gave the kids S cookies and chatted with us, and we picked out napoleons and éclairs to bring home. It was exactly the New York bakery experience. Next, we’re heading to a Mexican bakery, and there’s a Cuban bakery we want to visit. You can learn a lot about a culture by chatting with the people who make it sweet.”

At home, Lissa loves games friendly to a broad age range. “We’ve played all-day marathons of ‘Settlers of Catan’ [$54.99 on Amazon] — you amass resources to build settlements.”

Monica was all about the free — for books, food, and fun. “Several of my kids’ reading really took off because of the library’s summer reading program,” she attested. I called my La Mesa branch. “This year’s theme is ‘Get Creative.’ It starts June 19 and runs through August 12. We have programs for birth through teens — and even one for adults. Kids receive prizes based on the number of hours they read — or number of books, for the little ones. They can also earn raffle tickets for a drawing — one of the prizes is a Nintendo DS. Throughout the week, we have crafts. You can register at your local branch or online.”

Joann Tucker at the San Diego Unified School District told me about their program, Summer Fun Café. It’s a free lunch program with no enrollment, no paperwork, and no conditions, “open to children from 2 to 18. You can find a list of schools and parks that offer it at www.sandi.net/food. Our big kickoff is on June 24 at the Skyline Hills Recreational Center [8285 Skyline Drive] — we’ll have a free BBQ open to adults and kids, and San Diego Charger Matt Wilhelm will be there, along with craft tables and games.”

I gave a call to the Adams Avenue Recreation Center in Normal Heights to see what they had going on. “Our free lunch runs from June 22 until August 28, from noon to 1:00 p.m. Also, we’re going to have a portable pool set up on the blacktop. We’ll have swim lessons for a small fee, and daily free open swim times. And we have Nature Camps from July 13 to 17 and August 10 to 14 — they include games and crafts based on nature, as well as a field trip. In past years, we’ve gone to the zoo or to Sea World. The cost is just $10 per child for the whole week.”

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Reader 1st place writing contest winner gets kudos

2nd place winner not so much
Next Article

Angry Pete’s goes from pop-up to drive-thru

Detroit Pizza sidles into the husk of a shuttered Taco Bell

“My kids are like druggies,” lamented my friend Nancy. “If you give them sugar or TV, they don’t want to stop.”

I sympathized. “I know what you mean about the TV. Between that and the computer and the video games, I feel like I’m engaged in the care and feeding of zombies. I’m seriously considering making this an electronics-free summer. Now I just have to figure out how to occupy them without spending much money.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

“If I tell them to go play, they refuse,” said Nancy. “I find I have to let them ‘discover’ things, so I do what I call ‘featuring.’ I’ll take most of the toys out of the play area and leave just a few. We’ve been reading Robin Hood, so I left out the dress-up clothes and things that fit with that. Or I’ll mix up uses for certain rooms — I just made the sun porch into an engine room, with a big table and lots of toy trains. Or I’ll move a blanket around the backyard — one day a picnic in one spot, the next book-reading somewhere else.”

Nancy’s kids are still pretty young; Sande’s run from six to teen. “Sometimes, my husband will set up a tent in the yard. We’ll grill something for dinner. The kids will play in the tent all day and then sleep in it at night. And of course, there’s always the beach. We like to go to Coronado in the late afternoon with a picnic dinner. And I know you want to avoid the TV, but if it’s really, really hot, I might turn on the air-conditioning and do an indoor movie marathon. I’ll play things like Belles on Their Toes, Cheaper by the Dozen. I make popcorn and give out some old movie-theater-type candy. It’s a great way to make kids game for old movies.”

Lissa suggested tweaking routines — “maybe going to a different grocery store — an Asian supermarket or an Italian deli store. I let the kids wander the aisles, pick out something to bring home and try. Last week, we decided to visit as many bakeries around San Diego as we could. I found New York Bakery in El Cajon [619-283-6886], where they had these anise-flavored S cookies that I used to get in Queens. The owners were so nice — they gave the kids S cookies and chatted with us, and we picked out napoleons and éclairs to bring home. It was exactly the New York bakery experience. Next, we’re heading to a Mexican bakery, and there’s a Cuban bakery we want to visit. You can learn a lot about a culture by chatting with the people who make it sweet.”

At home, Lissa loves games friendly to a broad age range. “We’ve played all-day marathons of ‘Settlers of Catan’ [$54.99 on Amazon] — you amass resources to build settlements.”

Monica was all about the free — for books, food, and fun. “Several of my kids’ reading really took off because of the library’s summer reading program,” she attested. I called my La Mesa branch. “This year’s theme is ‘Get Creative.’ It starts June 19 and runs through August 12. We have programs for birth through teens — and even one for adults. Kids receive prizes based on the number of hours they read — or number of books, for the little ones. They can also earn raffle tickets for a drawing — one of the prizes is a Nintendo DS. Throughout the week, we have crafts. You can register at your local branch or online.”

Joann Tucker at the San Diego Unified School District told me about their program, Summer Fun Café. It’s a free lunch program with no enrollment, no paperwork, and no conditions, “open to children from 2 to 18. You can find a list of schools and parks that offer it at www.sandi.net/food. Our big kickoff is on June 24 at the Skyline Hills Recreational Center [8285 Skyline Drive] — we’ll have a free BBQ open to adults and kids, and San Diego Charger Matt Wilhelm will be there, along with craft tables and games.”

I gave a call to the Adams Avenue Recreation Center in Normal Heights to see what they had going on. “Our free lunch runs from June 22 until August 28, from noon to 1:00 p.m. Also, we’re going to have a portable pool set up on the blacktop. We’ll have swim lessons for a small fee, and daily free open swim times. And we have Nature Camps from July 13 to 17 and August 10 to 14 — they include games and crafts based on nature, as well as a field trip. In past years, we’ve gone to the zoo or to Sea World. The cost is just $10 per child for the whole week.”

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Angry Pete’s goes from pop-up to drive-thru

Detroit Pizza sidles into the husk of a shuttered Taco Bell
Next Article

Centennial Salute to San Diego’s Military, East Village Block Party, Birding Basics Class

Events March 29-March 30, 2024
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.