by Aly Copp |

Fake babies, toy making and learning about the different stages of pregnancy are all subjects students explore in Child Development 1 as a freshman. Something a lot of people do not know is that if one continues to take Child Development throughout their high school career, they actually get to interact with children on a regular basis. The thing that makes this possible is the Early Bird Learning Center.

The Early Bird Learning Center is a lab school that the high school uses with the Child Development curriculum, so students can get a hands-on learning experience using the ideas of Child Development.  The Learning Center has a total of 19 kids in it this year, aging from 3 to 5 years old. The Learning Center is located in room 105 in the 100’s hallway. They have their own playground fenced in behind the school. The kids in the Learning Center eat their lunches in the teachers lounge. They have a choice to either bring their lunch from home or eat a cafeteria lunch.

“If I could change anything about the learning center, I wish we could have more children and actually be working in the Learning Center more than we already do.” Child Development teacher Ms. Giesler said.

As a sophomore, there is a choice of taking child development II, where the students set up stations and play in regards to physical, social, and emotional development. As a junior or senior, students get the opportunity to be in the Child Growth and Development class. This is a class where the high school students actually get to go and teach lessons to the preschoolers and come up with a developmental checklist to reflect what the student has learned in class and see how it relates to children and their developmental process.

“It’s fun to interact with the kids, and practice more in real life, rather than just learning from a textbook all the time,” sophomore Taelor Kirtley said. The sophomore students recently did a snack lab with the preschoolers, where they had to come up with a healthy snack that they could make alongside the children using picture directions.

Senior Halie Ewing and junior Brady Newland, who are in a child development class now, went to the Early Bird Learning Center when they were children.

“I think this is a good program,” Newland said. “Whenever I was in preschool here, I loved it whenever the bigger kids came in and hung out with us. And I’m sure the kids love it whenever we go over there now. I enjoy it, and I think they do too.”

The Learning Center has been around for 15 years.

“I was at the Learning Center the first year it ever opened, so we did a lot of new things,” Ewing said. “I had a high school buddy and they would always come over and do activities with us. I specifically remember making play dough in the culinary room. And one of the classrooms that I have a class in this year was my indoor recess room when I went to the Learning Center.”

Ewing said that she likes the Child Growth and Development class a lot because it gives her a good opportunity to work with the children. This is a good thing because she hopes to be a first grade teacher when she gets older. She also thinks it is cool how the children in the learning center, are kids of teachers throughout the district.

“I think my favorite experience each year is just seeing what my Growth and Development students learn from their experiences with the kids. It’s just amazing what they can pull from this experience,” Giesler said.