[Scrapsathome]

My youngest (BS) was 16 months old when we started fostering and got our first potential adoptive placement. He did really well for the most part with it. He loved playing with the babies we had. I, on the other hand, was a bit overwhelmed sometimes with the added effort of trying to deal with two kids under the age of two while also going to all the foster children's appointments and trying to homeschool my older kids.

For us, the ages that have worked best fitting in with our bio kids were anything between 4 and 6. There've been occasional exceptions to that, but for the most part those ages seem to work well for us right now. The hardest has been kids ages 8 and up and 2 and under. I've learned that I really like having kids that are old enough to understand me.

You are right to think that school age foster kids can cause difficulties when you are homeschooling. Some of what we've dealt with is 1.)The school's schedule and events interfering with our homeschool and 2.)The attitudes of the kids either being angry that our kids are "smarter" or know more than them OR feeling that it's unfair that they have to go to school and deal with bullies, mean teachers, and excessive amounts of homework while missing out on the fun stuff we're doing at home with the other kids.

A funny comment made by one 8 yr old FD we had, "In California everyone says that homeschoolers are all just a bunch of gangsters." (meaning gang members, lol)

In the past week I had to deal with a brand new dilema. My Kindergarten age FD (who we hope to adopt) had a parent/teacher conference I attended. Her teacher basically told me during the meeting that she was "very concerned" that I planned to homeschool FD because although she understood that people homeschool because it's meaningful to their family, FD won't be able to get the educational and speech help that she needs outside of public school. I assured her that we planned to have FD receive speech therapy weekly. "What is the essential help FD is receiving in her Kindergarten class?" you may wonder. She gets 10-15 minutes a day of one on one time learning to recognize and pronounce the names of shapes and letters. I've already got her on a waiting list for a much better program at a Children's Hospital.

I think having kids close to your own kids' ages can be really good. Especially in a homeschooling family since then they can work on certain subjects at the same time. I also agree that it's a really good idea to have someone close to your youngest's age before they get to used to being the baby of the family. Our 2 year old BS is advanced for his age and acts more like a 3 1/2 year old. Our 4 1/2 year old FS is behind for his age and also acts about 3 1/2. So it works out very nicely and they play together well most of the time.

Good luck!
Jess