Students enrolled in Powell High School’s Child Development class took home Real Care babies Oct. 20.

This is the fourth year Family and Consumer Sciences teacher Mrs. Kandi Bennett has required her students to take home and care for a Real Care baby.

“It’s really all about the development from conception through birth,” Mrs. Bennett said.

Students who take Mrs. Bennett’s class not only learn how to care for an infant but also the importance of beginning with a healthy relationship so that when a baby is born they can have a stable support system.

“We want our generations to have healthy, happy families,” Mrs. Bennett said. “And it’s an opportunity that not everybody gets to practice how to take care of an infant.”

The Real Care Babies are programed to follow a real newborn’s schedule. The students are in charge of feeding, changing, burping and rocking their baby.

“It was really tiring because the baby woke me up like every five seconds,” sophomore Jasmine Helfrich said. “It screamed a lot.”

When students take care of these babies they learn responsibility through meeting the baby’s’ physical needs. They also learn accountability for their own emotions and making sure they are treating the baby with love and care.