How can I help my foster child academically?
I was asked to be a guest on Cathleen Bearse's podcast. Before the podcast, I commented to her on an Instagram post she made regarding a retreat. I commented that I was writing a book and a section was going to be on the academics of the foster child. So I had to hone in on the question, "How can I help my foster child academically?"
Are you curious how you can help your foster child academically, listen to this podcast for an encouraging summary.
https://soundcloud.com/cathleen-bearse/supporting-your-foster-childs-educational-journey-with-kristen-adkins
How can I help my Foster Child Academically?
How can you help your foster child academically? I also did a podcast after hers that went into more detail. If you want to listen to that one, here is a link for it here; it is a bit more thorough. https://anchor.fm/impressingminds/episodes/How-to-Motivate-Learning-in-Foster-Children-e1a57s1
Helping Foster Children Academically at Home
I created the following infographic that goes along with the podcast. How can I help my foster child academically? I plan to use this infographic to do a training on academically helping children from home in the near future.
Training for this will begin in September of 2022. In this training, I will equip you to help your foster child academically. You will be confident in communicating with the teachers, school counselors, and principals. I also want to assist you in the transition from their previous school to the new school, when applicable.
List of some tips that I mentioned on my podcasts:
Meet the principal, counselor, teachers, and office staff professionally (I also train on this)
Offer to be a member of the team and assist them in their education
Form a relationship with the teachers
Play a few games with the child, like board games, card games, etc.
Read good books and spark discussions with them about the plot, characters, likes and dislikes of the book.
Cook with the child and double or half the recipe: this will assist with fractions and multiplication
Bake cookies and teach multiplication by adding chocolate chips to each cookie to find totals for multiplication
Go to the library each week to get books that the child would enjoy reading
Go to the library and speak with the librarian about the opportunities there for academic advancement
Predictor of Future Success?
Consequently, the reason I'm so passionate about the education of foster children is because this is a predictor of future success. When students have someone in their corner, they are willing to work harder and be more interested in the things they are interested in. Bonding is a biproduct of doing the things that increase educational attitudes. Foster parents often suffer from bias, so this is one way to change that mentality. For more on this issue, read https://impressingminds.com/how-to-overcome-foster-parent-bias/
What additional tips would you suggest to help your child academically?