[MountainMamaGC]

Our province requires that both the husband and wife attend 24 hours of orientation. DH and I are signed up for the middle of May. What are the things they cover in orientation?

Also we are leaning towards girls 10 and up. We figure that will be the best situation for our bio daughter as they wont have common interests to fight over. Also DH and I are very active, we hike/camp and we would like a child that can keep up with us.

I am both excited and scared to do this. I hope that if this is not for us we get a strong feeling about it during orientation. We told FIL and he says we will make great foster parents. My mom thinks we will too.

 

[Polliwog]

Pre-service training will cover a ton of different things- from how to help a child make the transition into your home, to attachment issues, to discipline. It varies from place to place but overall, the topics are pretty similar.

They should also help you decide what age range that you want to take. Many people strongly advise (often from experience) not to foster a child older than any children already in the home. You don't want to put your daughter at risk for harm.

 

[MCR]

Congrats, we really enjoyed the orientation and classes. Lots of information, all the rules and regulations as well as why kids are removed, things to expect, visitations, all about the courts and what happens, etc, as well as the first aid and CPR and water safety etc etc etc it's a lot of stuff.
We also hold to the no children older than our youngest theory. We tried same age as Dd but that got physical so we went younger.