KidsOutAndAbout Weekly Newsletter |
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Mon, Jul 20: One-Off Note Taking Workshop
Sat, Jul 25: 19th Annual Petaluma Music Festival - Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds & Event Center - Petaluma, CA
Sat, Aug 1: Multicultural Festival - City of Antioch
Thu, Aug 6: 2026 Napa County Fair - Napa Valley Expo
Sat, Aug 8: Bay Area Aloha Festival - San Mateo County Event Center
Wed, Aug 12: Concert in the Park - City of Albany, CA
Sat, Aug 15: Burlingame On the Avenue - Burlingame Chamber of Commerce
Wed, Aug 19: Santa Clara County Fairgrounds - Santa Clara County Fairgrounds
Fri, Aug 21: World Arts Dance Festival - City of Presidio, CA
Fri,
Aug 28: Starlight Movies in the Park
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Dear KidsOutAndAbout readers:
In last week's column, I wrote about the Humble Abode, the kids-only hideout my sister and I created behind the giant azalea bush in our backyard. We dragged in chairs and treasures and made a little home in the hollowed-out
branches. At the time, I thought of it as something we had built. But of course, we didn’t create it from nothing. We were makers, yes, but we were making inside a world that was already alive. Summer is the perfect time for kids to experience that lesson up close and personal, with all their senses. The world is warm, green, buzzing, blooming, squelching, chirping, dripping, and growing almost too fast to track. Kids can smell lake water and tomato leaves, feel bark and moss
and mud, watch ants organize themselves with alarming competence, and notice that the same trail looks different after rain. Nature doesn’t need a lesson plan. It offers immediacy first: I am here. This is real. Pay attention. And then, quietly, it offers perspective. A child is legitimately the center of his or her own universe; we all are, from the inside. But Nature gently complicates that story. The robin is not singing for us. The creek does not hurry because we
are late. The sunflower turns toward the sun whether or not anyone remembers to admire it. Clouds, tides, weeds, and weather all proceed with their ancient business, reminding us that we belong to a world much larger than our schedules and preferences. That perspective should not make us feel small in a bad way, but instead help us feel rightly-sized. Humans have the wonderful ability to create, repair, improve, and beautify our little corners of the universe. But we do it
best when we understand the nature of the world we’re working within. So use this summer to include as much Outside Green Time as you can, looking up and around and in. Poke gently. Nature will do the rest.
—Debra Ross, publisher of KidsOutAndAbout.com, co-author of The Eclipse Effect: How to Seize Extraordinary Moments to Build
Strong Communities
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KidsOutAndAbout.com: Discover more. Do more. Connect more. If you like my publisher's column, you can easily scroll through past columns in the "Notes from Deb" section of our site. |
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Every Thursday evening for thirteen weeks, starting June 4, Courthouse Square in Redwood City transforms into a vibrant open-air cinema with free double features for all ages. Start your evening with family-friendly films at 6pm or independent shorts at 8pm, then stay for a lineup of iconic classics and newly released full-length films at 8:30pm. Expect an energetic, captivating ambiance, and arrive early to claim your space or spread a blanket, then enjoy tasty take-out from nearby restaurants.
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This fast paced lap-sit program for little ones and their caregivers includes songs, nursery rhymes, knee-bounces, and movement to help develop important pre-literacy skills. This class is appropriate for infants through 2 years old.
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Unlock a summer of fun, laughter, and lasting memories - all at no cost! Kids Bowl Free is a program created with families in mind, offering children a fun and safe way to stay active and engaged all summer long. Since 2007, we've partnered with bowling centers across the US, Canada and around the globe at US military bases with bowling to give kids the chance to bowl two free games every day during the summer - all at no cost to parents. Visit our website to find a participating bowling center near you today!
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The Walt Disney Family Museum continues its celebration of the 70th anniversary of Disneyland with the debut of Happiest Place on Earth: The Disneyland Story, an original special exhibition curated by award-winning producer and Disney Legend Don Hahn with museum Director of Collections and Exhibitions Marina Villar Delgado. Inspired by the 2025 book, The Happiest Place on Earth: The Incredible Story of Walt Disney’s Disneyland, published by Disney Editions and written by Hahn and historian Christopher Merritt, this treasure trove of Disney history will take guests behind the scenes of one of the most groundbreaking endeavors of the 20th century—the creation and opening of Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Happiest Place on Earth: The Disneyland Story will be on view beginning Friday, November 14 in the museum’s Lower Lobby and Theater Galleries.
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Lights, camera, music! This summer, experience the magic of West Side Story like never before as the San Francisco Symphony performs Leonard Bernstein’s score to the 1961 film live to picture. Hailed as one of the greatest American musicals of all time, West Side Story fills Davies Symphony Hall with an exuberant and heartbreaking tale of young love.
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Come for the amazing vendors, stay for the gorgeous location! The Grand Lake Farmers Market is situated in Splash Pad Park, a beautiful outdoor gathering spot designed by Oakland’s own Walter Hood. A bevy of vendors serves up everything you need—organic produce, flowers, coffee, pastries, and prepared goods like dim sum—so you can fill up your tote and enjoy a grassy picnic among the palm trees, native gardens, and fountain. Vibrant, communal, and bustling, Grand Lake Farmers Market has a dynamic, welcoming vibe with people from all walks of life. Visit via AC Transit, or find plenty of parking for both cars and bikes.
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Guests will experience 21 realistic, scientifically-informed dinosaur models based on fossil evidence. Each individual dinosaur uses advanced robotics to enable natural movements like blinking, breathing and tail-swaying. Themed to evolution and extinction, the dinosaurs will be grouped by era and geographic origin, and in dynamic interactions displaying behaviors like nesting, hunting and scavenging. In addition to the life-sized dinosaur displays, the exhibit will offer interactive activities such as a 5 ft. tall dinosaur egg photo op, a 6 ft.-long Sauropod footprint and a 4-ft. long Tyrannosaurus Rex footprint, a 15 ft. long climbable dinosaur sculpture, and a giant “dig pit” with dinosaur fossils.
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The Cartoon Art Museum proudly presents Feo the Chupacabra, a spotlight on the debut graphic novel by cartoonists Sequoia Blankenship and Rob Thompson featuring an excerpt from their debut graphic novel published by Abrams Fanfare. A selection of their digital artwork from the book will be on display alongside the classic artwork showcased in the museum’s ongoing Treasury of Animation exhibition throughout the spring and summer months.
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Ignite your inner child this summer with a circus show for the whole family this July 10-12 at the Children's Creativity Museum in Yerba Buena Gardens.
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2026's best places to take kids in the San Francisco Bay area. Early each summer, thousands of parents vote in the KidsOutAndAbout survey of the Top 20 Places to Take Kids. Our Top 20 results page is an annotated list of the winners, both of the top 20
slots and of the three category winners: Who won for Top Arts Educator, Top Sports Educator, and Top STEM Educator?
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The KidsOutAndAbout annual guide to summer camps in the San Francisco area is back! You can search by date, age, or categories like day/overnight, sports, drama, music, theatre, arts & crafts, technology, robotics, horseback riding, preschool, &
more. Our guide puts summer fun right at your fingertips!
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The San Francisco Area's Pick-Your-Own Fruit Listed below are farms in and near San Francisco that offer pick your own fruits, berries, and vegetables. And... to make the most of your experience,
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Have a great weekend!
Debra Ross
Publisher, KidsOutAndAbout.com
Mom of Madison and Ella |
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