Hi

Wondering if anyone can help - we are considering Home Educating our children in the UK and is a consideration (just like regular school) for us in Canada. I am looking for a thread / conversation for useful tips and information which I can build on when we attend the SHBE conference this weekend in Regina.

Can any one help me/us.

Many thanks

Mrs Mouse

I've no idea about the Canadian home schooling scene, though I know it is big and growing in the US. For info on home schooling in the UK try Education Otherwise: http://www.education-otherwise.org/. If your children are already at school you need to tell the LEA that you will be home schooling in future. If not, you don't have to inform anyone.

Hi - Thanks for this, yes we're clued up with the UK scene - we are fortunate enough to have made the decision prior to them attending school - figuring, it is easier to opt in later if required.

But what we were really wondering about is the Canadian rules and if it would be politic to say you wished for the children to attend conventional school or stick to the principles and start from the outset as to what our goals are...to home educate. In the UK we are tending to be autonomous...and subscribe to more of the classical method of education where learning is done in stages - Classical education depends on a three-part process of training the mind. The early years learning are spent in absorbing facts, systematically laying the foundations for advanced study. In the middle ages, students learn to think through arguments. In the teenage years, they learn to express themselves. This classical pattern is called the trivium. So, that is where we would like to lean but would this be enough to satisfy the school boards we would have to register with????

We have based our Recci to kick off with the Saskatchewan Home Based Educators conference in Regina this weekend. We would like to be a little less green when we get there and mercilessly exploit the fact that we will be somewhat of a novelty at this conference jetting in from the UK!

On a serious note - it doesn't matter how many questions you have, there will always be more...but a chance to pick up some really good information here, chew it over before the weekend, then come up with the next level of questions and be able to ask the people at the conference doing the HBE now would be fantastic.

Yours ever hopefulllllll

Mrs Pottermouse

Home schooling is allowed in Alberta, and I think in every Canadian province. Of course you'd need to confirm that in connection with the province to which you want to go, but I'd be surprised if it was not allowed.

I think I've heard that (here in Alberta) home schooled children still have to do some sort of exam(s) along the way to make sure they've reached certain academic benchmarks.

I don't know why you'd need to tell anyone what your intentions were with respect to home schooling. I'd be very surprised if it even came up during a recce trip or an immigration interview or whatever.

Postscript. Your post has reminded me that this is a deficiency in the Wiki article about Canadian Schooling. It doesn't mention home schooling. I'll do some research and add a blurb about it.

PPS. I've just Googled SHBE + REGINA, and now I see why the question might come up.
x

Hi there

A couple of my recent clients at work have been part of the home schooling in Alberta up to grade 10 I think and they said that it actually helped them out when they went to Senior High School as they felt more able to research and find out the information on their own rather than being reliant on their school teachers - which I think most kids are today.

Both girls were well balanced and had made the grade for our local Uni - both doing very good degrees (bio chemistry and communication and media )

They said that their parents had received terrific support from the local authorities and that their parents had been part of small home schooling groups so that the parents could bounce ideas off other parents. They also said that most of their holidays had been part of their home schooling where their parents had managed to link numerous subjects together in one job lot.

I think that this is a particularly good thing to do when you are living in a remote area where travelling to school by a "cheese wagon" would have added more time on your day and it seems to be the most popular form of education for smaller kids in rural areas.

Good luck with finding out as much as poss about this and the best of luck - you wont be on your own in Canada doing this from you will more than likely get more support than the UK too

Gaynor
x

I can only speak about Alberta - but home-schooling is big, big, big here!

There are various methods/options depending on your location. The 2 biggest in my neck of the woods is traditional home ed where the parents are responsible for everything - though I think Judy is right in that certain basic standards need to be met for things like English and Math.

Another option is a half and half approach. The kids next door to us do this - math and english and some other options are taught at home with the lesson plans provided by the authority - so you literally teach what you are given plus then supplement with your own ideas. Then for 2 days a week the kids attend school to do things like art, sports etc. They get that social "fix" which is important for social development etc plus get the opportunity to use equipment that they may not have access to at home.

There is also a lot of computer-based home-schooling too - where the kids work independently of parents on the computer with direct access to a teacher. These tend also to be supported by drop-in centres especially in rural areas where the kids can socialise and talk to teachers directly.

It's also worth noting that there are a lot of local resources for kids who are home-schooled - swimming lessons, art classes etc which are set up separately from those available to the general public - I think they are subsidised.

The links below are from the Parkland County Education website - these are just some of the options. If you go to the AB government site there will be a list of all the education boards which will all have their options laid out in a similar manner - plus I think there are some guidelines there regarding home ed generally. Like I said, I can only advise on AB - but I would imagine that Sask has a similar set up - though interestingly the kids next door are from Sask are considering going back - but they are worried that they would not be able to find a similar programme - so who knows?

http://www.psd70.ab.ca/psd/content/e...ducation.shtml

http://www.psd70.ab.ca/psd/content/e.../virtual.shtml

http://www.psd70.ab.ca/psd/content/e...ce/scope.shtml

Thanks Judy for your fountain of knowledge...would you like me to come back to you post conference with specifics for Sask or other general stuff I find out?

Please let me know.

Dawn

Sorry Ladymoose - the links don't appear to be working...but nevertheless thank you for your help

http://www.psd70.ab.ca/psd/content/e...ducation.shtml

http://www.psd70.ab.ca/psd/content/e.../virtual.shtml

http://www.psd70.ab.ca/psd/content/e...ce/scope.shtml[/QUOTE]

Dawn