Hello, homeschooling families.
We have a lot of you in our Kid News audience and want to make sure you're tuned in to the IXL Learning Platform.
It's a simple, award-winning way to boost skills and confidence in math, language arts, science and social studies.
IXL adapts to your students' level, gives them the right challenge at the right time and fits seamlessly into homeschooling routines.
And with awards, challenges, and well-deserved celebrations, IXL keeps kids motivated.
Kid News listeners also get a discount on monthly and annual plans.
Visit ixl.com slash kidnews to learn more.
That's ixl.com slash kidnews.
Good morning and welcome to Kid News.
I'm Kim.
Today is Thursday, September 4th, 2025.
And we begin with a potential sea change for school-age shots.
The state of Florida is now on the brink of becoming the first in the nation to end all vaccine mandates for kids.
The state's Surgeon General announced yesterday that he's working with the governor to make the change, but gave no timetable for when it might happen.
Currently Florida, like all states, require K-12 students to receive multiple doses of various vaccines to keep kids from getting diseases and infections like measles mumps tetanus chickenpox, polio and hepatitis.
Pro football is kicking off with a whole new way to watch.
The NFL season officially starts tonight as the Dallas Cowboys take on last year's Super Bowl champions, the Philadelphia Eagles in Philly.
It airs the old-fashioned way on network television.
Tomorrow night's game, however, slides exclusively to streaming.
The battle between the Kansas City Chiefs and LA Chargers moves to YouTube and will be the first ever NFL game for which fans will not need any sort of broadcast access to view.
It's expected to draw a massive audience.
The one concern?
According to The Athletic, YouTube's feed of Taylor Swift on the Kelsey Brothers New Heights podcast three weeks ago seemingly crashed when 13 million fans logged on.
The NFL live audience tomorrow night could be 20 times that or more.
Speaking of Swift and football, Commissioner Roger Goodell had a one-word response to a Today Show question about whether talks are underway for her to be this season's Super Bowl halftime performer.
His answer when pressed?
Maybe.
A California woman has become the fastest person to swim an extremely treacherous stretch of the Pacific Ocean.
32-year-old Catherine Breed of Mill Valley had to navigate frigid water, forceful currents and potential encounters with hungry white sharks to get from the Farallon Islands to the Golden Gate Bridge last week.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, she finished the 30-mile swim in a record time of 13 hours 54 minutes and 10 seconds.
Per record-keeping rules, she was not allowed to listen to music or wear a wetsuit.
Breed is only the seventh person and third woman to make the journey.
She said she was shivering from the cold and at one point almost begged her support crew to pull her out after patches of jellyfish stung her face and neck.
She warded off sharks with shark shields, battery-powered devices that emit electrical signals encouraging the sharks to turn away.
We may now know who won the massive Powerball prize or if the fifth largest US lottery jackpot is still up for grabs.
Numbers were drawn again last night for the 14 billion award, after the prior 40 drawings failed to produce a winner.
The record for drawings with no one claiming the grand prize is 42 set just last year.
According to the Associated Press, the odds of winning last night were 1 in 2922 million, meaning someone has a much better chance of becoming a movie star, astronaut or US president than they do cashing in on the top prize.
A zoo in England is celebrating the hatching of eight chicks that may be key to their species' survival.
Only 200 of the Socorro doves are believed to be living, according to the Good News Network, but the Chester Zoo is working on a plan to revive the ultra-rare species by facilitating their breeding and caring for the chicks after they hatch.
Zoo assistant team manager, Claire Rafe, describes the doves as brown, with shimmery feathers on their heads.
They have big personalities, too.
With the males being a bit aggro, they certainly aren't peace doves.
Socorro doves originally lived on an island off the coast of Mexico, but a naval base and the people and domestic animals that came with it eventually damaged the native wildlife, endangering the doves.
Still ahead, hula hoops?
Check.
Ukuleles?
Double check.
How one library is going way beyond books and the Dewey Decimal System.
But first, today's Kid News quiz.
Who will face off in the first NFL game of the season tonight?
The Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles.
How long did it take a California woman to swim 30 miles from the Farallon Islands to the Golden Gate Bridge?
13 hours, 54 minutes, and 10 seconds.
What kind of doves is an England zoo attempting to bring back from the brink of extinction?
Socorro.
According to the Associated Press, what were the odds of winning last night's Powerball lottery?
One in 292.2 million.
In today's Kid News Kicker, if you tend to think of books when you think of the library, you might want to rethink your thinking.
The Library of Things at Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick Maine, has more than 1500 items available for checkout.
Everything from a dumpling steamer to a ukulele to a heated leg massager to hula hoops.
The library also hosts repair cafes where volunteers and staff members help people mend broken things, and a program for cardholders to check out camping equipment.
According to the New York Times, this library of things was founded seven years ago by librarian Hazel Onsrud.
And while it isn't the only one in the US, it has no membership fee, making the free offerings relatively rare.
Onsrud says her goal is to make pricey items accessible and encourage people to buy less stuff.
We're meeting community needs, she says, in a globally responsible way.
And now, shout-outs for our teachers.
Mrs. Wallace's Room 9 Bears at Blanche Sprentz in Folsom, California.
Mrs. Tamarich's Eagles at Michael C. Riley in Bluffton, South Carolina.
Mrs. Armis' Vikings at North White School in Monon, Indiana.
And Mrs. Kosky's Ducks at Dorothy E. Lewis in Solon, Ohio.
Thanks for listening.
Please rate, review, subscribe, and share Kid News with all your friends and family.
And we'll see you back here for more Kid News tomorrow morning.
