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Children's Plays in Plano are produced by The Classics and Plano Children's Theater. Typically, their schedules are distributed to PISD students at school. To find out about their upcoming features and ticket prices, contact them at:

Well, a little history, anyway... Heritage Farmstead is our very own local link to the times of yesteryear. It is an early 19^th-century Plano farm that is now available to the public for tours and peeks into the lifestyle and customs of earlier times. It is located on 15^th, just east of the Custer Rd. intersection. Heritage Farmstead runs programs all year long for children of all ages and families. Their programs change with the seasons and offer special events for most holidays of the year. Weekday programs are available for preschoolers. Get details at their website:

Let's just say...if you live in Plano and you are looking for some type of class for your children...you have plenty of choices. The focus here will be on little-known or low/no-cost opportunities.

Plano Parks & Rec does offer classes year-round for everyone in the family - well, ages 18 mos. and up. If you do not already receive their brochure in the mail, pick one up for free at any Plano Library or Recreation Center. Classes are available for a wide range of interests: crafts, art, science, decorating, cooking, sports, dancing, exercise, outdoors, holidays...you name it! Sign-ups are run during certain time periods and some classes fill up quickly. Read the information about registration here:

Plano Parks & Rec offers swimming & water safety for children, plus other classes such as lifeguarding and aquatic exercise. The children's swimming classes are very popular and usually some of the first classes to fill up when each registration period begins for Parks & Rec. (Flashback to the old days of waiting for hours in a line that reached about a half-mile in length) Fortunately, Parks & Rec computerized their registration system a few years ago and there are more locations that you can go for the process. Although you can phone-in to sign up about 2 days into the registration period, I recommend that you appear in person on the first day of walk-in registration at the earliest hour of the nearest Rec Center to register for kids' Swimming classes.

OK, some of you are considering lessons in backyard pools with private instructors. Those classes can get rained out and you may prefer not to visit some unfamiliar home for the few weeks of the lessons. The Parks & Rec classes are held in the indoor aquatics facilities in east and west Plano, so they go on - no matter what the weather. New businesses are in Plano that offer indoor pool instruction as well. Parks & Rec has one of the most economical programs available. Take your pick!

As for finding reviews of movies and trying to decide whether a movie is appropriate for kids, good luck. I find that no matter what the review or the movie rating, I am often due for a surprise of some material that I don't want my kids to see/hear. When I do look for reviews on the web, I check out these sites:

No, you don’t have to have your own swimming pool in your backyard to have fun swimming in Plano. There are some terrific alternatives that are very economical and enjoyable. Here is the link for finding Plano Parks and Rec facilities, including the pools listed below - click on individual facilities for maps:

This facility has it all: an outdoor AND indoor pool, basketball courts, indoor track, gym equipment and nearby baseball field.

The outdoor pool is great for families with young children. Most of the pool is shallow and also features a slide (must be about 40" tall to slide). There is some grass surrounding the pool for laying out a towel and claiming a small domain. Indoors is another pool, which features a very shallow area that babies can crawl in, swimming area with "buckets" that regularly pour out water onto happy swimmers below and another slide. The vast pool also has a separate deep end with diving boards and lanes for lap swimming. A "deck" is available to rent for parties, but they only reserve it for one party each day that it is available. By April, it was booked through August. This is worth checking out! Swimming fee is higher than at other pools at $3 each. I guess the fee is higher because Oak Point has twice as much fun!

LONG a family favorite for swimming in Plano is Jack Carter Park, run by Plano Parks and Rec. Jack Carter consists of a large pool with low and high-dive boards and a curly slide. Adjacent to the large pool is a wading pool, another location where families with small children spend many happy hours during the summer season in Plano.

Besides the new Oak Point Center, Plano has two other indoor pools, located at the Plano Aquatic Center and the Community Natatorium in Williams High School. The Aquatic Center is the place for many classes and swim meets, and so has shorter periods of time for open swimming. The indoor pools will always offer swimming without concerns about inclement weather or sunburn! All pools are available to reserve for parties as well. One year, in the midst of a crippling ice storm, we had a birthday swim party at the Aquatic Center. Even though it was freezing and icy outside, the show went on!

Find prices for admissions, hours, rules and locations for the Plano pools in the Plano Parks and Rec Leisure Guide that arrives in your mailbox quarterly. The Guide for Spring and Summer just arrived last week. If you did not receive one, get a free copy at a Rec Center or Library. Find the nearest rec center at this website:

The wading pool is for children up to age 7. Once a child reaches the age of 7 and "graduates" to the big pool, it may seem a little overwhelming at first. The big pool has only a small area of very shallow water, so children new to it may be spending a lot of time along the steps going into the shallow end.

This is a very important bit of information that you need to know about Plano Parks and Rec pools: only life-saving devices are allowed in the "big" pools. Floats and toys are only allowed in the wading pools. This can contribute to the challenge of making the transition to the "big" pool for new 7-year olds, but if you know this information in advance, you can better prepare for it.

There are many types of life-saving devices, but one that worked well for one of my children was a water-ski vest. It didn’t look funny, it was "approved" for Plano pools and it did the job. You have to go no further than Wal-Mart or Target to get a good water-ski vest for young children.

A very big part of my kids’ young lives was the Plano Library. It is actually a system of satellite libraries serving different regions of town, rather than one big library. When my children were preschoolers, I took them to story times at the library, and always found LOTS of terrific books to read to them at home. My favorite location at the time was Haggard, but in recent years we have seen major renovations and expansion of Harrington and Schimelpfenig, plus the addition of a brand new library, Davis. My theory is that since Haggard was the newest location at the time, it had the newest books. Rows and rows of great books with beautiful artwork and fun words. I had good luck just pulling books that looked good from the shelves, rather than looking for "award winners" from lists. Often the award winners were checked out, and we found many more wonderful books just by looking around. Find out the story time schedule here:

Be sure that you see if you’ve grabbed some "7 day" books, which have to be returned in one week. That is a great way to rack up some library fines, to forget that you checked out some 7 day books, only to be reminded of it when you go 2-3 weeks later to return your books and find that you have overdue fines on some of them.

While you are visiting the Plano Library website, be sure to check out the Preschool, Elementary, Young Adult and Parents sections listed on the left side of the Kids’ Page. These sections contain links and resources for more exploration.

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