Mom and Dad Classes (Gamagori City, Aichi Prefecture)
This class was implemented to target pregnant mothers and their husbands with the aim of involving fathers actively in child-rearing, thereby reducing the burdens of giving birth and child-rearing for pregnant mothers.
The classes took place on a total of eight occasions. With the guidance of public health nurses and midwives, classes were held on a father’s role in childcare and ways to support mothers, as well as practical prenatal exercises and related supporting exercises, relaxation techniques and a class on breast milk and massage. The couples who took part afterwards said that it had been an enjoyable learning experience to take part in the classes together, and fathers who at first were embarrassed engaged seriously in the classes. This was a meaningful opportunity for couples to learn together about parenting.
▲Mom and Dad Class (Gamagori City, Aichi Prefecture)
Parenting Classes for Lower and Upper Secondary School Students the Parents of Tomorrow (Sakura City, Chiba Prefecture)
In Sakura City, residents and the local government have cooperated to form the Sakura City Association to Promote Home Education, which is involved in promoting various projects to support home education.
One of these projects is the “Understanding Parenting” class which takes place on 25 occasions throughout the year utilizing the Period of Integrated Study at Chiba Prefectural Sakura Higashi High School. In the first school term of the year, students begin by looking back to the time when they were born and comparing the times then and their parents’ thoughts. Understanding about pregnancy is deepened through such exercises as wearing hand-made pregnancy simulation smocks and engaging in exchange activities with pregnant women.
In the first half of the second school term, students learn about child development at the stage when babies are still being weaned, learning about parenting during this period through actual exchanges with parents and children. In the second half of the term, students learn about child play and picture books to enhance their understanding of parenting in the early stages of childhood. They also visit kindergartens for exchanges with kindergarteners.
In the third school term, classes are held for students to create a future vision for themselves, which rounds off the school year. The results of questionnaires about this course have shown that they, as upper secondary school students, have formed positive images of pregnancy, birth and parenting, finding that the activities in the Periods of Integrated Study on parenting were meaningful.
▲Parenting Classes for Lower and Upper Secondary School Students – the Parents of Tomorrow (Chiba Prefectural Sakura Higashi High School)
