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SeaWorld San Diego Offers Unlimited 2019 Admission for Pre-Schoolers, Teachers

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SeaWorld San Diego is offering some fun advantages to attract more visitors – unlimited admission passes for local pre-schoolers and teachers!

Parents with kids ages 5 and under living in San Diego and Orange Counties can take advantage of the offer called the SeaWorld Preschool Fun Card. Priced at $20 for a limited time only, the Preschool Fun Card allows kids to ride, climb, splash and play all year long at SeaWorld. The pass doesn’t include parking or separately ticketed special events and there are some 2019 blackout dates: May 26, July 4-5, July 27, August 3, August 10, Sept. 1, and Dec. 29, 2019.

Dolphins at SeaWorld San Diego
Image © SeaWorld

With tons of seasonal events geared toward youngsters in 2019 (including the Sesame Street Party Parade, SeaWorld’s Halloween Spooktacular and Christmas Celebration), a Preschool Fun Card is a no brainer!

Parents interested in getting more information and registering can visit this page on SeaWorld.com. Guests should then print and bring the confirmation along with a valid form of ID for the child (a copy of a certified birth certificate or travel passport) to any ticket window at SeaWorld.

Redemption and first use must occur by April 30, 2019.

Kansas teen to get high school, Harvard diplomas in 1 month

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ULYSSES, Kan. (AP) — A 16-year-old Kansas boy will soon earn his high school diploma — and a few days later he’ll travel to Harvard to collect his bachelor’s degree.

Ulysses High School senior Braxton Moral will attend both commencement ceremonies in May, becoming the only student to successfully pursue a four-year high school degree and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard at the same time, The Hutchinson News reported .

Ulysses High School senior Braxton Moral sits for a portrait at the school in Ulysses, Kan., on Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2018. The 16-year old said his fellow students at the high school often treat him just like any other student, although they do like to tease him about his expected graduation from Harvard University a few weeks before he graduates from high school. Moral works on his Harvard studies three hours each day at high school. He also participates in other school activities such as weights, scholars bowl, debate and tennis. (Sandra J. Milburn/The Hutchinson News via AP)

Harvard has changed the rules, Braxton’s father Carlos Moral said, so his son will “the one and only” reaching that milestone. Braxton Moral will be 17 when he gets his diplomas.

Carlos Moral said they began to realize their son was special when he was in the third grade.

“They told us: ‘You need to do something. He’s not just gifted. He’s really, really gifted,'” he said.

Braxton Moral skipped the fourth grade.

The Ulysses school district allowed him to take some high school classes while he was still in middle school. Before high school he took a class offered at Fort Hays State University. Then he was admitted into Harvard.

Braxton Moral simultaneously studied at the high school and the Harvard Extension School. The program typically serves adults who work and can’t attend classes on campus full time.

Ulysses High School math teacher Patsy Love served as the proctor for the Harvard program, administering Moral’s tests in Kansas. Moral spent the summer before his junior year at Harvard’s campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“We constantly are monitoring Braxton to make sure he is not too overwhelmed,” said Julie Moral, Braxton Moral’s mother. “No achievement is worth him being unhappy.”

Braxton Moral is on track to graduate from the Bachelor of Liberal Arts program, with a major government and a minor in English, said Harry Pierre, associate director of communications for Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education.

Braxton Moral said he hopes to attend Harvard Law School next.

“Politics is end game for me,” he said, though he’s still too young to vote.

Child abuse climbs after Friday report cards, study says

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(AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File)

By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer

Child abuse increases the day after school report cards are released — but only when kids get their grades on a Friday, a study in Florida suggests.

The curious finding startled researchers, who had figured abuse might go up regardless of the specific day kids got their grades.

But their study of reports to a child abuse hotline that included broken bones, burns and other confirmed abuse found otherwise. An increase only occurred on Saturdays after a report-card Friday. Though overall rates were small, there were almost four times more cases on those Saturdays than on other Saturdays. No apparent connection between report cards and abuse was found on other days of the week.

“Anecdotally, we know a lot of parents will spank their children or use corporal punishment if they’re unsatisfied with their school work,” said University of Florida psychologist Melissa Bright, the lead author.

That punishment may become abusive when kids don’t have school the next day and parents think injuries might be more likely to go unnoticed, the researchers said, noting that teachers are required to report suspected child abuse. Or, it could be that severe punishment is less likely on weekdays when parents are too busy to focus on report cards, Bright said,

But she acknowledged those theories are speculation and that the findings aren’t proof.

The study was published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics.

The researchers reviewed calls to a Florida child abuse hotline and school report card release dates in most of Florida’s 67 counties during the 2015-2016 academic year. Nearly 2,000 cases of physical abuse in kids aged 5 to 11, confirmed by child welfare authorities, were included.

There was an average of slightly more than 0.6 cases of abuse per 100,000 children on Saturdays after a report-card Friday compared with slightly less than 0.2 cases per 100,000 children on other Saturdays. The average was less than one per day because so many days were included in the analysis. But in a state like Florida, with a school-age population of just over 3 million kids, this could amount to 19 cases of report card-related abuse compared to 5 on other Saturdays, the researchers said.

Outside experts noted study limitations, including no evidence that kids who were abused had received poor grades and no information on when parents first learned of kids’ grades. But they said the study was useful for highlighting that child abuse and corporal punishment are still too common even though rates have declined since the 1990s. Rates were 9 per 1,000 U.S. kids in 2016 compared with 13 per 1,000 in 1990.

Dr. Robert Sege, a Boston pediatrician and Tufts University professor of medicine, said bad grades should be a time for parents to find out what’s causing their childrens’ struggles. “There’s no place for corporal punishment for school failure because it doesn’t work and misses the point.”

Sege is lead author of an American Academy of Pediatrics policy update released last month that recommends against corporal punishment and spanking.

An editorial published with study said the United States deserves a C-minus “for effective discipline strategies.”

Changing a report card release day may reduce some abuse, the editorial said, “but it will not solve the larger issue: It is still socially acceptable to hit a child to correct their behavior.”

Follow AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner at @LindseyTanner. Her work can be found here .

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

More sleep in Seattle: Later school start helps kids get zzz

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By CARLA K. JOHNSON, AP Medical Writer

SEATTLE (AP) — High school students are getting more sleep in Seattle, say scientists studying later school start times.

Teenagers wore activity monitors to find out whether a later start to the school day would help them get more sleep. It did, adding 34 minutes of slumber a night. They also reported less daytime sleepiness, and grades improved.

The Seattle School District changed from a 7:50 a.m. start time to 8:45 a.m. in the fall of 2016 for high schools and most middle schools, joining dozens of other U.S. school districts adopting later starts to help sleep-deprived teens.

Teenagers’ nightly sleep has decreased and most adolescents don’t get the recommended nine hours. One culprit: Light from devices that many teens use to chat, post and scroll long after dark.

Senior Hazel Ostrowski attends her first period AP statistics class at Franklin High School Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2018, in Seattle. High school students are getting more sleep in Seattle, according to a study on later school start times. Ostrowski was among a group at Franklin and another Seattle high school who wore activity monitors to discover whether a later start to the school day would help them get more sleep. It did, adding 34 minutes of slumber a night, and they reported less daytime sleepiness and grades improved. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

Franklin High School senior Hazel Ostrowski, who took part in the study, said sleeping later makes it easier to pay attention during class but she still struggles sometimes.

“I’ll wake up so tired I wish I could go back to sleep. At night, I’ll be on my phone and I just want to stay up,” she said.

Researchers worked with science teachers at two high schools to find out if students got more sleep after the change or simply stayed up later. Over two years, they recruited 178 sophomores to wear wristwatch-like monitors for two weeks to track activity and light exposure. Results were published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.

The scientists compared sleep habits of sophomores in spring 2016, before the change, to sleep habits of sophomores from spring 2017, after later start times went into effect.

Some measures held steady. Naps and weekend sleep schedules didn’t change. On school nights, only a few students stayed up later, not enough to greatly budge the average.

What changed was wakeup time, with morning activity starting about 45 minutes later on school days. Combined with a slight shift to later bedtimes for a few, the average sleep duration increased by 34 minutes.

Put another way, morning wakeup time shifted from 6:24 a.m. to 7:08 a.m. Falling asleep shifted only a tad, from 11:27 p.m. to 11:38 p.m.

“Given all the pressures keeping our teenagers awake in the evening — screen time, social media — this is a great thing to see,” said Horacio de la Iglesia, a University of Washington biology professor who led the study.

Digging deeper, researchers analyzed schoolwide data on first-period punctuality and attendance. Of the two high schools, the one in a more affluent area showed no difference year to year. But the school in a poorer area had less tardiness and fewer absences after the change, a hint that later start times could help with socioeconomic learning gaps, the researchers said.

Exam scores and other grades in the science classes increased year to year by a small margin, but the authors acknowledge that teachers’ views on the later start time could have unconsciously boosted the grades they gave.

Most U.S. middle and high schools start before 8:30 a.m., contrary to an American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation, said University of Minnesota researcher Kyla Wahlstrom, who studies the issue.

School districts resist, she said, because later start times disrupt bus schedules and sports practices, and rob parents of afternoon teenage baby sitters to watch younger kids.

Prior studies relied on students recalling how much they slept. This was the largest to use a stronger measure, the wearable monitor, she said.

Bringing the research into classrooms made it a learning experience for students, Wahlstrom said, “a brilliant way to do it.”

Follow AP Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson on Twitter: @CarlaKJohnson

The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Puppeteer who played Big Bird on ‘Sesame Street’ retiring

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WOODSTOCK, Conn. (AP) — The puppeteer who has played Big Bird on “Sesame Street” is retiring after nearly 50 years on the show.

FILE- In this April 10, 2008, file photo puppeteer Caroll Spinney is interviewed during a break from taping an episode of “Sesame Street” in New York. After nearly 50 years on the show Spinney is retiring. Spinney tells the New York Times that Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018, will be his last day on the program, which he joined from the start in 1969. In addition to Big Bird, the 84-year-old was also Oscar the Grouch. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

Caroll Spinney announced in a statement Wednesday that he’s handing over Big Bird and his other character, Oscar the Grouch, to younger performers. The 84-year-old joined “Sesame Street” at its inception in 1969.

Spinney says he didn’t feel like his work was important until Big Bird helped him find his purpose.

Spinney says the physical requirements of performing the characters had become difficult and he developed problems with his balance. He stopped doing the puppeteering for Big Bird in 2015 and now only provides the voices for him and Oscar.

His apprentice, Matt Vogel, will succeed him in the Big Bird role. Vogel also plays Kermit the Frog.

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