What do you like doing? How do you keep fit? Did you used to do more when you were younger? How many different things did you get the opportunity to try before you chose an activity that you really liked?
Being human we are of course all different, we all have different abilities and we all have different likes. For most of us, as children, we had the opportunity to try different activities and sports, to do different things as a family, to explore our surroundings and to find things that enable us to process our energy, challenge our focus and build self esteem.
For many that come into the care system, those opportunities did not exist for one reason or another. Many of the things that we take for granted as being part of a normal childhood may not be part of the childhood of a child which has suffered neglect.
Foster carers are in the unique position of creating brand new life opportunities and experiences for children, many of whom will still have the childhood wonder and some of whom may require that little nudge, push or in some cases perseverance to try something new.
At UK Fostering we strongly encourage all of our foster carers to support their children to do, to enjoy and to achieve. This could be via participation in extracurricular activities and sports, or spending time with the foster family, going out, walking, seeing, playing and experiencing, etc.
As part of this philosophy, UK Fostering will be organising activity events for its foster children and foster carers own children. We are planning that this will involve experiences such as mountain hiking/climbing, rock climbing, white water rafting, kayaking and other outdoor pursuits. Might we inspire someone to take up something new? Might we reinforce the enjoyment of an activity a child already likes? Might we build self esteem as a child finds out they are good at something new? What we know for sure is we will be creating opportunities and with opportunities anything is possible.