Final exams are looming for college students … and soon, for high schoolers too. So here’s a Fab Five of exam survival tips from nutritionist Jana Klauer, author of “The Park Avenue Nutritionist’s Plan,” who says “all-nighters and a close personal relationship with the candy machine on your hall should not be a rite of passage for college students.”

1. Eat breakfast. Include protein and calcium at every meal and, says the good doctor, avoid high fats before a test. They can make you sleepy.

2. Stockpile healthy snacks: fresh and dried fruits - blueberries, apples, oranges, bananas; low fat cheeses; healthy yogurt (i.e., not sugar-laden); nuts; low-fat Fig Newtons; bottled water and seltzers.

3. Put down the books every few hours and go outside for a walk or run. Bring an exercise buddy and spend at least 15 minutes getting your heart rate up.
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1. If you can still wrangle a ticket or two to “The Little Prince,” a co-production of the San Francisco Opera and Cal Performances at Berkeley’s ZellerbachHall, this weekend, do it! The three remaining performances are nearly sold out, so if you strike out at the box office, we’ve got two suggestions. Pick up the BBC version on DVD, settle into a comfy chair with your favorite little someone and bask in the lyrical heavenliness. Or…

2. For more flights of musical fancy, check out the Gold Coast Chamber Players Saturday at 8 p.m. at Lafayette’s Acalanes Performing Arts Center. The program, which is wonderful for grown-ups and kids 6 and up, includes William Bolcom’s “Fairy Tales for Viola, Cello and Bass,” which sets “The Frog Prince,” “The Fisherman and His Wife” and “The Hare and the Hedgehog” to music. (Tickets: $10-$30).
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LATEST NEWS: It was San Diego State’s administration and campus police who called in the DEA for an investigation that quickly focused on Fraternity Row and Theta Chi, in particular, where six members were running a slick drug business that included recruiting younger members as “apprentices” to learn the operation. Lovely. Suppose they learned that in business class? Meanwhile, parents and students protested yesterday on campus that the university should be focusing its efforts on drug abuse treatment instead of tough enforcement. Ahem. Because drug dealers are just misunderstood?

Posted Wednesday: It has not been a good week for college kids - or the grown-ups who love them. First came horrifying news of an alcohol-fueled brawl in a UC Berkeley sorority parking lot and the stabbing death of a promising student, who would have graduated with honors later this month.

Then, came news of a massive drug bust at San Diego State, where more than 100 people - including 75 students - were arrested yesterday. SDSU’s Theta Chi (that’s their emblem to your left) and five other fraternities have been suspended, pending investigation of claims that members were openly dealing drugs in their frat houses and on campus. The arrested students were suspended, banned from final exams, and evicted from campus housing. Among them: one potential felon-to-be who would have graduated this month with a degree in criminal justice, and another who would have received his master’s degree in … wait for it … homeland security.

We’ve logged a lot of hours on college campuses in recent years, and sat through more than a few parent orientations and welcome speeches. What every one had in common was the “we’re not talking about the keggers of your college years” lecture. And every time, we watched as parents rolled their eyes and checked their watches.
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That’s gifted Bay Area bassoonist Karla Ekholm and French horn player Nicky Roosevelt from the Oakland Symphony’s Five Chair Wind Quintet performing for kids at Richmond’s Martin Luther King Community Center last month - and man, we wish we’d been there because this looks like way too much fun. It also looks like a primo candidate for a new caption, no? Click “comments” to add yours, and we’ll send the cleverest caption-writer a couple of hot-off-the-press children’s books.

And now for last week’s winner…
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(”Waiting for Baby” is a closer look at adoption and my family’s personal experience as we go through the process. It will appear every Wednesday in the aPARENTly Speaking blog.)

The idea of adopting initially played on a major insecurity of mine: What if the birthmother changed her mind? I wrongly assumed ‘closed’ adoption would provide a safety net against such a thing. Maybe sending the birthmom letters and photos once a year would be OK, I relented. But I didn’t want her having a relationship with my baby.

A year later, it’s hard to admit my naivety , ignorance, and yes, selfishness. As fortune would have it, our decision to adopt domestically eventually led my husband and me to the Independent Adoption Center (IAC) in Pleasant Hill. Its founder was among the first to practice open adoption — more than 20 years ago, when most adoptive families harbored the same fears that I had. My husband and I entered the IAC’s information session with wariness.

Could we really embrace an open adoption — and in essence, a lifelong relationship with a birthmother? Very quickly, the question became, how could we not?

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There’s a tempest brewing in California High’s baseball dugout, after a San Ramon Valley family accused coaches of giving members of their year-round, non-school team prized JV and varsity positions that left other players out in the cold. In essence, coaches were playing favorites, the family charged, with players who’d paid to play.

Frankly, it’s a common complaint, particularly in prosperous suburban areas where kids play high-octane, year-round ball, and their parents routinely hire private pitching/batting/whatever mentors to help their kids excel. In this case, school officials investigated and found no evidence of preferential treatment, but one of the coaches was removed halfway through the season, so commence with the dot-connecting.

Having had four kids play nearly every kind of aquatic and field sport for the last decade and a half, we’ve heard similar charges lobbed every time someone’s kid gets cut from a varsity team or doesn’t get as much playing time as mom or dad expects — and we have to say, this is a complicated issue.
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Fascinating story in today’s Times on the sudden proliferation of school-related blogs. Some 8 percent of regular Internet users have a blog these days, according to a 2006 study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, and nearly 40 percent of adult Internet users — that’s 57 million people - read blogs. Huge numbers! So it’s not surprising that school advocates have started tapping into that. We’re so excited about this schools blog trend, we may have to add a whole new category to our blogroll.

We’re already fans of several Mt. Diablo-related blogs, including the one launched by Gary Eberhart and Paul Strange, the Mt. Diablo parent site, and the brand new Northgate High parent blog. (We enjoy dropping by Andre Gensburger’s always lively Mister Writer blog too - and may we just add our chorus of kudos to the Clayton Valley Women’s Ensemble for their choral triumph?)
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Thomas the Tank Engine, the beloved little British locomotive, is puffing his way into Sacramento and 45 other cities nationwide on a grand railroad tour. (You probably can’t tell, but I’m typing this with a British accent, so read on accordingly.) I say, jolly good time! The little tank engine rolls into Sacramento May 9-18, offering rides, a meet and greet with Sir Topham Hatt, and an imagination station with plenty of kids’ activities. Get the scoop on the Sacramento hoopla here, and the nationwide tour schedule here. And if you go, snap some pics and send them our way. We’ll post the best of the bunch … and we know your kid is wayyyy cuter than Sir Topham.

An almost 2-year-old Antioch girl died Sunday after falling into a backyard pool. The child’s family was staying in the Antioch home while trying to find its own housing, according to Antioch police. (Read staff writer Matthias Gafni’s article here. Write an online condolence here.) The even more startling revelation is that this is the third accidental drowning by a toddler in Antioch in just over six months. Add to that a near drowning in Brentwood last month and you have a pattern that is too dangerous to be ignored.

Usually, I’m the last person to advocate for government intervention — I’d like to think my fellow citizens are responsible enough to do the right thing. Clearly, not everyone is. So perhaps it’s time for California’s politicians to make it illegal to have an unfenced pool. Ask any of the families who lost a child — none of them expected this could ever happen. That’s why they call it an accident. But just as we take precautions by placing kids in car seats and putting safety gates at the top of stairs, we should take precautions with our pools. That includes owners who don’t have small children. You never know when guests will include these children, or when a neighbor’s child might wander in. This is when better safe than sorry rules out everything else, including expense and how much a fence might detract from how pretty the pool looks. One drowning is a tragedy. Three in about six months is a major cry for help.

Too adorable to resist, that’s all we can say about this new picture book, “A Home for Dixie,” written by a New Jersey high schooler. And for this week’s book giveaway, we’re pairing it with an equally heartwarming DVD, “Mist, The Tale of a Sheepdog Puppy.” All puppies, all the time. And all you have to do to win the pair is share a tail, er, tale, about your favorite childhood pet, or at least share fuzzy wuzzy’s name. (Or fishy wishy. We’re not dog-centric here.)

So here’s how to play (although we know Emily N, whose saga of a torturous flight with the kids won last week’s  giveaway, already knows this!). Click “comments” and tell us about your favorite pet, and we’ll draw a winner this weekend.