The First Year Home
A 2-hour parent training with a certificate, taught by an adult adoptee who came home from foster care at about eighteen months old.
What this course is
This course is for anyone getting ready to bring a child home, and for families in their first years together. It fits any kind of adoption, including foster care, domestic infant, international and kinship adoption, whether your child shares your race or comes from a different background.
Each lesson starts with a true story from Michael's life as a child who came home through adoption, and then turns it into steps you can use right away. You'll plan the move itself, learn what's normal in the first weeks and months, and build trust one day at a time. You'll also look after your own health and line up help before you need it. The course takes about two hours, and you can stop and come back whenever you need to.
What you'll be able to do
- Plan a move home that keeps as much of your child's old life as you can.
- Tell which changes in sleep, eating and behavior are normal in the first weeks, and respond in ways that help your child feel safe.
- Build trust over time with steady routines, predictable goodbyes and repair after hard moments.
- Spot the post-adoption blues in yourself, get the other children in your home ready and know when to call for help.
How the certificate works
- Take the opening quiz as a warm-up. It doesn't count toward your certificate.
- Work through the six lessons in order. Each one comes with a printable page you can fill in and keep.
- Type your plan right into the course, one line at a time. Each line comes with an example to help you.
- Pass the final quiz with at least 8 out of 10. You can retake it as many times as you need.
- Answer a short evaluation, and your certificate unlocks for 2 training hours.
Please check with your licensing worker or agency about how many hours they accept for self-paced training.
For agencies
This course covers training topics agencies already use, including managing placement transitions, separation, grief and loss, child development, attachment, a stable and safe home, parental resilience and family dynamics. Each lesson lines up with topics from the National Training and Development Curriculum (NTDC) and with the Hague training topics in 22 CFR 96.48(b). Beyond the Moment Adoption Studio isn't affiliated with NTDC. Agencies can license this course for all of their families, and you can set that up by emailing hello@beyondthemomentadoptionstudio.com.
About your instructor
Michael Gaither is an adult adoptee. He was born in Syracuse, New York, and spent about eighteen months in foster care before he was adopted. He grew up with a white family in Lincoln, Nebraska, and met his birth family in person for the first time at forty-nine.
He spent 30 years in education as a teacher and a principal, and 13 of those years running his own executive leadership coaching business for school principals. His book, I Was Your Black Child: What White Parents Raising Black Children Need to Hear Before It's Too Late, tells the story of growing up Black in a white household. Through Beyond the Moment Adoption Studio, he helps adoptive and foster families understand what their children may be carrying.
Course curriculum
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1Start Here
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2The Six Lessons
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3Finish and Get Your Certificate