ExKiwilass

home schooling (generally what it's called here) is not uncommon.

I looked into it at one point. Most school districts have programmes for home schoolers where you register in the school district and do courses from home. Burnaby and Vancouver definitely do. You can do courses online, etc. THat way you can follow the BC curriculum and have someone there to help, which is good I think. If I was going to do it I'd probably do it that way. Some people like to make up their own programmes, and then there's the unschoolers....I'm pretty sure you have to register with some kind of official educational body though.

Also, the provincial gov'nment will reimburse you money for activities like dancing, sport, art classes etc. I'm not sure of the deets on this.

I looked into it at one point, but am too lazy.

Novocastrian

I might be missing something here, but isn't the whole point of school to get the little ****ers out from under your feet?

Oh, and I agree with dbd33 and Oink: that's got to be a first.

Partially discharged

Such as Michelle Duggar, she of the School of the Dining Room Table in Arkansas. Watching bits of that show has made me vow to have my kids taught by professionals.

AberystwythGirl

Sorry I had no intention of turning this forum into a debate on the pros and cons of home education - I just wanted to find out if there are any expats home educating.

But as you are debating it I though you'd like to hear that a
"Study Shows Home-Educated Become Model Citizens

A new study released today by the Canadian Centre for Home Education reveals
that home-educated adults excel in all measured areas of adult life.

The study surveyed adults whose parents responded to a 1994 study on home
education. Ranging in age from 15 to 34, they answered questions on a
variety of topics with comparable data from Statistics Canada. The results
were astounding.

When measured against the Canadian average, home-educated adults were more
socially engaged and almost twice as likely to have voted in a federal
election. Average income was higher with more sources of investment income
and self employment, and no cases of government support as the primary
source of income. They were happier in their work and their lives in
general. When reflecting on the value of being home educated, most felt that
it was an advantage in their adult life.

"In terms of income, education, entrepreneurial endeavours, involvement in
their community, and all the other characteristics measured, home-educated
adults not only excel, but also make meaningful contributions to their
communities. They are the type of neighbours we all want," says president
Paul Faris.

The study Fifteen Years Later: Home-Educated Canadian Adults is available in
full form and as a synopsis at www.hslda.ca/cche."

MB-Realtor

We mixed home education with schools, so that overall each of our children had about a years worth of home education during their school careers, with our youngest having 2 years at home.

We home educated when they were having problems at school, or if we could not find a suitable school at that time and place.

It worked for them.

Alan2005

That's cos home educators are generally the well off middle classes. Nothing wrong with that, but don't bandy stats around without proper analysis; remove the other demographics and I bet there isn't much difference.

Atlantic Xpat

Id've thought that a major downside for the newly arrived immigrant family who choose to home school, would be that their kids would be denied the swift integration into Canada that they would get by attending a school with other (Canadian) children. This would be a compelling reason on its own to nix the idea.

We're the other side of the country from BC, but the only home schooling I've heard of was the Mrs (who is a Special Ed. Teacher) providing home schooling in the afternoons for a child with autism. In this instance the school had to be involved and sign off on the plan. The fact that one parent of the child was a teacher and that the home school tutor (Mrs AX) was also a teacher at the same school, probably helped with this.

Bill_S

And I agree with the lot of you.

Atlantic Xpat

<waits in anticipation for Oink, Novo and dbd's heads to explode in unison.>

Aviator

I agree, this will give them the best start. The isolation of being at home and not mixing with peers makes going to higher education and into the workplace harder.

Alan2005

Well, clearly that's not the case according to AberystwythGirl in the post above who cites some study saying the home educated do just as well, if not better, than those in schools.

I can see the attraction myself. Us Brits have standards you know and it just wouldn't be seemly to have your offspring actually integrate with Canadians. Perish the thought that they make friends with them and start to like iced hockey or something equally unpalatable.

Caitilin

Oh I'll disagree with you there. I think education is teaching a child to learn - to persue whatever interests them with the ability to take it in, question it, and decide on the merits of it. After all, I can name you at least one 7 year old who can outteach anyone I can think of on just about anything regarding dinosaurs - his parents and his school didn't teach him that! But its an interest of his regardless. And who's to say he won't make that into a career some day?

Teaching them the act of being able to learn, by whatever means works for them.

As to socialisation, whereas meeting people from other cultures is valuable, a lot of kids get bullied, and that is not valuable 'socialisation'.

iaink

Yes, other people home school, there are lots of guidelines laid out for them.


Is there a need to debate the pros and cons of that choice here, its didnt seem to be the raison d'etre of this thread to me, but some loudmouths will always want to chip in wont they

Partially discharged

Apparently, it is possible to do this in Toronto...you can live your whole life without having to interact with the proletariat who frequent such places as Tim Horton's, drive Cavaliers, worship at the throne of Don Cherry etc and retain one's detachment from the unhyphenated.

dbd33

Within the bounds of the judgement system of the parents. That's fine in a limited sort of way but it's necessarily something less than education in the company of peers can provide.

A simple example, one of my children was in a class where many students spoke Spanish, interested to hear what they were saying, she learned Spanish. She would not have had any reason to be exposed to Spanish had she been schooled in her, francophone, household.

More contentiously, a home schooled child is unlikely to be exposed to religions other than that of the household, the option to be a Muslim, to be Jewish, to take up devil worship, is not likely to be offered by aetheist parents.

And then there's sex. Is it easy, for example, to be gay when home schooled by straight parents?

Home schooling is, I think, inappropriately impositional. It restricts rather than promotes education.