OK, Kids, Here’s Some Fun for You : Activities: School’s out, parents, but don’t panic: There are lots of ways to keep your children from turning into vegetables over the summer.
Summer’s here, and what’s a kid to do? Well, on the Westside he or she can learn the hula, take up golf, build a 30-foot banana split or even get a job.
The next three months needn’t just be spent in front of the television, at the movies or the mall or in lines at amusement parks. City recreation departments, libraries, schools and nonprofit organizations are ready with free and low-cost answers to the “What’s there to do?” wail of restless kids.
Day camps still have openings, directors say, probably because many parents haven’t been fully hit with the reality that school is out. They will likely “be filled (this) week when kids are out of school, and parents are saying, ‘Oh my god, what am I going to do?’ ” said Elliot Heffler, recreation supervisor for the Culver City Department of Human Services.
The day camps needn’t be pricey. For $25, for instance, children can join the 10-week day camp at Culver Slauson Park, operated by the city of Los Angeles. They’ll be kept busy with crafts, movies, swimming and field trips and get a yellow T-shirt imprinted with a bear frolicking in a stream, recreation director Michael Davidson said.
“It’s (about) $2 a week to drop their kid here. . . . It’s a bargain,” Davidson said, adding that there are plenty of openings.
If you can’t get into a day camp, there are drop-in programs at several public parks. “There’s arts and crafts, a person there to supervise the kids, equipment there to play with, so you don’t feel your child is there totally alone,” said Nicole Vogel, volunteer coordinator for the Beverly Hills Recreation and Parks Department.
Santa Monica’s recreation department will offer trips, games and cake-eating, punch-guzzling, and “just a variety of wacky contests” at several elementary schools and parks, recreation program coordinator Teri Akloff said. Each week’s activities will revolve around a theme, such as “Circus, Circus,” “Hit the Beat” (music-oriented), and “Stars and Stripes.”
West Hollywood does not have supervised daytime drop-in programs, but it will give parents a reprieve on Parents Night Out, Aug. 18-19. They can leave their children 6 to 12 at Plummer Park and pick them up the next morning. The youngsters will be entertained with games and food.
Several programs are tailored to teen-agers. “Club TC,” formerly called the Teen Center, hopes to attract more clientele when it opens with a new look and feel on Thursday in Culver City’s Veterans Memorial Park. The walls had been painted with a “goofy-looking” palm tree and purple flamingo, youth programs coordinator Pam Goodwin says. “Kids complained, ‘It looks like a day-care center,’ . . . (and) they were a little embarrassed” to hang out there, she said. The walls were recently repainted light gray with mauve, and black vinyl furniture and a revamped stereo system “(give ) it kind of a ‘90s look,” Goodwin said.
The club is equipped with pool tables, video games, and air hockey and offers arts and crafts activities, all free of charge. Officially, it is limited to Culver City residents, but “if we’re not jampacked . . . and if a kid comes in from L.A., I’m not going to say, ‘You can’t come in,’ ” Goodwin said.
On top of that, there are special events aimed to entice even the coolest of teen-agers--such as the Limousine Scavenger Hunt.
“Six teens pile into a limo and search for things around the city” such as a scrap of a tire or an old newspaper,” Goodwin said. The first team to return wins a prize. The hunt is planned for July 27 and will cost $7 per person.
Youths can also help build and partake of a 30-foot banana split July 19. Last year, the monstrous dessert, dished up in plastic rain gutters, took about half an hour to build and 10 minutes to devour, Goodwin said.
Teen beach devotees can congregate at Santa Monica Beach tower No. 26 for volleyball, frisbee and music, starting this week, from Tuesday through Friday, 11-4 p.m. Teen-age basketball, volleyball and Ping-Pong players can use the gyms at Lincoln and John Adams middle schools in Santa Monica on Monday through Thursday, 4-9 p.m.
If the family summer plans don’t include a trip to the South Pacific, your child can stay in Westchester and at least learn to move as the Polynesians do. Hawaiian and Polynesian dances, including the hula and others that tell stories with hand movements, are offered at the Westchester Recreation Center. The center also has sign language and jujitsu martial arts classes.
For the die-hard thespian/director/producer crowd, Beverly Hills has a Children’s Theatre Workshop at Roxbury Park. Children from 8 to 13 delve into improvisation, characterization, costuming, makeup, set design and other aspects of theater production. They produce two shows, in the middle and at the end of the eight-week program. Often, the plays are written by the children themselves.
Would-be golfers can learn to swing in a free clinic from Tuesday through Thursday at Rancho Park Golf Course. Culver Slauson Park has a co-ed Sports Camp, which starts with basic skills and graduates to the sports themselves. Included are soccer, basketball, slow-pitch softball, and track and field.
Several cities provide swimming lessons for children at local pools. Students can learn diving, water polo and lifeguarding skills. Pools at many neighborhood schools are also open to the public during the summer.
And if you can’t get to the pool, the pool will come to you. The Los Angeles Unified School District’s Portable Pool travels to four Westside schools in July and August, where elementary school-age children can take lessons in water safety and swimming.
To get in touch with nature, the William O. Douglas Outdoor Classroom in Beverly Hills leads walks every week in Franklin Canyon. For infants and toddlers--and their parents--there are “Babes in the Woods” and “Tykes on Hikes” programs, which go at a pace of about a mile an hour. “A lot of stopping, looking, observing,” program coordinator Steven Saffier said of the hikes. “Kids are encouraged to explore nature, using all their senses--except taste.”
Children can learn how the Chumash Indians built their dwellings, wikiups, in a session offered by the Wilderness Institute in the Santa Monica Mountains. The organization also plans to spend “An Evening With the Owls” and another evening doing “Family Storytelling Under the Oaks.”
So that children’s minds don’t vegetate too much, libraries offer reading programs and storytelling. In “Reading Round-Up in the Wild, Wild West” at the Santa Monica main library, for instance, children get a certificate decorated with prairie dogs on which they record the books they’ve read. When they’ve read 10, the librarians will take a instant picture of them and their favorite books and post their names on a library bulletin board.
Santa Monica College, Culver City Adult School and Los Angeles Unified School District’s community adult schools--despite their names--also have classes for youths. Los Angeles high school students can even take driver’s education on television. The classes will be broadcast daily on the district’s television station, KLCS-TV Channel 58. Students have to come to school, however, to turn in homework and take tests.
Youths can also volunteer for their local good cause. Heal the Bay, for one, has teen-agers help in the office and on special events. Hospitals often need teens who are interested in the health professions.
Then there’s always the good old summer job. They’re going fast, but some jobs at government agencies and nonprofit organizations are still available through the federal Summer Youth Employment and Training Program. The jobs, which pay minimum wage, $4.25 an hour, include computer operation, street maintenance and day-camp counseling positions. Teen-agers can apply at any California Employment Development Department office.
There are also openings through First Break, sponsored by the Los Angeles school district and the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. High school students are given lists of employers and tips on how to land and keep a job, school district spokeswoman Tammy Sims said. The project is still seeking employers, she added.
* SUMMER PROGRAMS
A list of summer activities for youngsters, including day camps, trips and sports. J10
