Fostering Blog.
Much excitement in the house as James’ (name changed) new clothing arrived today, via courier. Cue a lot of posing and selfies in the mirror.
Everything fitted nicely and was put away. School work was completed but the snow had gone, only to be replaced by ice, which made the pavements quite dangerous. We decided to brave it for our walk and we did an hour around the nearby barracks, which house the Royal Horse Artillery.
As we were walking around we were treated to a procession of the horses riding by. James was excited to see them and we stood and watched as they rode by. We returned from our walk and had a cup of tea to warm ourselves up again.
We watched a film after lunch and planned our football viewing for the evening. James had his Zoom meeting with his mates and then with Paige so he ate dinner in good spirits and he even volunteered to do the dishes afterwards. Evening was made up of football and snacks.
I decided, next day, to do a Health and Safety check on the house to ensure everything was in order. I tested the fire alarms, the carbon dioxide alarms, the fire blanket, fire extinguishers and that everything in the kitchen was where it should be. It took about an hour and was well worth the effort. I noted it in my diary and set up a diary entry for 6 months’ time so I could do it again.
The next day I had a visit from my Supervising Social Worker. James was doing his school work so we sat in the lounge and I updated them on the events of the last couple of weeks. There was an inspection of James’ finances and that my diary entries were up to date. I then showed the James’ room.
Once James had completed his morning school work I left him and the SSW alone for a chat whilst I made lunch and a cuppa for everybody. Once they had finished their chat we sat in the kitchen and had lunch. James was on good form and was telling the SSW about our sledding trip and, fortunately, left out the part about crashing spectacularly going downhill. James went back to his schoolwork and we wrapped up the visit with a final placement summary.
Even as an experienced carer I still enjoy these visits. It’s always good to get the acknowledgement that you are doing what you should be doing and, as a single carer, it feels even more important.
The rest of the afternoon was spent doing the mundane stuff, washing, cleaning etc. and preparing dinner for the evening. James had a history project to do regarding our local area. So I suggested something regarding the Royal Horse Artillery which we had seen the other day. So James spent the whole evening telling me information he had found about the RHA and their history as well as the barracks and when it had been built.
It was the number one priority for James and, for once, the football was muted and we had a different focus. It was a fun and informative evening.
Fosterman Blog – A Simply Fostering Blogging Foster Carer.
