Sunday, June 02, 2013

SF Bay Area Family Bargains

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, chances are you pay a premium to live here and you could really use a good bargain. That just happens to be my specialty. I'm a homeschooling mom who loves a great deal! Here are the current things I'm taking advantage of:

SF Free Days
Here is a great web site for Free Days at San Francisco Bay Area museums. Free days used to be the first Tuesday or Wednesday of the month, but since several have changed to the first Sunday, I look for other bargains for these because we're Mormon and spend Sundays at church and with family, and we don't shop or go to places of amusement. Anyhow, these are some of the cheap or free things I have planned:

The Tech
To receive up to 9 free general admission tickets to the new summer exhibition at the Tech Museum in San Jose, you must create an account here:http://tickets.thetech.org/account. Then use promo code Finney for your free general admission tickets into the museum. (Regular price tickets are $15 adult/$10 child)

San Francisco Symphony Concerts for Kids
The SF Symphony Concerts for Kids dates are out for 2014, although tickets aren't available until August. I know it is a jaunt to SF but it is totally worth it. We've gone the past two years to the older group and our family has been seated in the box seats on the side of the concert hall and the concerts have been the perfect length (45 minutes) and hearing them performed in Davies Symphony Hall is amazing. The tickets will be available in August. They are $5 each. You would only need to go to one performance since they are all the same (although they do play different music for the older and younger kids).

Concerts for Kids Grades K-3 (35 minutes)
Tuesday, January 21 - 10 am
Monday, May 5 - 11:30 am
Tuesday, May 6 - 10 am & 11:30 am
Wednesday, May 7 - 10 & 11:30 am
Friday, May 9 - 10 & 11:30

Concerts for Kids Grades 4 - 9 (45 minutes)
Monday, April 28 - 11:30 am
Tuesday, April 29 - 10 & 11:30 am
Thursday, May 1 - 10 & 11:30 am
Friday, May 2 - 10 & 11:30 am

California Academy of Sciences
The next Homeschool Days at the California Academy of Sciences are Monday, December 9, 2013 & Tuesday, April 8, 2014. Tickets will be available here 2 months in advance. This museum is a-ma-zing. And tickets for $6.95 (or free if you're an SF resident) are a great deal since regular price is $34.95 adult/$24.95 child.

Monterey Bay Aquarium
Homeschool Days at the Monterey Bay Aquarium sell out fast because they are free! Here is where you can find the latest on this amazing bargain ($34.95 adult/$21.95 child). We love to stop by the Monarch Grove Butterfly Sanctuary in Pacific Grove afterward. Our friends love to go to the Dennis the Menace park. We've driven by it several times and next time we are definitely going to go visit here!

Hope this inspires you to get out and do fun things in the Bay Area. There so much amazing stuff to see and do it's not possible to do it all but that's why I love homeschooling – I now get to do a lot more of it!