As of this year, the students in Child Development II had to take home the Real Care Baby SIMON. Last year was the first year that the class was able to have this baby. Mrs. Donahue, the Child Development teacher, said, “We applied for a grant two school years ago and then we bought him at the beginning of last school year. So last year was our first year with him and this is our second year with him.”
SIMON stands for “Simulation of a Newborn,” and he is a robot baby. There is a computer inside of him that makes him run on one of 15 typical newborn schedules. The purpose of this project is to have students see what it is like to take care of a newborn baby. Some of the tasks involved are feeding him, burping him, rocking or cuddling him, changing his diaper, and anything that a newborn would need. The assignment required students to take him home for one evening and care for him until the morning.
In a class with lots of hands-on activities, taking SIMON home is a great way to learn a lot. Mrs. Donahue said, “And I think with hands-on classes like this where we don’t have tests and quizzes and things like that. All of our grading is done through projects are done by projects and real-world experiences. If you are going to babysit or be a parent yourself one day this was a really good hands-on experience.”
A lot of students have trouble bringing him home because of the constant care that he needs. “I think for students the hardest part is just not knowing what to expect. Like you’ve never taken care of a baby before and you’re kind of just going into it with what I have told you in class or any research you have done on your own, but it’s really a brand new experience so you are just fumbling through it the first time which is why I do allow students to take him home twice if they are not happy with their score the first time,” said Mrs. Donahue.
Although taking him home is very difficult, it is very beneficial for students. This assignment allows students to learn how to care for a baby and to appreciate how much time and effort their parents put into caring for them. Mrs. Donahue said, “I think there are a lot of expectations that students have for what having a baby is like and this can kind of shift their perspective a bit and just kind of reinforce the idea that they probably want to be a bit older before they have kids themselves,” said Mrs. Donahue.
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A voicebox was passed out to students in the class with the following question: “What did taking the Real Care Baby SIMON home teach you?” The quotes listed below are the responses to the question.
“Taking the Real Care Baby SImone home taught me how serious having a child is and how taking care of them can take up a lot of your day.”
– Junior Abby Casko
“They taught me that the baby can be bipolar and that is how a real baby acts and that there is no schedule and will cry at any point in time.”
– Senior Charlotte Cope
“It taught me the responsibility of taking care of something and it showed me the difficulties of babies – especially during the night.”
– Sophomore Hayleigh Bruno
“It teaches you how a real baby acts like crying in the middle of the night, needing a diaper changed, eating, and needing attention.”
– Sophomore Paige Baker
“Taking SIMON home taught me that having to take care of a baby isn’t always fun and games. Some of the time it was good but most of the time the baby was always screaming and crying and you have to figure out what is wrong.”
– Junior Mya Drylie
“It taught me that taking care of babies is not always fun. It is very stressful to figure out what it needs while a baby is screaming at you.”
– Junior Madison Shaw
“It showed me how hard having a baby really is. It may seem easy, but you have to think you are taking care of another human. Especially the fact that the crying will happen whenever.”
– Sophomore Troy Manns
