East Bay Baby

While the sun is shining today, we aren’t out of the rainy season yet. Here are a few more free indoor activities for toddlers and kids around the East Bay.

• Try a little retail therapy. Many stores and shopping areas around the East Bay are large and varied enough to keep kids interested for quite a while. While most major malls have an indoor play area specifically for that purpose, you have other options as well. I like taking the kids to the Pacific East Mall, an indoor pan-Asian mall featuring cheap restaurants and small stores with wares both unique and baffling. Plus, the mall also features 99 Ranch, an Asian supermarket with lots of lovely produce to buy and live crustaceans to poke at (watch your children’s fingers). Rookie Moms recommends taking your kids to an outdoor store like REI. I’m sure there is fun to be had at other stores around the Bay – what are your rainy day favorites?
• Check out your local library, or even someone else’s local library! Our local library has a pretty limited kid’s section, but if we head over to the Central Library branch of the Berkeley Public Library there is a beautiful Children’s Room – basically an entire floor just for kids! There are many cool features, such as a replica of the room from “Goodnight Moon.”



• Try a free Gymboree class. Gymboree locations are ubiquitous around the Bay Area, and offer “classes” for ages 0-5 in music, art, sports, and, of course, play. You can try your first class for free! I have not taken the kids yet, but it sounds like a fun way to spend a morning, as long as you have a high tolerance for manic toddlers wielding rhythm instruments.

Previously: Indoor Activities in the East Bay