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Choices Abound for After-school Programs

What's Right for You and Your Child?

What’s Right for You and Your Child?

   This fall marked the beginning of a new stage of parenthood for me. I, like thousands of other parents in the Bay Area, began my quest to find after-school care for my daughter. Not knowing where to start, I turned to my local recreation department to find out what after-school classes might be available. It all seemed like the same old stuff I did when I was a kid. There were art classes, dance lessons, sports teams and more; nothing that screamed, “Pick Me! I Rock!” After reading through 12 pages, I found myself wishing I had CliffsNotes and more confused on which class I should enroll her in.

Looking for New Ideas
   Ester Hill, director of the Kensington After-School Enrichment Program, understands the pressure of selecting classes that will “wow” children and their parents. This year, with the guidance of the teachers, KAEP has added classes that standout from the annual fall lineup.
The basic engineering class has been reworked to feature everyday “kid” items, like learning how gears work and to see which paper airplane design flies the farthest. Flower arranging features a segment on edible flowers, and there are two cooking classes that go way beyond following the recipe.
   Tapping into the emerging slow foods movement, Hill added a cooking class that focuses on bringing fresh vegetables from the neighborhood school into the kitchen, for an Alice Waters–inspired garden-to-table feel. The close proximity of Kensington Hilltop Elementary School’s vegetable garden to the community center is an added bonus.
   “Three of the four instructors are parents also,” said Hill. “They came up with the ideas for the classes they would like to teach.”

Back by Popular Demand
   What proves popular with the summer crowd may be equally suited for the after-school set. That’s the theory of Brad King, director of the University of California, Berkeley’s youth recreation program, Cal Adventures.
    “We had rock climbing at our youth camp during the summer, and that went really well,” said King.
   Kids in the summer program went to the Berkeley hills to learn basic rock climbing. Because of the success of that, King added a monthlong rock climbing session to the Cal Adventures fall after-school program. He also extended the class period in the after-school program by an hour to help kids advance in
their skill.

Going Green and Getting Local
   Michele Levine, director of Youth and Family Programs for the Jewish Community Center of the East Bay, found her summer session to be helpful as well in developing a fresh fall lineup. This summer the children and counselors went “green,” meaning gardening and taking to the outdoors. The summer activity will carry on into the fall, with children working on gardens, learning about their neighborhood ecosystems and going on dozens of walks.
   But it is not only “going green” that has been incorporated in the fall program. These days “going local” is all the rage, and with locations in Berkeley and Oakland, Levine has turned to the center’s surrounding neighborhood for inspiration.
    “We are planning more environmental programs,” said Levine, whose Berkeley site added raised garden beds over the summer. “We are also going to make use of the parks near our new site in Oakland.

Cultural Explosion
   Outdoor activities aren’t the only after-school activities that are getting a facelift. Move over Spanish class, and make way for Mandarin, Greek and Russian – and kids aren’t just about learning the language; they are learning the culture as well.
    Ten years ago, Yelena Glikman, a Russian immigrant, became worried that her son was loosing his Russian roots.
   “My son was 7- or 8-years-old, and we all spoke Russian at home,” said Glikman who lives in Berkeley. “When he started reading English, he stopped reading Russian.”
   So, Glikman started teaching him Russian after school. Word spread among the community, and the Berkeley Russian School was born. It has quadrupled in
size over the years, with a language program, dance lessons, arts and crafts and Russian history.
   Glikman’s cultural program is not unique to the Bay Area, but it has started a wave of programs that look beyond learning a language. There are many language-based after-school programs that offer not only lessons in pronunciation, but cultural studies as well. And there has been a boom in Mandarin and Spanish to Greek and even Japanese programs. Local recreation departments are also beginning to offer language classes in their fall programs, looking to pull in more kids.
 
Noncompetitive Sports with a Twist
   Soccer, T-ball, ballet and gymnastics are staples when it comes to after-school classes for many recreation departments. But in the past few years, there has been an increase in physical activities that go beyond the norm. Fencing, rock climbing and circus arts are sparking interest, and they are always in season.
   Valley Rock Climbing Gym, run by the Livermore Area Recreation and Park District, has seen a steady increase in children looking for a year-round after-school activity.
    “The beginning and ending of the school year are the slow period,” said senior recreation leader Jake Hurder. “But things pick up when word spreads through the parents and kids.”
   Many children’s programs, such as the ones at the Sports Fencing Center in El Cerrito and Trapeze Arts in Oakland, focus on helping kids learn the basics of the sport. Groups are broken up according to skill level and age group. Sports like rock climbing are noncompetitive, and many children advance to the next level by their own initiative.
    “As you go through the first class, you learn about the different styles, and the kids strive to make it up to the second level,” said Hurder.

Making a Choice
   After weeks of researching possible after-school programs, it came down to three things for my daughter and me.
   Convenience: I needed a program that was close to my daughter’s school. I found that some programs like JCCEB offered a van service that will pick up kids from their school and drive them to the program’s site.
   Time: I work full time and needed a program that would fill the hours between the end of school and 5 p.m.
   Cool factor: Ester Hill at KAEP provided me with great advice. After years of experience she found that kids just want to have fun, and whatever is fun is always cool. “When I tried to include the super academic classes, kids don’t sign up,” said Hill. “But when the classes are for fun and active, that’s when they sign up.
    “Its what they love,” she added.

Resources

Berkeley Russian School
1821 Catalina Ave., Berkeley
(510) 526-8892
www.berkeleyrussianschool.org

Cal Adventures
www.recsports.berkeley.edu/youth/index.aspx

Jewish Community Center of the East Bay
(510) 848-0237, ext. 103
www.jcceastbay.org

Kensignton After-School Enrichment Program
59 Arlington Ave.. Kensington
(510) 525-0292
www.aboutkensington.com

Sport Fencing Center
5221 Central Ave., Ste. 9. Richmond
(510) 528-5110
www.sportfencingcenter.com

Trapeze Arts
1822 Ninth St., Oakland
(510) 419-0700
www.trapezearts.com

Valley Rock Climbing Gym
2455 Railroad Ave., Livermore
(925) 960-2455
www.larpd.dst.ca.us/open_space/rock_climbing_gym.html