getting more childcare experience

[journeytobeingadad]

So in a nutshell met our social worker via whats app call yesterday. We are keen to adopt siblings. After introductions/talk of our experience with nephews and nieces /what type of children. She said although we have experience with children we dont see our family on a very regular basis so the amount of experience is not a lot and the demands of taking two children in one go will be a lot.
She said she knows it will be hard at the moment but to make inquiries about volunteering or speak with friends about looking after their children.
If you were given similar advice what did you take up to help? and did it help?! Would this mean that they may recommend we look at taking one child rather than two?
I have already asked a friend about us volunteering at the local scouts/guides group. and may ask our neighbors if their boys want to play football etc and go from there - we have a nice big lawn and they have small area of astro turf.

@journeytobeingadad Myself and my husband helped out with a local Cub Scout group. I worked part time and volunteered one afternoon a week on a primary school reception class.
It's really hard at the minute and a lot will depend on lockdown easing and what your own job commitments are.
It also depends on the age of children you are looking to adopt. We wanted to adopt a slightly older child and our boy came home age 3. Our age range was 3-6.
Also you will need a CRB check and I don't know if the current situation will delay things in that regard.

I think DBS checks are going ahead and schools are using supply/TAs but this is, I agree, going to be hard at the moment.
One possibility might be summer holiday schemes/holiday care within schools as this will no doubt be going ahead for KW children. Are you able to volunteer or work during the week? Could you reduce your hours to do this?
For example my DD's school has a holiday scheme that always takes lots of students on as workers though it's officially now a school scheme, admin and staffing are still done by the holiday club.

A lot of the traditional things are not available at the moment, all scouting and guiding is suspended.
I'm not sure that schools will welcome well meaning volunteers at this time, they will have enough to do trying to get their schools up and running.
If you are to comply with government guidelines around social distancing and not mixing households I don't see how you could look after other people's kids.
Sorry this isnt a terribly helpful response - you would have hoped SWs would be a bit more realistic around this

I volunteered one session a week in a local pre-school and 1 session a week in a local primary after school club. I did both for around 2 years (started near start of homestudy and continued until placed).

The experience was invaluable when my 2 were placed age 2 & 8.

Experience of a variety of children really helped me learn how to talk to them, and understand ability range and interests. It also gave me 'contacts' in the local community a number of whom I came across again when I became a parent to a child the same age as theirs.

If you are to comply with government guidelines around social distancing and not mixing households I don't see how you could look after other people's kids.
This isn't happening in primary schools where KW staff are in and I doubt it's going to happen in holiday care either.

@drspouse I was referring to looking after friends children, not school/care settings - not a cat in hells chance of social distancing there is there !

Thanks. I think all we can do is look at options and possibilities and anything beyond that have to wait until things are eased or the virus is over - who knows how long that will be. Sending messages saying we want to look into it and if its not possible right now with covid that's fine. i really hope we get on top or over covid but no idea at the moment how things will go.
We have 3 more video meetings once a week then it is really a case of see if restrictions have been eased to see if any socially distanced meetings could take place with the social worker.
Not sure if depending on all the other elements would they say we are ok to adopt but not yet due to lack of experience? So not go to panel until we have more experience?

Just to add the social worker was understanding about the current covid situation and said it is something to look into and totally understands that it may not be possible for a while.
My other half is very keen to have 2 children so they have each other, she wants 2 and means we only go through process once. and after all the stories about siblings having to be split up she really wants at least 2 for that reason. she says if we go from zero to one its the same as zero to two. we know no different.
I am not quite so sure it is the same as birth children. i mean her sister went form 1 then two then 3 birth children. All different ages

Those were the reasons we adopted a pair.

I think they should always place an extra child then take them away after 4 weeks so you realise how easy it seems by comparison.

On the whole 2 has worked out well for us.

I’d go back and ask her for her suggestions - realistically. If she can give any then I’d discuss that perhaps she’s being unreasonable in the current climate. In all honesty, being a TA one day a week or helping with scouts will do precisely nothing to prepare you for parenting terrified two siblings from a standing start in the way you do in adoption.

I think SW like suggestions such things as hoops to jump through but it really doesn’t prepare you. If she’s insistent, if as her to explain what she thinks it will give you in terms of understanding or skills so you can explore other ways to gain the knowledge. I’d suggest, for example, having your nephews and nieces to stay for the weekend will give you more than working with random kids for a couple of hours a week. I’ve never understood why SWs ask for childcare experience in this way, feels like an utter waste of time.

Sorry I meant “if she can’t give any”

being a TA one day a week or helping with scouts will do precisely nothing to prepare you for parenting terrified two siblings from a standing start in the way you do in adoption

I disagree, it gives you a really good idea of what "all children do" so you can tell everyone else "no, all children do NOT do that"m

It gives a small idea of what some children do, assuming you can tell whether they’re masking. It don’t tell you anything about assuming care for two children, or how that might differ from caring for one child. As required preparation for adoption it serves no purpose. It’s important to have some knowledge if children, to connect with them and communicate and build relationships, the OP has that within her family.

As a SW I’m always interested in whether prospective adopters have done voluntary work with children because it shows an interest in children, but I wouldn’t ask someone without it to go and volunteer on the basis it would prepared them for adoption because it really doesn’t,

My partner and myself needed to find voluntary placements with young children and we did struggle mainly due to partner not having put his DBS on the update system in time, as all the nurseries and playgroups required this as opposed to the hard copy. So that is the one piece of advice I would give in order to speed things up. Best of luck!

It’s important to have some knowledge if children, to connect with them and communicate and build relationships, the OP has that within her family.
I have two nieces but I got MUCH more of an idea of what children in general are like from volunteering.

I think experience with people with some sort of special needs would be more valuable than mainstream children

We all have our personal experiences of what helped/ didn't help. For me, having spent a few years working with adults with learning disabilities and challenging behaviours was the most useful preparation.