Most foster children struggle with school because of a lack of involvement by their parents which makes school very difficult. Foster children can come into care at 9 years old and have no idea how to read or know their phonic sounds. Foster children can also close down on you rather quickly when you try to work with them on educational needs.

I have found that they are more responsive when you can make it fun for them. This also can help them not feel so bad about being delayed or behind their peers or siblings.

A favorite learning game we do is like a guessing game. We play it with animals, movies, and cartoons but you can use anything. Someone thinks of an animal and everyone else has to ask questions to find out more about the animal. (Pet or wild? Does it eat plants or meat? Fur, hide, feathers? Does it have hooves or pads? etc.) All my foster children have loved playing this.

Use magnetic letters taking turns spelling words and reviewing phonic sounds. A great toy that helps learning and has been used by all of my foster children 8 years old and younger is LeapFrog fridge phonics magnet. There is another one that teaches spelling that is also great both of these are great at teaching children phonics and all of these go on the fridge so, it is great when mom’s in the kitchen.

To help with learning phonics everyone names something starting with the letter “a” and we do the entire alphabet. You can also decide to have everyone name animals, foods, things that are a certain color, etc. My three year old loves this game.

We do these games in the car, at doctor appointments, while we wait for biological parents to show up for visits or any place we have extra time. The important thing is making it fun so that the children are learning and want to continue learning.


Share below ways you make learning fun for your foster children and share you ideas of learning games.


More reading:

Teaching Foster Children to Be Children Part 1

How to Allow a Foster Child to Feel Like They Have Some Control