by Jolie Jackson
The Child Development classes at Friendswood High School took on a project the week of Dec 2. Students were assigned a confetti egg to care for as an “Egg Baby.”
“This project is an introduction into infants and their development,” Child Development Teacher Lisa Thames said. “It’s a fun EGGS-perience and opportunity for them to learn parenting skills and responsibility.”
Students were given Monday and Tuesday to decorate their egg babies and their babies’ carriers.
“I decorated my carrier as a castle because I thought it would be cute for my baby,” student Bella Garner said. “I wanted my egg to look like a baby model, so I gave her a jewel as a bib, false lashes, long hair, and even a beauty mark.”
Students took their egg babies to each class, keeping their babies safely enclosed in a carrier.
“This is similar to how it is when you have a baby in the real world,” Thames said. “The hospital requires you to bring your car seat and safely strap your baby in before you can leave. We do the same thing in our class, making sure their egg baby is in a safe carrier.”
Whenever a student needed to leave their egg, such as to go to the bathroom, a babysitter was assigned to watch over the egg baby. The owners had to be responsible and careful with their eggs for the entire duration of the project.
“It was very stressful taking my egg around the school because I was afraid it would get bumped and fall,” Brentan Castleberry said. “I held it extra tight around other people and I was careful about who I left my egg baby with.”
The project was documented in an online journal. This is where each egg baby was given a name, birth certificate, documented experiences, and babysitters.
“One of my pictures in my journal was with Leonardo, my egg, and I watching SpongeBob after braiding her yarn hair,” Garner said. “We get to make up fun activities that we did with our eggs and take pictures to document them.”
According to Ms.Thames, she hopes that students learn valuable skills to apply to their lives.
“This project teaches self-control, awareness, responsibility, being gentle, and thoughtfulness,” Thames said. “The goal is for our Child Development students to walk away with necessary skills and have fun, all while learning to take care of something else!”
