Children enjoy last year’s Hooray for Winter activities. Photo courtesy of Lake Forest Department of Parks and Recreation.
LAKE FOREST/LAKE BLUFF — People who have spare time between holiday shopping and preparation have a variety of activities to choose from around Lake Forest and Lake Bluff through Dec. 31 ranging from open gym to a paddle tennis tournament to a computer coding class.
When Lake Forest High School alum and Stanford University computer science graduate student Konstantine Buhler comes home for the holidays he likes to teach, according Gorton Community Center Program Director Catherine Yehle.
Buhler will offer a Christmas coding class from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Dec. 28 and 29 at the Gorton Community Center for $199, according to Yehle.
“When he comes home at Christmas he loves to teach kids coding and their parents like to send them,” Yehle said.
For less structured activity, there will be plenty of open hours at the Lake Forest Recreation Center and the Wild Life Discovery Center, according to Sally Swarthout, the director of Parks and Recreation. She said there will also be “Hooray It’s Winter” for preschoolers from ages 3 to 7.
“We have winter activities like cooking, art, science and play,” Swarthout said.
The program will be held in the Everett Park Room from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Dec. 22, 23, 29 and 30. She said the Wildlife Discovery Center will be open indoors from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. during the Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays of winter break and outside from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. the same days.
The gym at the Lake Forest Recreation Center will have activities from 5:15 a.m. to 9:15 p.m. every day but Dec. 24, 25, 31 and Jan. 1. The center will be closed on Christmas and New Year’s Day and will shut down early Dec. 24 and 31, according to the schedule contained on the website.
Fitness walkers will have the run of the gym from 5:15 to 7 a.m. every day it is open the rest of the year except Dec. 26 and 27.
Adults and high school students take over from 7 to 9 a.m. each day the gym is open except Dec. 26 and 27 and again from 7 to 9:15 p.m. Dec. 22, 23, 28, 29 and 30. There will also be adult open gym from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and again from 3 to 4:45 p.m. Dec. 26 and on Dec. 27 from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m.
Families will have exclusive times from 5 to 7 p.m. all days when the gym is open except Dec. 24, 26 and 27. On Dec. 26, family time will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and twice Dec. 27—from 9 to 11 a.m. and from 2 to 3:30 p.m.
There is also family time set aside when preschoolers can participate with a caregiver other than a parent. Those times are from 9 a.m. to noon Dec. 22, 23, 28, 29 and 30.
In Lake Bluff there will also be abundant open gym and a paddle tennis tournament from 10 a.m. to noon Dec. 31 at the paddle tennis courts, according to Lake Bluff Park District Executive Director Ron Salski. The tourney is for members only.
The gym will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. for ages 7 and up Dec. 22, 23, 29 and 30, from 9 a.m. to noon Dec. 24 and 31 and closed Dec. 25 and Jan. 1. There will also be pickle ball from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Dec. 28. Times are subject to change. Updates can be found on the park district website.
Basketball is a major open gym activity over winter break. Photo courtesy of Lake Forest Department of Parks and Recreation.