Preparing foster children for returning to school in the new year

After the festivities and fun of Christmas comes the inevitable wind down in the new year.

Decorations start to come down, and families prepare to return to regular routines they had before Christmas. Some children may feel uncertainty about going back to school, and Beacon Fostering understands that this is likely to be the case for foster children as well – particularly if they entered foster care over the holidays. Here are some top tips.

Getting back into routine

Re-establishing times for going to bed and waking up in the week after Christmas before the children return to school acts as excellent preparation for when they start school again in the new year.

Discuss bedtimes with your children and run trial days so that they are well prepared. Also ensure that screens are kept outside of their bedrooms, so that they receive an undisrupted sleep.

Tidying up after the festivities

Just as you encouraged your children to get involved with decorating the house and the tree for festivities, get them involved in taking these down as well and packing them in their respective bags and boxes. You could even create a game out of it, seeing who can pack away the most decorations.

Talking about feelings

Talking with your foster children about how they feel is beneficial in helping them to understand why they feel anxious or uncertain – and it helps you to get to the root cause of why they may not want to return to school or are feeling less than enthusiastic.