as a foster parent there is so much to keep track of you have your paperwork your case workers your visits your appointments and then of course the children something that helped me especially when I started and even today are creating checklists and templates and things to help me keep track of all those finer details and so today I am going to share with you four of them that I use all of the [Music] time I know that we are all dealing with a lot right now and so I went ahead and made these to share with you they're linked below but I'm going to walk through them so if you want to make them yourself you can do that too so let's get started one of the most stressful moments at least for me is when those calls start coming in I remember the first time I got a foster care placement call and I remember exactly where I was I was at work you know in a meeting and I saw the call come in and I had actually changed the vibration to be more specific so that I could notice it more quickly I grabbed it and I stepped outside and I took the call and I remember just being like so nervous and excited is not the right word because we don't want to get those calls but there was a lot of anticipation and I didn't ask all the right questions I didn't really do much talking I did some listening but I wish I had been more organized in what I was asking and what I wanted to know after that call Chris and I sat down and made a list of the things that matter most to us and that's what I recommend to you sit down with your family and think about what are the critical pieces of information that you need to know and write it down now in my placement call question list I put down all the different topic areas when you get a call about a child or sibling set you are not going to get answers to all of this so it's really important that you sit down and think about what is most important at that time it was important to understand the age of the children and I recommend asking the birthday because sometimes the math gets messed up and they might tell you the wrong age just little little Pro tip there so for us we wanted to know the gender the age and a little bit about why they were being removed just so we could get in our heads kind of what the needs might be and what might the trauma responses be and that was at the beginning that's sort of where we started and and having lots of experience I've added some questions I want to know a little bit more about if they's siblings where are they going to school how far is that commute for us visitation or what the plan is you know is there an aunt or a grandparent that they'll be moving to those are more things that I'd want to know now but I put it all down and with experience you're going to change your list as well but essentially I have basic information things about school because kids will go to their home schoool unless there's a safety concern I also have anything about their history if they have siblings elsewhere how long they've been in care how many homes they've been in I have a few baby specific questions on the list things about medical needs visitation and then also what's going to be happening next has the child experienced tpr that's termination of parental rights is there an ongoing investigation with a family member that I need to know about about just other considerations lastly I have behaviors and developmental needs so that's a lot of information I listed it all out for you you didn't need to take notes and I will link it below so you can go ahead and grab that and I want to just underscore that everything that you receive on the call take with a grain of salt yes ask the questions but just know that sometimes there can be some misinformation there are mistakes made and sometimes workers cannot tell you everything that's that does happen I know it can be really frustrating I remember thinking when a child moved in initially like why didn't they tell us this there are reasons and a lot of it is for confidentiality but always you know take what you get with a grain of salt but I like having everything organized and being prepared then I felt like I could be more calm and make an informed decision because so much is confidential it can be really hard to decipher the information and get what you need to know for example you might ask oh well why is the child being removed from their parents they may just say General neglect and that could mean many things and sometimes if you press for more details they will tell you it's confidential and it's important that we respect that those rights of the family and so what you can do instead is you could talk about what the children need especially if they're coming from another home you could ask what services are set up and that can give you some Clues as to the needs of the child you can also ask about General you know behaviors that they're seeing in the child for example are they potty trained are they eating are they you know engaging with the toys or talking those small details can give you some hints as to the type of care you'll be providing for the child next I want to show you the menu that I created and it's actually a template on canva and I will link it below and you can fill in with your own food essentially it's visuals as to what are some common items I serve for dinner I have some sides on the back like some fruits and vegetables and this has worked really well for us for kids who maybe are unfamiliar with certain foods who are maybe afraid to ask for something and visuals is just an easy way to communicate one thing to consider if you are including pictures is to try to find a picture that most accurately reflects what the food will look like on the plate especially for kids who are maybe neurod Divergent this can be upsetting if they looked at a picture and then looked at their plate and it was not the same it sort of defeats the purpose so you can take a picture with your phone and upload it if you want to use real photos and I know this question is going to come up so I'm going to answer it and I get from a lot of people's why are you serving processed food or plain food why aren't you giving them more vibrant food choices and the answer is is because they are kids they are going through a lot and there's a lot to consider there is Nuance in everything maybe there is a child who is neurod Divergent and it needs to be plain they have to have their food a certain way the other things is it's important to include things that they might be familiar with there are cultural considerations and so if I'm serving something they've never had before they may not eat it and the goal is to make sure our kids are eating now on the other side is where you can include a lot more so fruits and vegetables or maybe some other foods that they haven't tried yet and you can start to explore together I always recommend talking to the pediatrician the child's professional team When developing the right menu for the kid kid in your home I know a lot of my followers also use this template for other things than food like perhaps activities to do on the weekend or shows to watch on TV I've even seen people use it for different calming strategies so when a child is disregulated they will show the pictures and the child can point to what they need for example maybe they need a fidget toy a trampoline and cooled glass of water so there's a lot of different ways you can use this template and I highly recommend it it's been very useful for us in our home something that can be frustrating I know it was frustrating for me is when people change on the team and it feels like you are answering the same question over and over again it can also feel a little disheartening when someone new comes in and they might seem like they don't know anything that's going on now that is not always the case and there's so much going on behind the scenes that we as foster parents are unaware of one thing that I do that has made this situation a lot easier and workers have said they have appreciated to is to create a contact list I make this digital so I can email it but I printed it so you could see it today but essentially it is just a line by line of everyone that is working with the child or is important in their life so this can include therapists School contacts different workers The Advocate who is a relative or the doctor everyone is listed here and I fill in the information this makes it really easy to pass off to someone else on the professional team or someone new I also include a few other pieces of information on this template so it's just quick facts about the child and the schedule the reason I included this is because I get asked this all the time and I think it also sets a little bit of the tone when it comes to scheduling so first in the quick facts about the child I include their age their birth date the date of the last physical and the date of the last Dental examination I can't tell you how many times I've had to look that up in my phone so I just write it down now and then any type of other diagnosis and information and then for the schedule I like to include the hour that are at school and then when they have therapy we can't expect case workers to memorize our child's schedule just like we do and when they're trying to figure out when to come for their home visits it can be this like very complicated scheduling mess sometimes especially for kids who are receiving a lot of services so I like to include in the schedule you know when their visits are and when they have different therapy and this can help be more efficient when you're scheduling all of those appointments the last thing I want to show you is the visit checklist that I created and this is just very helpful in getting everything listed so nothing is forgotten for the visitation it's especially helpful if you have a parent partner or someone else helping to you know take the kids the visit or pick them up and this could be a relative a family friend or even someone who's employed by the department I include things like a communication Journal if you doing that with the parent what that is is just a journal that gets passed back and forth so you can communicate with the parent things like medical equipment Comfort items items that you're going to be sharing like crafts or photos schoolwork and homework because this can be a time for kids to get some of that done with their parents things for babies you know feeding supplies diapers things like that all the way down to toys and snacks if that's something that you are responsible for providing at the visits I usually post this by the front door or I'll throw it in my bag and it can be helpful if you know we're in a rush and headed out the door I can make sure I have everything everything and also if I'm picking up I can do a quick you know mental check and look at my list oh we need to make sure we have the inhaler cuz we can't leave that behind cuz that creates another trip you can see how these things become more and more difficult and that is why I like to have everything written down so that I can stay organized and focused on the kids I hope that these templates and lists save some time in your home if you are wanting to make your own that's amazing you can go to canva and there's so many options to plug and go and make your own if you you don't have the time you can check the links below I have all of these templates and a ton more on my patreon and if there's something specific you're looking for let me know in the comments and I can link it directly for [Music] you