Parenting 101
Ashley Castelli holds her twin flour babies, Quinton and Brooklyn, in her arms during class. Castelli chose to carry twins instead of a single baby for more of a challenge. Students in the ninth-grade health class at Canon-McMillan High School spent a week learning and experiencing the work it take to care for a baby through a program called Flour Babies.
Colton Cecil, left, and Tyler Eckles experience the effort it takes to clean and change a baby’s diaper during class. Students in the ninth-grade health class at Canon-McMillan High School spent a week learning and experiencing the work it take to care for a baby.
Alyssa Kroesen stands with her classmates and attempts to burp her baby during class.
Health education teachers Leah Antis, left, and Danielle Hewitt work with Sarah Meier, right, and her flour baby after class Wednesday.
The sound of babies crying signaled students like Colton Cecil that it was time to feed his baby during class.
They’re not the cutest or most cuddly babies, but they certainly are teaching some ninth-grade students at Canon-McMillan High School just how much time and effort goes into caring for a newborn.
Lara Antis, a second-year health teacher at Canon-Mac, along with fellow health teacher Danielle Hewitt, decided to teach 200 students what it’s like to care for a baby, or, in this case, a five-pound bag of flour.
This week, students carryied their “flour babies” everywhere they go, and learning about genetics, how to feed, burp and carry their child, experiencing the difficulty of finding baby-sitters, and getting an idea of just how much it costs.
“I wanted to add something new to the curriculum,” Antis said as she prepared her “babies” for class. “The kids are like, ‘It doesn’t look that hard. We watch ’16 & Pregnant.'”
The whole school was on board with the project, according to Antis.
“They’ve gone to the extreme of supporting,” she said of other teachers and administrators. One coach even said if students didn’t bring their babies to “day care,” they were going to run suicide drills.
The week began with a gender “reveal,” with each student picking a blue or pink pin from a container to determine the baby’s gender. Students were required to take the babies everywhere they went and keep an hourly log of where their children were. Students had to have the babies on their desks or in a designated day care area. Antis and Hewitt also brought in life-size baby dolls for other activities like feeding and changing diapers.
Parents got into the project as well, with some even volunteering to baby-sit the bags of flour. When one student accidentally left the baby at home, the student’s mother brought it to school with a note that said, “This is the last time I’m baby-sitting.”
When the project was announced, some students were excited and even dressed up their flour babies. But others were a bit hesitant.
“I was just curious about what the rest of the school would think,” said Samantha Germeyer, as she cradled her baby and researched possible illnesses. “It was fun the first day, and then heavy trying to carry (the baby) with my books.” Germeyer’s baby even went with her to soccer practice.
Germeyer’s neighbor in class, Colton Cecil, said he thought it would be weird carrying a baby around.
“I didn’t know what to do,” he said. “I didn’t have a kid yet.”
Antis’ Wednesday class began with something new: diagnosing illnesses. Then, students learned to feed and burp their babies. Some lucky students even got to change real diapers on plastic baby dolls with an added surprise.
Tommy Antle got to change a baby’s diaper earlier in the week, but he didn’t know that it was only filled with melted peanut butter cups.
“I almost puked,” he said as he watched others attempt to change a diaper. “If I ever have a baby, I’ll make my wife do it.”
Courtney Buchanan said she loves babies and was happy to learn more about them in health class.
“But it was harder than I thought,” she added as she cradled baby Branton in her arms. “I learned how much more responsibility it is. I definitely think we should do this every year … people just don’t know. But it’s so much more than that.”
Antis said she plans on bringing the assignment back next year, and while there haven’t been any problems so far, two students did break their babies by dropping their bags of flour.
But all school projects eventually come to an end, and students will say goodbye to their babies today as they send them off to the Canonsburg Food Pantry.