If you are in the process of either adopting or becoming a foster parent, online parenting classes are a great way to fulfill your educational needs. Most social service agencies will require potential parents take a parenting program. Taking foster care and adoption classes online, can benefit new parents in a variety of ways.
Online parenting classes provide new parents with the curriculum they need to be a successful caregiver. This includes:
1) How to protect and enhance the child’s emotional development
2) Avoiding typical parenting mistakes
3) How to deal with anger and stress
4) Managing stress through life changes, and how it can sometimes be a positive response
5) How to be a strong role model for new children
6) Why empathy is so important
7) Understanding neglect
8) How to improve empathetic listening and communication skills
9) The best ways to properly reward and punish
10) Positive discipline techniques
11) How to build self-esteem
12) Conflict resolution approaches
13) Assertive Communication
14) Learning about different parenting styles and what is best for you
15) Foster care and adoption dynamics and challenges
When you choose an online parenting class, be sure to check the credentials of the “expert” running the program. There are a number of choices out there, but just going with the lowest price isn’t the best direction to take if you are looking for a quality course. Check to make sure that the class is designed and developed by a licensed and practicing family therapist and parent instructor. Furthermore, clients should have the confidence to know that the class has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau and a customer service number and email. If you have any questions while taking the class, it’s important that you can get a hold of real person in a timely manner.
The course you choose should also come with a free Certificate of Completion. The certificate documents the number of hours you took and that you successfully completed the course. This is what caregivers will need to show to social services to prove the requirement was completed.
The great thing about taking this course online rather than in a traditional classroom is that once you enroll, the class becomes immediately available to you on any Internet connected computer device. You don’t have to try and fit your busy schedule into an instructor’s timetable. Classes can be accessed online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can enter and exit the class whenever you would like and the computer program holds your last spot. You can take the class all in one sitting to get it done in one day, or over a period of weeks. It’s completely self-paced.
The goal of a parenting class for foster care or adoption is to refresh skills, and learn new ones. This way of learning also provides students with the most up to date research and information. Don’t waste your precious time going weekly to an in-person that is using an old, dated workbook. Take a cutting edge online parenting class today!