October 2008

For Many Kids School-Related Activities Continue Into the Late-Afternoon

By Heather World


Getting your child into a suitable after-school program can seem like a daunting task, especially to parents of kindergarteners.  Luckily there is an eclectic mix of afterschool activities available for the five to 12-year-old set.

Most parents prefer to get a slot in programs available on their kid’s school campus, like nonprofit Growing and Learning Opportunities (GLO), which is offered at Alice Fong Yu, Alvarado, Fairmount, and West Portal elementary schools. Availability is determined by the size of the exiting fifth grade, according to Alvarado site supervisor Melissa Serrano.  Many of Alvarado-GLO’s 100 spots are filled by younger children; older kids tend to have a wider array of afterschool activities available to them.

GLO children choose among art, sports or science activities.  Once a week a dance instructor visits, with a writer’s workshop also available weekly, thanks to a grant from the San Francisco Department of Children, Youth and Families.  On Fridays, GLO instructors offer their own skills, teaching the children how to cook and sew, for example. Outside these activities the children team up for sports or climb on the play structures.

At Starr King Afterschool (SKA) – a collaboration between YMCA Urban Services and the No Child Left Behind Act – 146 students spend equal amounts of time working on academics, free-playing and participating in enrichment and literacy programs, according to program director Jorge Garcia.  Garcia hired an outside organization, Streetside Stories, to work on writing with the children.  Kindergarteners and first graders draw a picture and describe it; older children start with a book outline. The program lasts 10 weeks, with all 10 SKA staff pitching-in.  

Buena Vista Elementary School also has its own afterschool program, which is open every day school is in session. The children do homework, and engage in a range of activities, like dance, drama and music.

On-site afterschool programs often fill quickly, leaving some parents scrambling. At Starr King Elementary School, parents cobbled together a system to provide more options.  As a result, the school bus from Starr King to Treasure Island now makes a stop at Carolina and 18th streets, where a chaperone escorts a group of children to Urban Recess.  Designed as a resource for preschoolers, Urban Recess adapted its enormous play space to promote creativity through drama and cooperative playing.  

At Alvarado, parents rounded up the minimum number of students, five, to earn a bus that their children take to Aiden Way in Diamond Heights. Though some parents initially expressed concerns about having their children bussed offsite, all have been happy with the program.  The children cook, play music and engage in other extracurricular activities, such as chess. A list of other off-site programs is available at the school.

The San Francisco Department of Recreation and Parks Department offers developmental programs at off-campus sites, and will provide transportation to schools that have enough students to warrant the cost. In the beginning of the year scramble, school listervs were buzzing with requests to join various off-site City-supported programs. At Alvarado, children take a bus to Douglass Playground; at Starr King, the Treasure Island bus lets off children headed for Jackson playground with the Urban Recess children.

Programs run by well-known organizations such as the YMCA and The Boys and Girls Club serve students at Bryant, Chavez, Flynn and Moscone elementary schools. Sometimes the children are bussed off-site, as in the case of Moscone Elementary School; other times the organization comes to the campus, such as for YMCA-sponsored programs at Leonard Flynn, Cesar Chavez and Sunnyside elementary schools.

Chavez’s YMCA program serves only kindergarten to third graders, but the slack is picked-up by the Jamestown Enrichment program, which is free to third to fifth graders, whether they attend Chavez or not. One teacher and an assistant lead their 15 students in art, dance and theater, and provide one-on-one tutoring.

Some schools offer programs targeted to academically-challenged children, often English learners who’ve scored below basic proficiency on standardized tests.  Bryant, Leonard Flynn and Daniel Webster elementary schools have an on-site Child Development Center (CDC), which mirror private programs by offering homework tutoring, outdoor play and enrichment activities.  The centers emphasize reading, but the curriculum is broad and influenced by educational philosophies, including Montessori.  Children from other schools are accepted, though transportation from school to the site varies.  Admission priority is given to low-income families.

At Bryant, the CDC offers a reading program called AfterSchool Kidzlit. Children hear books read aloud, or read by themselves, and make connections to their own lives through discussion, drama, art, movement, and writing.   Alvarado uses its Program Improvement Status – a negative designation under the No Child Left Behind law that provides a school with extra funds to improve its standardized test scores – to subsidize its Excel program.  Students are accepted based on academic need, but Excel offers more than tutoring and outside play. Children learn about health and culture, and have access to social service programs. The program boasts impressive statistics, with more than three-quarters of its participants improving their school performance and behavior.

Despite so many opportunities, many children still don’t have access to suitable afterschool care. On October 16th Lights Out Afterschool, a national celebration of afterschool programs, will feature 7,500 events meant to highlight what children have learned afterschool, from arts to academics.  This year the supporting organization, the Afterschool Alliance, will thank the Century Community Learning Centers, the chief federal funding stream for afterschool programs.

Afternoon Programs

Some specialized afterschool programs operate only a few days a week. Below is a brief description of these programs and which schools they serve.

The National Conservatory Theater offers a drama program for students ages five and up. Its Satellite Drama Program provides children with the opportunity to practice stagecraft for 10 weeks ending in a performance for parents.  The theater started the program in response to deep cuts in funding for the arts in the California school system. The classes cater to students in under-served schools that have identified a gap in arts funding.

The Precita Center starts with six year olds, picking them up from Chavez and Flynn elementary schools offering homework assistance, sports and recreation, cultural enrichment, and leadership development.

Brain Soup offers afterschool art, dance, theater, and cooking classes with an emphasis on developing reading and writing skills.  

At Drop-In Recreation, elementary and middle school youth participate in supervised afterschool recreation at two public schools.  

The One-on-One Tutoring Program provides elementary, middle, and high school youth who are performing one or more years below grade level intensive, individualized tutoring from college students.  

At the Junipero Serra CDC, Branch Living Library and Think Parks helps students improve their school and communities through hands-on activities. They also learn about math, science, history, language arts, arts and technology.  

Brava Performing Studio for the Theater Arts offers dance to third graders and up through the Brava Ballroom. Once a week the children learn new dances, from tango to hip hop.

At the Marsh Youth Theater, children learn dance, visual art, drama and music.

Tree Frog Treks Wild Science! introduces children to biology, chemistry, physics, earth sciences and natural history through live animals. The curriculum has a theme to integrate science through hands-on experiments

Sfkids.org provides a partial list of afterschool programs for at

http://www.sfkids.org/Listings.aspx?subcat=384&fldr=508

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