My son (13) has a home economics class and they are doing a section on family development.

They have a home economics class starting in middle school here. It's called F.A.C.S. or Family and Consumer Science. It's what used to be classic home economics in older populations. A lot of schools don't have this program anymore . I think it's great. I we t to the sane school and we had it then as did my 4 siblings.He is on the child development unit and they are given sacks of flour they have to treat like a baby for a week. Flour babies! They do have the electronic dolls in the highschool but middle school is too early for that expense.He has a log to fill out for 24 hrs a day. Making them think about what a baby would logically need doing for those 24 hrs such as feeding, changing, sleeping, playing, burping. All those things. And then she gives them 3 questions to answer everyday in 100 words or more. Things like discribeing your day with the baby and what needed done. Then some questions like what did you find challenging for the day with a baby.It's a week long exercise to help them realize how much work children are even if they are fake. And just imagine if it was real. I do love this exercise. And yes they have to carry them at school with them all day. He has a weights class for his last hour so he can't watch the baby so they have to ask their teacher to "babysit" (hold the flour in a designated safe area and sign a sheet of paper. So no leaving your baby in a locker all day!He isn't liking the exercise so much and he's an only child. He has never been raised with babies or helped with them so he is pretty clueless about all the work. So I helped him with his first log for the evening at home. I "watched" the baby so he could do his chores. So about an HR on the log. Then made him think about how long it's been since the last feeding, diaper change, how long she has slept and when is bathtime, bedtime, feeding routine. What is the next time you think a baby would need changed. Would she need to eat again, how long it would take to put her back to sleep after that diaper change and feeding.He's not really waking up at 2am to do all this, but he does need to think about it and plan accordingly . It may seem silly but hopefully he will get the point by the end. And yes the flour baby is a girl. They had to draw it out of a hat. The teacher tries to keep the sex accurate to what currant statistics say the boy:girl ratio is at the time. They do need to come up with their own names and some other details.His cat was pissed that his boy didn't get to pay attention to him because he was busy doing homework a lot longer then normal and did try pawing at it so I said think about what your cat would be doing if that was a real baby. And you do get points off of that bag is damaged. So maybe stop your cat because he will try to throw it off the table.They are encouraged to actually wrap up the baby in a "blanket". And the teacher encourages the parents to actively make the make the kids care for the well being of the baby. So now throwing it on the bed and forgetting about it all evening.Day one is in the books. via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/32X9AYR