A Guide for Facilitating Foster Child Education at Home 

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A Guide for Facilitating Foster Child Education at Home 

Childhood development relies on positive education. However, foster children don’t always receive this because of their home circumstances. Experiencing trauma during childhood can lead to negative feelings towards education and school, meaning you have to put strategies in place to help reframe these thoughts into positive ones. Below, we’ve put together a guide for facilitating foster child education at home.  

Spend Time Reading 

During your training with agencies like Fosterplus, you’ll learn about the importance of spending quality time with children in your care. There is no reason why you can’t use this time to improve their education. For example, you can put time aside for reading – both reading aloud to foster children and hearing them read to you. Spending time on reading will help with comprehension and creativity, which will bleed into other areas of their life.  

Encourage Extracurricular Activities 

There’s plenty of content online exploring the positive relationship between extracurricular activities and childhood development. For example, being part of an extracurricular club can help develop social skills. Therefore, you should start a conversation to try and find an activity they will engage with.  

You may not exceed at first, but that’s okay because it may take time for foster child to feel comfortable expressing themselves. However, if you continue struggling with positive relationships, you should contact your caseworker for support.   

Help Foster Children Make Friends 

Socialisation is a central aspect of childhood development, which is why you should encourage your foster children to make friends. To do this, you can have a discussion about positive interactions – they may need help with how to start conversations. After an initial friend has been made, you can help them turn it into a lasting relationship by arranging playdates and other activities.  

Support with Homework 

Some of your foster children may not have come from environments that encouraged education, meaning they won’t be used to completing homework. In these cases, it’s vital that you make your expectations regarding homework clear from the start. You can start off small with perhaps half an hour after school – just make sure you’re on hand in case they need help. Eventually, completing homework will become a part of their routine, especially when they receive praise and reward from teachers.  

If you have issues implementing your homework rules, you can use the classic reward chart system. All you need to do is pin up a weekly grid and place a sticker on each day they complete the homework. When a full week is achieved, you reward them with a fun activity of their choice at the weekend.  

Form Positive Connections with School 

Some children in your care may not feel comfortable opening up straight away, which means they won’t tell you how school life is treating them. Therefore, you should form connections with their teachers, which means you can receive updates straight from the source.  

Foster children benefit from positive educational experiences. If you can get this right, the time in your care may have a heavy influence on the type of individual they become as an adult.