Several common school assignments can make foster and adoptive children feel left out, uncomfortable, sad, and hurt. Projects like the ‘Family Tree’, ‘Bring-a-Baby Picture’ and ‘Trace Your Genetic Traits’ can be particularly difficult for students adopted at older ages; however, children adopted as infants and those living in foster care may also lack the information for some family-based assignments.
Many teachers are not aware of the negative impact of these projects on foster and adoptive children, unless the subject is brought to their attention. Of course a teacher can’t always anticipate that a family history assignment is problematic for a particular child.
Fortunately, these assignments can be easily modified to work for children in all different types of family configurations, without sacrificing the educational goals.
Read the rest of this helpful booklet
