Tobenna Achebe has run scholastic chess in San Diego for six years and coaches two school teams. Switchboard is three of those afternoons: chess on Tuesdays and Thursdays, a twelve-week code club on Wednesdays, and a marine science club on the Ocean Beach tidepools on Saturday mornings.
The two weekday clubs are drop-off and the Saturday one deliberately is not — an adult stays, one to every four children, because the club happens on wet rock beside open water and no amount of supervision makes that a drop-off. Every leader holds a current California Live Scan clearance and is a mandated reporter, and the file is here rather than available on request.
None of it publishes the children. No ladder online, no photographs, no accounts created in anybody's service, no work uploaded anywhere. The chess ladder is a whiteboard in the room and the code club's projects are emailed to the parent at the end of term.
For Kids · Family-friendly
Twice a week in City Heights: a short lesson, then coached games with a rated master, ending in a club tournament with your games reviewed.
For Kids · Family-friendly
On Saturdays at La Jolla Shores, kids aged 8 to 13 use real science tools in the tidepools and present their own data to their family.
For Kids · Family-friendly
A morning of mud, sticks, water and clay in Balboa Park's canyons, for children aged 2 to 5 and the grown-up who comes with them.
For Kids · Family-friendly
Kids aged 8 to 14 learn to find their way, track wildlife, build a shelter and give basic first aid on real trails, and earn a Junior Ranger badge.
For Kids
Kids aged 10 to 15 learn Python by building their own 2D arcade game, then everyone plays each other's games at the showcase.
