Every program in this guide already tells its own families what it offers. What none of them can tell you is how it stacks up against the other ninety-five. That comparison only exists if someone is tracking all of them, which is the entire reason this site exists.
So this is not a list of our favorites. We do not rank programs, and nobody pays to be here. This is what is actually running in Lodi this fall, organized the way a parent actually decides: by your kid's age, and by what you can spend.
The short answer
96 programs are running in Lodi this fall, counting both fall-season programs and year-round ones that take new kids anytime.
They break down like this:
| Category | Programs | |–-|–-| | Sports | 31 | | Enrichment (art, cooking, science, theater) | 27 | | Dance | 11 | | Martial Arts | 11 | | Gymnastics | 5 | | Camps | 4 | | Swimming | 4 | | Music | 3 |
53 of them take kids under 6. 62 take teenagers. Four cost nothing at all. Three are built for kids with disabilities.
You can filter all of them yourself on the [Lodi program directory](https://lodikidsactivities.com) by age, category or season.
The resident discount most parents never notice
This is the single most useful thing in this guide, and you only see it when you put the programs next to each other.
City of Lodi Parks and Rec runs a large share of the fall catalog out of Hutchins Street Square, and almost every one of those programs has two prices: one if you live in Lodi city limits, one if you do not. The gap is not consistent, and that is the part worth knowing.
- Ballet Pre-School, ages 3-5: $79 resident, $150 non-resident. That is nearly double.
- Ballet Levels I-V, ages 7-17: same split, $79 versus $150.
- Skyhawks Soccer, ages 6-13: $92 resident, $100 non-resident. About 9%.
- Youth Tennis, ages 5-14: $89 resident, $97 non-resident.
- Young Bakers Academy, ages 7-14: $206 resident, $226 non-resident, plus a $50 supply fee.
- Piano Lessons, ages 6-17: $282 resident, $307 non-resident.
If you live outside city limits, the dance programs are where the non-resident penalty actually stings. On the sports side it is closer to a rounding error. Worth checking your address against city limits before you assume, because plenty of Lodi-area addresses are not inside them.
Free in Lodi this fall
Four programs cost nothing. Three of them are at the Lodi Public Library at 201 W. Locust St.
- Chess Club, all ages, Mondays.
- Paws to Read, ages 5-12, Wednesdays. Kids read aloud to a therapy dog, which is a much bigger deal than it sounds for a hesitant reader.
- Fiber Arts Thursdays, ages 8-17, Thursdays.
- Lodi Tee-Rexes, adaptive baseball for kids on the autism spectrum, free. Their fall schedule and field were still being set when we checked, so contact the organizer before you plan around it.
If your kid is under 6
This is the deepest part of the Lodi catalog. 53 of the 96 fall programs take kids under 6. A few of them:
- Skyhawks Tot Multi-Sport, ages 2-5, Thursdays at West Park. $93 resident, $101 non-resident. Rotates through several sports rather than committing a three-year-old to one.
- Ballet Pre-School, ages 3-5, Tuesdays and Fridays at the Thomas Theatre Gallery. $79 resident.
- Tots Tap and Tumble, ages 3-8, Mondays at the Thomas Theatre. $79 resident.
Toddler programs are also where year-round options matter most, because you are rarely trying to line a two-year-old up with a school-year season.
Ages 6 to 12
The widest range of choices, and where price varies most.
On the sports side, Skyhawks runs a block of six-week classes out of West Park and Kofu Tennis Courts, mostly $92 to $99 for residents: soccer, flag football, pickleball and cheer, each split into beginner and intermediate so an eight-year-old is not stuck with twelve-year-olds. Junior Volleyball, ages 8-14, runs about $75 in the Lodi gyms.
On the enrichment side, Hutchins Street Square runs the most interesting things in town for this age:
- Jr. Chefs Academy, ages 7-14, Mondays. $50, which is the best value in the enrichment category.
- Intro to Painting, ages 5-13, Wednesdays. $57 resident plus a $10 supply fee.
- Jr. Crime Scene Detectives, ages 6-12. $170.
- Jewelry from the Earth, ages 6-12. $170.
- Clay Creations, ages 6-12, Mondays. $170.
Note the jump. There is a real cliff between the $50 to $60 single-day classes and the $170 multi-day ones. Both are labeled "class" on the city catalog, so read the days before you assume.
Teenagers
62 of the 96 fall programs list an upper age of 13 or higher, which is more than most parents expect. The honest picture is that a lot of those are wide-range listings (a martial arts school that takes ages 5 to 17) rather than programs designed for teenagers specifically.
Genuinely teen-oriented options this fall include Ballet Pointe and Pre-Pointe (ages 9-18, Tuesdays and Thursdays), Fiber Arts at the library (8-17, free), Changing Faces Theater (8-15, $175 for eight weeks, with separate teen and kid nights), and Piano Lessons through the city (6-17).
If your kid has a disability
Three programs in the fall catalog are built for kids with disabilities rather than just open to them:
- Adaptive Soccer (SPARK), ages 5-13, Wednesdays at Villa Fiore Park. $62.70.
- Adaptive Swim Lessons, ages 5-12, Mondays and Wednesdays at Enze Pool.
- Lodi Tee-Rexes, adaptive baseball, free, schedule pending.
Three out of ninety-six is not many. If you run an adaptive program in Lodi that is not here, we want it listed, and listing is free.
What we do not know
Being straight about the gaps, because a guide that pretends to know everything is worse than useless.
Some programs do not publish a price. Of the 96 running this fall, 62 have a real number attached. The rest say "varies" or "contact us," usually because tuition depends on how many days a week your kid attends. We show you the text they published rather than inventing a number.
We do not publish spot counts. You will not see "3 spots left" anywhere on this site. We pull program data periodically, not live, and a seat count that is a day old is worse than no seat count. When a program tells us it is full, we say full. Otherwise we send you to them.
Some listings still need a phone call. A handful of Lodi programs publish nothing online, or publish it as an image a computer cannot read. We are working through those by hand rather than guessing.
We are not ranking anyone. No program paid to appear here, no program can pay to appear here, and we did not pick winners. If you want our opinion, ask us at [hello@lodikidsactivities.com](mailto:hello@lodikidsactivities.com) and you will get a real one.
Start here
Browse the full fall catalog by age, category and price on the [Lodi Kids Activities directory](https://lodikidsactivities.com). It is free, there is no login to look, and there are no ads.
If you would rather just ask, the [Kyds Activities app](https://lodikidsactivities.com/app) lets you type what you want in plain English and it finds the program. Free on iPhone and Android.