Elina Wong wasn’t setting out to write a book. She was just
trying to find educational activities for her daughter.
”
I have a 7-year-old, and as she was growing up I starting
looking for educational things to do,
”
Wong said.
”
I realized how little information there was.
Elina Wong wasn’t setting out to write a book. She was just trying to find educational activities for her daughter.
“I have a 7-year-old, and as she was growing up I starting looking for educational things to do,” Wong said. “I realized how little information there was.
“I love to do fruit picking, and it took me a while to find a place to do fruit picking.”
What started out as Wong’s quest to enlighten her daughter turned into five years of collecting materials for her recently released book, “Kids’ Adventures Around San Francisco Bay.”
“It’s a culmination of my experiences with her,” the Los Gatos mother of two said.
The book, which contains more than 1,000 entries, covers activities, fairs and museums throughout the Bay Area, including the South Silicon Valley.
Wong said she that when she started out, the only good advice on activities she could find was through Bay Area Parent Magazine, but once she delved into it herself, she found there was more places to go and things to do than she ever imagined.
“I’m amazed at the wealth of information that I found,” she said. “The more you look, the more you find.”
From Silicon Valley’s tech museums to the Gilroy’s Bonfante Gardens to the tide pools at Natural Bridges in Santa Cruz, Wong covers 13 chapters worth of material broken down into categories like arts, history, science and even physical activities. If your child has an interest, there is probably an activity in Wong’s book that would be a perfect fit.
Each entry includes information that includes the address, Web site, cost, age group, hours and several paragraphs describing the experience. The entries also include suggested items to bring along.
“When I first thought to make it into a book, I wanted it to be field-trip based curriculum in arts and sciences,” Wong said.
It took Wong five years to accumulate all the of entries, a year to write the book and a year to get it published. Before writing her first book, she was a stay at home mom but also had worked in health care and at Apple computers.
Among the local entries mentioned in the book are local places like Bonfante Gardens, Uesigi Farms pumpkin patch and San Martin’s Wings of History Air Museum, and there are many others in surrounding communities like Hollister, Casa de Fruta, Watsonville and beyond.
“There’s a lot of things you can do from Gilroy,” Wong said. “It’s nicely located to go to San Jose or Santa Cruz … and it’s not that far from Monterey.”
Wong said she also is in the final stages of making a database on her Web site, www.kidseducationaladventures.com, that will make it possible for parents to search the book’s entries by age group instead of by topic, and also will make it possible for people to add their own “edventures” to the database.
“I’m hoping to have it done by mid-April,” she said.
For Wong, putting the book and Web site together has been a goal to help other parents who have had trouble finding fun educational places to take their children. And she hopes the interactive database will help encourage even more exciting ideas for kids.
“People can input place they have gone,” she said. “I want to create a community where we can share experiences. I wish I had that when I started (raising my kids).”
“Kids’ Adventures Around San Francisco Bay” costs $16.95 and is available at local bookstores and at www.kidsedventures.com.
