In the 30 years that educators around the world have been running RealCare Baby (Baby) programs, they’ve shared many teacher best practices with us that can help you get the most out of your program. From student activities to accessory organization, we get our best Baby program ideas from teachers. Educators from across the country have submitted their best practices and we’re excited to share them with you! In a recent webinar, Denise Dubois, Realityworks Senior FCS Product Manager; Co-Chair, Alliance for Family and Consumer Sciences shared a variety of tips we’ve heard from teachers for using Baby in the classroom. Read on to learn what Baby storage tips and time-saving ideas she discussed.
Teacher Best Practices
Let’s look at some best practices from teachers across the country.
Weekend Signup and Quiet Time
Gloria Woods Seward, a FCS teacher in Arkansas, has her students sign up to take Baby home for a specific weekend. One of her teacher best practices is to start the Babies at 4 p.m. each Friday and stop them at 7 a.m. on Monday. Woods Seward lets the students choose a single three-hour quiet time during the weekend as a courtesy.
Woods Seward ensures all diaper bags are ready to go at a moment’s notice. She suggests placing the wristband with the appropriate ID in a Ziploc® bag with a post-it note label indicating which Baby the bag belongs to. Woods Seward has her students dress their Baby in clean clothes and check that their diaper bag has an extra set of clothes and two diapers of different colors.
When Woods Seward gets Baby back, she ensures all items are returned and checks the level of care taken with the Baby, car seat, and equipment. She recommends placing all the clothes in a basket to be washed during the week, replacing them in the diaper bags before Friday. Woods Seward has volunteers use baby wipes to sanitize the Baby, car seat, and diaper bag.
Baby Practice and Surveys
Julie Coopet, a FCS teacher in Minnesota, designed a three-part Baby experience. One of her teacher best practices is to have students practice with Baby through demonstrations over several days. Each student who participates in the take-home experience completes three surveys. They take a pre-survey that asks how they feel about taking Baby home, a during-survey that asks a few reflection questions, and a post-survey that asks more in-depth questions about the experience.
Using Baby in Junior High and High School
Krysten Dane, a FCS instructor and MAFCS President in Minnesota, uses Baby in multiple classes. Junior high students first experience Baby in their babysitting unit, where they learn basic infant care. Dane sets the Babies up in interactive stations and has students work in small groups. Dane also sets up an iPad with a video clip and/or instructions to accompany the students’ activity guides.
At the high school level, students can take Baby home for a weekend. They spend their time in class practicing with the Babies before students take them home to help students get comfortable with the simulators and confident in their care skills. One of Dane’s teacher best practices is to offer an alternative assignment for students unable to take Baby home.
With so many Babies, staying organized is key. Dane tries to keep all clothes, bottles, diapers, IDs, student cards, etc. in the diaper bag that is then placed in the car seat and labeled for each corresponding Baby. She suggests programming the Babies the night before and scheduling the start time when you plug them in to charge to avoid scrambling to program them when students pick up their Baby.
Explore All of Baby’s Materials
Becky Stanbrough, a FCS teacher in Iowa, suggests looking through all materials that come with Baby as there are some hidden gems that sometimes get missed. For example, Baby includes a lesson on hypothermia and hyperthermia that Stanbrough likes to share with her students. Stanbrough has a whole lesson on this as Iowa has both extreme cold and hot weather conditions.
When Stanbrough’s students take Baby home, she wants them to treat it like a real child by thinking twice before making decisions that could be harmful to a baby, like leaving them in the car. One of Stanbrough’s teacher best practices is to emphasize how students might be questioned by people who don’t know Baby isn’t real. She tells them they may have the police called on them if a stranger hears Baby crying in their car.
Organization Tips
Totes and storage bins are great ways to keep Babies and their accessories together and organized. You can get a tote for each Baby that stores the simulator and all the items students need. Stacking totes also makes storage a breeze. You can even color code the totes with stickers on the outside. This can help identify different models that you’re currently using.
For accessories and supplies, you can store them in bins with a picture and the name of the Baby the bin belongs to on the front. This keeps all the accessories in one place for fast and easy student check out. Each item in the bin could have the Baby’s name written on it to make organization easy. Alternatively, you can store your Babies and accessories in a laptop cart with wheels for ease of transport.
When storing car seats, you can create a space for them with pictures of the Baby the car seat belongs to. This makes it easy for students to find the right spot to put their car seat when they return it. Another option is stacking the car seats on shelves, if you have car seats that stack well. Car seats can also be used to keep supplies and students organized. For example, you can line up in the car seats in the hallway with the students’ names on the wall.
Additional Resources
Looking for more teacher best practices and resources?
- Watch the full webinar on demand
- Read this blog to see more teacher best practices for Baby
- Access FREE infographics and posters here
I allow students to do an alternative assignment as well. It is on Canvas and it consists of four parts, each worth 25 points. One part contains questions about how they would rate their ability to care for a baby, what they do in their free time, how their parents would feel if they had a real baby before getting out of high school, etc. Another part consists of a choice of articles about teen moms, dads, pregnancy, etc. I have the articles linked in the assignment and they have to basically do a “book report” about it including why they chose the article, what the main points are and what they learned. The next part is to choose a topic, like if they think teen birth rates are increasing or declining, What struggles teen parents face that older parents do not, what they would do if they found out that they or a friend became pregnant, etc. and write a three paragraph essay on the topic. The final part is one where they create a Google Slide presentation about a day in the life of a teen parent. Each slide is about how different aspects of how a teens life would be affected if they had a baby. The aspects include school, social life, relationships with friends or parents, sports, etc.