Adoption & Fostering round-up: Politics, Loss, Fostering and School!

As we near to Half Term (not long now! Hang in there!) we are getting straight to it this month, with a post from author Sally Donovan who has blogged at Community Care. ‘Adoption has become a political battleground’ is a strong statement but one I am inclined to agree with. There’s so much of it in the news, as an Adoptive Parent you can’t help but wonder what the agenda is and also, if those lovely (ahem) Government people have any real idea about what its like to be involved in adoption on a day to day basis.

Following last month’s piece about considering fostering, the OneHandMan continues his wonderful advice with a blog about considerations for pre-school. A very useful piece for anyone with a fostered or adopted child who is due to start nursery. Certainly a lot of these thoughts went through my mind when DS1 started nursery, 1 year into his placement with us.

Fiona Ferguson writes this month about loss as she tells us more about her perspective as an adoptive parent 15 years on. Fiona’s blogs are great if you, like me, are relatively early on into placement and adoption life. Check it out here: ‘Loss’

Three Bees and A Honey (I love that name!) has also written about loss, following the theme of WASO (Weekly Adoption Shout Out) via The Adoption Social. If you aren’t yet familiar with The Adoption Social, head over to check it out – started by 2 Adoption bloggers, it has now grown into a one-stop shop for all adoption related social media.

Two Mums, Two Kids blogs about Growing Up this month, in a lovely piece about Squiblet and their Celebration Day.  You can feel a lot of the happiness from this heart-warming piece.  Also this month, On the Road to Adoption tells us about their first day of Intros and first day of seeing little one! I remember this day only too well, with crystal clear clarity, it’s one of those special, never forgotten moments.

Adopt and Keep Calm has blogged about the realities of attachment disorder and touches upon something heard time and time again from fellow Adoptive Parents – that the child presented at school is very different to the own who is present at home. Hence, schools often fail to take Adoptive Parents concerns properly or really understand what the child can be like or how they are truly feeling.

Carrying on the school theme, Claire from The Family of 5 has written about Pupil Premium Plus which is additional funding introduced to schools which also covers adopted children.  Claire’s post is very thorough and informative and touches upon a lot of the things many Adoptive Parents will now be wondering – not least of all, how will this be money be spent? And what will my child see of it, that is of real need and use to them? As she says – time will tell!

If you are thinking about fostering or adoption, a good place to start is with BAAF who can give you all the information you need to make an informed decision. Local authorities will also host open evenings and information days – Surrey County Council are hosting a fostering campaign this month, details of which can be found here: Surrey County Council Fostering. Its also a good idea to get in touch with foster carers or adoptive parents if you can – for instance via any of the blogs – who are usually more than happy to help you.  Good luck!