This is TV Turn-Off Week, but wooing kids - and yourself - away from the TV can be challenging. So here’s a fab five round-up of alternative pastimes.

1. Make flower fairies. These Family Fun magazine creations play off one of our all-time favorite craft projects, the Beadle dolls from the Family Fun Craft book, by teaming up the basic body - a wooden bead for the head, pipe cleaners for limbs and torso, and embroidery floss for hair - with faux flowers and wings. Adorable. (If you’ve got non-fairy-loving kids, make mad scientists instead, using neon green embroidery floss for the hair and white felt for “lab coats.”)

2. How about a game of golf… on the driveway? Use sidewalk chalk to plan a course. Tape cups to the asphalt as “holes” and break out the plastic golf clubs, Swiffer or whatever impromptu clubs you’d like to use.
Read the rest of this entry »

1. Every Robin Hood fan dreams of lifting that bow, notching that arrow and letting it fly, unerringly, toward the bullseye. Now, you can give it a shot at the Diablo Bowmen’s annual archery range open house this Mt. Diablo Saturday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. ($6, including lessons and lunch)

2. The clothes-obsessed emperor gets a new and unusual set stitched during this East Bay Children’s Theatre staging of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” Saturday at 10:30 and 1 at the Oakland Museum. (Free-$10)
Read the rest of this entry »

1. The Peking Acrobats take the stage at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall Friday through Sunday. ($12 and up)

2. Saturday’s Old Fashioned Easter at Dunsmuir Historic Estate includes the big bunny, games and egg hunts from noon to 3 p.m. Bring an Easter basket. ($1-$5)

3. Get your celt on at the annual Celtic Festival in Oakland Saturday and Sunday ($20)
Read the rest of this entry »

Looking for some weekend family fun? Here’s a Fab Five round-up
1. Jigu! Thunder Drums of China arrives at Cupertino’s Flint Center this Saturday ($22 and up) for an earth shaking Chinese percussion spectacle.

2. Abby and the Pipsqueaks play a kids concert at Berkeley’s La Pena Cultural Center Saturday morning at 10:30 ($4-$5 or $12 per family).
Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a round-up of Bay Area family fun…
1. Baby Loves Disco turns local nightclubs into toddler-parent dance joints, complete with tunes, healthy snacks and mirror balls - and it’s all happening this weekend at Aura in Pleasanton. Spring dates in the South Bay and San Francisco too. ($15)

2. Berkeley Rep hosts “Art Explosion,” a family workshop that combines storytelling, music, art and movement, this Sunday. Free.

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s what’s up this weekend for Bay Area families:
1. Got a comic book fan at home? How about a film buff? This weekend San Francisco’s Moscone Center hosts WonderCon, Northern California’s biggest comics confab, and the San Francisco International Children’s Film Festival. Among the films, “Adina’s Deck,” a movie about cyberbullying tweens (pictured above). ($6-$12 for a one-day pass to both)
Read the rest of this entry »

1. Ballet Afsaneh, a Persian and Afghani dance company, graces the stage at the Bay Area Discovery Museum this Saturday at 11 a.m. ($7.50-$9.50)

2. Then come back Monday for a little “Gung hay fat choy” at the Bay Area Discovery Museum’s Chinese New Year Festival, complete with lion dancers, 9 to 4. (Free with museum admission.)

3. Got a Dungeons & Dragons fan at home? A board game lover? Or “Hey, That’s My Fish” aficionado? Then check out the game fest at DunDraCon in San Ramon all weekend. ($30)
Read the rest of this entry »

There are few things that seize a kid’s imagination as thoroughly as pirates (or Mom’s imagination, for that matter, but we won’t talk about Johnny Depp here). So here’s a Fab Five round-up of pirate play essentials, including the ultimate, atmospheric pirate experience right here in the Bay Area.

1. First, of course, you’ll need some scallywags and a ship. We’re particularly partial to these wooden, poseable pirates from Hearthsong ($34.95), although Playmobil’s eye-patched guys are pretty swell too.

2. Then get in the mood with appropriate bedtime reading - “Captain Abdul’s Pirate School” and other tales by Colin McNaughton are perfect for both boys and girls ($6.99). Or try William Captain Lubber’s “Pirateology” ($19.99).
Read the rest of this entry »

Looking for some weekend family fun? Here’s the round-up
1. Check out the “Amore! Amore!” festivities at Danville’s Blackhawk Automotive Museum Feb. 10 when a “family funshop” celebrates all things Italian — glossy cars, Ninja Turtles and make-your-own heart-shaped pizza.

2. Make Valentines at Berkeley’s Habitot Children’s Museum, then add your own touch to a giant heart sculpture Feb 8-9 from 9:30 to 4 p.m., and Feb. 12-14 9:30-1 p.m. (Bring in Valentine-y art supplies to share and you get in free.)

3. Feel the need for speed? The new “Speed” exhibit opens at Lawrence Hall of Science this weekend. ($5.50-$10)

4. Check out a grand salute to aerial firefighters aboard the USS Hornet in Alameda. Meet firebomber pilots and check out the new exhibit starting at 1 p.m. Saturday. ($6-$14)

5. Or how about an Environmental Family Film Fest? Diablo Valley College and the Kids Environmental Action Network are showing “An Inconvenient Truth” Friday at 7 p.m. at DVC, plus “Who Killed the Electric Car” on 2/21 and more flicks through March. ($4)

Looking for some weekend family fun? Here’s a Fab Five round-up for Feb. 2-3.
1. Gawk at a century’s worth of cable cars at San Francisco’s Cable Car Barn and Museum (pictured above, open daily).

2. Livermore Park & Rec is hosting the Tri-Valley’s biggest super football party on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Livermore Community Center. Enormous 12×14 ft. screen for the game, BBQ concession stands, plus a screening of “Shark’s Tale” and gym games next door if the kids get antsy. (Free, but rspvs are needed, call 925-373-5748.)

3. Oakland’s Museum of Children’s Art’s is doing a family art workshop on Chinese New Year lanterns and dragon puppets, Sunday, 1 to 4 p.m. ($7 for materials)

4. Unleash your inner thespian at Berkeley Rep’s free Family Theater Workshop, Sunday, 11 a.m. (Preschoolers and up)

5. Or celebrate the Year of the Rat at San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum on Saturday — lion dancers, Chinese percussion, author appearance by Oliver Chin, author of “Year of the Rat,” and art workshops, noon to 4 p.m. (Free for kids 12 and under)