February It Figures

Fit Facts

Percent of children’s trips from home in the 1960s that were by car: 40

Percent today: 75

Percent of eligible children who take advantage of their school’s free and reduced-price breakfast program: Less than 50

Amount Kellogg’s awarded nine school districts to fight childhood obesity by encouraging greater participation: $300,000

Number of Kellogg’s cereals the Environmental Working Group included in the “10 worst for kids” list, based on their sugar content: 5

Percent sugar by weight of Kellogg’s Honey Smacks, which tops the list: 56

Percent drop in childhood obesity in Philadelphia in the four years since the city’s schools removed sugar-sweetened drinks from vending machines and fryers from cafeterias: 4.5

Celebration Stats

Average pounds of avocados consumed in guacamole on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 3: 71.4 million

Average pounds of chicken wings consumed: 100 million

Number of cupcake retailers that sprang up nationwide in the past decade: More than 400

Number of languages Angie Dudley’s seminal cookbook on cake pops has been translated into: 11

Amount raised for 25 charities by EchoAge, a website created by two Toronto moms to promote charitable giving instead of unwanted gifting at children’s birthday parties: More than $1 million

Number of children treated in emergency rooms every year for bounce-house injuries: 11,000

Sources: Education Week, Entertainment Close-Up, CBS News, Publix Family Style, ADWEEK, Redbook, Chron.com

FlexSchool

Our mission is to provide an engaging&nbsp;learning experience in a supportive environment where students are free to explore their&nbsp;passions, embrace their challenges and find a community of teachers and friends who&nbsp;understand and accept them as they are. Academics: To meet the unique needs of gifted and 2e learners &ndash; students who may have co-occurring&nbsp;learning challenges along with their gifts &ndash; we provide a gifted-level curriculum with built-in&nbsp;scaffolding, developed by credentialed experts in both gifted education and special education,&nbsp;as well as subject-area experts. Small, discussion-based classes ensure our students can&nbsp;engage in stimulating conversation with intellectual peers while receiving individualized attention&nbsp;and support. Talent Development and Experiential Learning: Central to our program is our strengths-based, interest-based approach to learning. All&nbsp;FlexSchool students pursue personal passion projects and choose from a diverse menu of&nbsp;enrichment activities and electives designed to support exploration and talent development. Our&nbsp;signature FlexFriday experiential learning program provides essential connections between&nbsp;classroom learning and the real world. Executive Functioning and Learning Support: All FlexSchool students have access to an extensive range of accommodations, including&nbsp;breaks as needed, daily executive functioning support, flexible seating, extended time, assistive&nbsp;technology and more. Learning Specialist support is available on every FlexSchool campus. Social-Emotional Learning and School Counseling: Our caring team of certified school counselors, under the guidance of a consulting psychologist,&nbsp;provide robust social-emotional learning and social pragmatics programming. Students are&nbsp;welcome to visit the school counselor at any time &ndash; no appointment necessary. FlexSchool&nbsp;counselors also maintain a collaborative relationship with parents and outside providers. Rolling admissions: We understand that student needs don&rsquo;t always neatly align with the academic calendar, so&nbsp;FlexSchool admits students on a rolling basis. To learn more, join FlexSchool founder Jacqui&nbsp;Byrne live via Zoom for a Virtual Open House. To receive a call from our admissions team,&nbsp;inquire online, email us at [email protected] or call 908-279-0787.

Camp Lee Mar

A private 7 week residential summer program offering a unique curriculum incorporating a strong Academic and Speech program with traditional camp activities. Our campers flourish at Lee Mar due to the structured environment we provide which allows our campers to feel comfortable and secure. Careful study is made of parent input, school (IEPs), camper interview, etc., so that the interests and needs of each child can best be determined for suitable grouping prior to the camper arriving. At Lee Mar the children find comfort and friendship with children of similar age and functioning level. From this foundation we encourage our campers to embrace and learn new skills and have new experiences which they can build upon on their return home. We also focus on building friendships which last throughout the year, as well as learning how to cope with the dynamics of group situations. Development of the whole child is our goal. We work hard at improving the daily living, social, and life skills of our campers, while giving them the happiest summer of their lives!

Family Speech Center

Family Speech Center has been servicing children, adolescents, and adults since 2003. Our Speech-Language Pathologists are trained professionals who evaluate and diagnose adults and children to identify specific speech, language and swallowing difficulties. Once the communication difficulties are assessed and identified, our Speech-Language Pathologists develop and implement a therapy plan individualized to meet a client&rsquo;s needs. Our staff has experience with many types of communication disorders and difficulties, including language delay and weak vocabulary skills, articulation/phonological disorders, myofunctional disorders, apraxia, language learning disabilities, auditory/language processing difficulties, fluency disorders, and pragmatic/social disorders.