Hot weather, cool water, lead paint … the benefits of hydration are more than counteracted by the lead paint on these little darlings. The Consumer Product Safety Commission just yanked 18,000 of these Backyard & Beyond water bottles because the surface paint on the metal bottles contains excessive levels of lead.

Top East Bay school headlines this week …

A petition to transfer Northgate High and its Walnut Creek feeder schools out of the troubled Mt. Diablo district just passed a major legal hurdle. The county school board’s committee on district organization has accepted the petition and tentatively scheduled a public hearing for April 9 at 6 p.m. at Lafayette’s Acalanes High School.
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A new study says Mom was right all along. Eating breakfast is important. In fact, adolescents who eat that morning meal end up with a lower body mass index — in other words, starting your day with cereal or toast and eggs translates into leaner, healthier bodies. A University of Minnesota “EAT (Eating Among Teens)” study, published this month in the American Academy of Pediatrics Journal, followed 2,216 teens over five years, and compared their breakfast intake to their body mass index and weight. Teens who ate breakfast regularly ate more carbohydrates and fiber, but their fat intake dropped and activity levels rose. The theory is that what they’re eating raises glucose and insulin levels, which makes them feel more satisfied, and reduces the chances of overeating later in the day.

And, say experts, adults might want to pay attention too. Don’t just serve up the flapjacks or Cheerios. Sit down and have breakfast too.

If filling in SAT test bubbles is not your idea of a good time, you’ll be pleased to know that the University of California may abandon the SAT II two years from now.

Naturally, the College Board is concerned.(You thought the College Board was a board of college representatives, right? Um no. It’s the corporation that make the exams and reaps its gargantuan revenues.)
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Time for another blog giveaway, and this time we’ve got something to get the wiggles out — or in, as the case may be: “Pop Go The Wiggles.” It’s the latest, hot-off-the-press, nursery rhyme-centric DVD from that ridiculously popular Aussie kid band, The Wiggles. The DVD includes some of the most popular ditties in the Mother Goose oeuvre – “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” for example – and some that were new … to us, anyway. “There Was a Princess”?? “Murray Had a Turtle”??

So here’s this week’s challenge. Click “comments” and tell us about your favorite, not-so-well-known nursery rhyme. We’ll draw a name next weekend (Karin was last week’s winner, by the way! Congrats, kiddo!) and ship off some wiggly fun.

“Child Exploitation on the Internet”
March 27 at 11:30 a.m. at Walnut Creek Intermediate. Brown bag talk by cybersafety expert and police officer Steve DeWarns; sponsored by WCI and Acalanes’ “Surviving the Tweens” series. (Free.)

“Adolescents and Healthy Eating”
March 27 at 7 p.m. at Joaquin Moraga Intermediate. Speaker: Dr. Jane Fowler. Sponsored by Moraga Parent Ed. (Free, but rsvp)

“Childhood Matters: Academic Stress in the Pre-teen Years”
March 30 at 9 a.m. on 98.1 KISS-FM and 105.1 KOCN-FM. Rona Renner and Denise Pope, founder of Stanford University’s “SOS: Stressed Out Students,” discuss childhood stress.
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Sure hope your kid wasn’t planning on transferring to Harvard anytime soon. The Crimson gods just announced they will not accept any transfer applications for 2008-09 or 2009-10. Pity they didn’t announce it before starry-eyed Ivy-dreamers filled out their applications, got their references together and mailed everything in. Join the venting on the College Confidential discussion boards, or click here to follow in Rory Gilmore‘s footsteps and apply to Yale.

In happier college news, those same CConfidential forums offer up all manner of tasty tidbits. Our current fave is the “Freshman Year is Almost Over – What I Wish I’d Known Before” list. Here’s a sampling of advice…

1. “Don’t take a ridiculously hard course load your first semester,” writes Mochamaven. “You will be adjusting to an entirely new situation, and having a more moderate workload will really make your transition to college life easier. In high school you may have wowed people with your 7 APs in a year, but in college people don’t think a freshman juggling a whole bunch of advanced courses is cool — they think you’re nuts. Because you are.”
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San Diego schools – and schools nationwide – are grappling with vaccine exempters, families who refuse to innoculate their children. Unvaccinated kids don’t just harm themselves, says this morning’s New York Times article, they “present a danger to children who have had their shots — the measles vaccine, for instance, is only 95 percent effective — and to those children too young to receive certain vaccines.” A sudden outbreak of measles in San Diego County last month saw 12 children come down with the nearly eradicated disease. Nine had not had the immunization because their parents objected, the other three were too young to have been immunized. Your thoughts?
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Note to would-be felons: When shoplifting, it’s probably best to retrieve all your belongings – including your child – before leaving the store. In his haste to flee the scene of his crime, the meat department of a local supermarket, a Dutch thief left his 12-year-old son behind. When contacted by police, the guy refused to come back, saying the cops should call the boy’s mother instead.

Got any “Where’s Waldo” fans out there? Or Jason Bourne fans? Thanks to the folks at CollegeHumor.com, we’ve got something for everyone. Enjoy!