Class lets parents learn to be child's 1st teacher
By LINDSEY ZILIAK, Kokomo Tribune
Updated 8:10 am, Friday, October 4, 2013
KOKOMO, Ind. (AP) — Markanna Huffer panicked last week when she left her 10-month-old son with a stranger for the first time.
She ran down the staircase at South Side Christian Church to where a group of women were caring for him. Huffer scooped baby Jeorge up in her arms and returned to her class upstairs at Baby University.
If it were anywhere else, Huffer said people probably would have judged her. Not there, though.
"They gave me no problems with my separation anxiety," she told the Kokomo Tribune(http://bit.ly/174ZFgx ).
Baby University is a nine-week parenting class developed five years ago by Kokomo Urban Outreach. It touches about 600 people in the Kokomo community each year.
Great emphasis is placed on the importance of the parent's role as their child's first teacher. Curriculum is designed to stimulate discussions about various parenting topics.
The program's director Sue Bond said it's a safe place for moms and dads to go to ask child-rearing questions — even tough ones — without being judged.
In a past class, a family asked Bond how to deal with an abused child. A couple had adopted