Boredom Busters: 5 Indoor Activities For Foster Families With Teens
April 10, 2020
How To Create A Safe And Stable Home Environment For Foster Teens
May 15, 2020
If you are in need of a few new ways to keep your foster teenager busy while learning from home, there are a variety of great educational resources out there to choose from. While many of these sites and services usually come with a cost, many are now offering free resources and classes to support teens who are home during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Read on to learn more about easy, fun and engaging activities and educational resources for your foster teen.
This educational, online organization is offering free daily schedules for students of all ages. For example, it suggests teenagers in 10th through 12th grade work on math from 9AM to 9:40AM and gives direct links to take students to practice problems. The schedules offer plenty of time for kids to gain exercise and rest, and they split learning between different subjects, such as art, biology, history and science. There are also SAT and ACT resources to help teenagers use the best of their downtime to brush up on their skills.
This online marketplace offers live video chat lessons for ages 3 through 18 with vetted, highly qualified teachers. Thanks to generous donors, Outschool is providing $1m worth of free classes during the current school closures (limit $50 per family). Even if you don’t qualify for financial assistance, small group sessions begin as low as $5 per class. Many of the options are unique and fun, such as “Greek Mythology for Dungeons and Dragons” (Ages 11-16) and “Zoology of Minecraft: Super Sea Turtles” (Ages 12+). There are a variety of choices in all academic subjects, plus enriching courses like drawing and cooking.
Rosetta Stone
While schools are closed, Rosetta Stone is offering three months of free language learning for students of all ages. The program teaches language through immersion, and participants can choose from a variety of languages from around the world. Students are offered direct feedback and progress reports to help parents and guardians gauge their progress. It is never too early to help your foster child to learn a new language, and this free opportunity is a wonderful way to use time wisely at home.
TED-Ed offers high-quality, interactive, video-based lesson plans to help curious learners delve deeper into subjects that interest them. To support students during the pandemic, expert educators and TED speakers throughout the world are sharing daily content via email and online. Free lesson plans are organized by age group and feature a video, follow-up questions, additional resources on the subject, and a chance to discuss with others online. If you want your foster teenager to think critically without doing a lot of the lesson planning yourself, this is a good resource for you!
Audible Stories
Reading is a great way to help your foster teen to mentally escape right now. While homebound, students can access Audible Stories, a free audiobook hub specifically for children and teens affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Older students can stream classics, like Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” and Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick,” as well as modern favorites, such as “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” by Ransom Riggs. All stories are free to stream from on your desktop, laptop, phone or tablet.
Remember to create a balanced schedule for your teenager that offers rest and exercise in addition to continuing their education remotely. Along with your foster teen’s required course load, use these resources to supplement their learning and better prepare them for when they return to school in the future.
Every child needs and deserves to grow up safe and protected from abuse and neglect, and caring foster parents offer children support and stability when they need it most. At Camelot Care Centers, we specialize in higher-level foster care for children and adolescents that need extra support. We partner with our foster parents/homes to provide trauma informed care and additional services, including in-home counseling, parent support and training, tele-psychiatry, and therapeutic mentoring, to maintain children at the least restrictive, yet most appropriate level of care. Camelot Care Centers (“Camelot”) is a Child Welfare Agency
