Action for Canada is a national organization that is dedicated to helping parents across the country find support in their homeschooling journey. Action for Canada was founded by Tanya Gaw, the founder of A4C, to help parents across Canada learn how to home school their children. In this episode, you will learn about what Action 4 Canada is all about and how you can get involved.
00:00:00.000Welcome, everybody. I'm Doris Livingstone. I'm the homeschool parents support lead with Action for Canada. And it's been my joy to learn how to serve the country here at helping parents understand and learn how to homeschool and answer questions and point people to their provincial leaders so they get support that way.
00:00:27.780But before we get going, I'm going to introduce to you Tanya Gaw. She is our founder of Action for Canada, and she wants to just welcome you and share a little bit about what's going on with Action for Canada. Welcome, Tanya.
00:00:43.580Hi, thank you, Doris, and welcome, everyone. We're really happy that you've joined us here today. I know there's a lot of parents who are pulling their children out of the public education and private education system, because we're living in an unprecedented time.
00:01:02.400And as far as our children are concerned, and the attack is focused on their little hearts and minds. And so we just really want to help facilitate and support as many parents as possible and help to direct you and point you, you know, to individuals that can help you.
00:01:19.620Action for Canada is not creating homeschooling resources, we're not creating the wheel, because there's already amazing homeschooling associations across the country that have been doing this for many, many years and very successfully.
00:01:32.340So we'll be introducing you to many of the leads of those organizations today. But first, I want to share my screen. And all right, again, for those of you who are new is this is what Action for Canada looks like nationwide.
00:01:45.520We've been on a mission for many, many years, even pre COVID, trying to build the organization so that we could be in every town and community across the country so that we could mobilize citizens that we could get them together and organized and helping one another and having community.
00:02:02.920And one of our major objectives is to help parents to assist them. And when we have each chapter, we have multiple different campaigns that go on within those chapters, such as reaching out to business owners, reaching out to churches, and of course, facilitating parents, trying to raise up, not trying to, we did it successfully.
00:02:26.920We got quite a number of our own people elected in the last election as school board trustees. So we want to raise up really good leaders within your communities as well, trusted people in positions that should be trusted positions as well, right of authority, and especially when it comes to school board trustees and overseeing our kids.
00:02:45.080And so the parent program right now that the campaign that we have throughout the month of September, and it will go beyond is handing out our flyers, our SOGI 123 flyers, I'll be showing you those.
00:02:57.340Again, if you are new to Action for Canada, I'm just going to minimize the map, you would find this page under join A4C chapters, when you click on that, you'll end up on this page.
00:03:08.960If you want to join a chapter or volunteer, you can do that right here. And then if you are wondering if there's a chapter in your province, all you have to do is click on your province and scroll down and you'll be able to communicate directly with one of our chapter leaders.
00:03:24.140Okay, so I'm super excited about this. This is going to be sent out to our mass email list, hopefully by tomorrow morning, we have been working very hard at coordinating events for our youth.
00:03:38.320In the last year and a half, we have had three speaker and leadership programs for our youth to train them up to be godly, strong leaders of integrity, because they are our future.
00:03:51.820Our enemy knows that and that's why they're in our school system trying to really mess with their minds.
00:03:56.160And so we're just taking a bit of a turn this fall from instructing the kids on how to be leaders and the speaker program and we're moving towards countering what the world is teaching them about sexuality.
00:04:11.920And so we want to start teaching them about traditional values again, about abstinence and how to go about doing that.
00:04:20.940And Phil Lease with Peace Education Services, he's in Ontario, he will be presenting the program with his team.
00:04:29.660And the program is called Heritage Keepers.
00:04:32.400And that is from the United States, amazing organization that again teaches on traditional biblical sexuality, abstinence,
00:04:41.380and they're the only one of 40 approved organizations teaching on sexual health approved to teach sexual health in the United States.
00:04:52.380And they're the only ones teaching actually abstinence and what we would consider, I think, are good values for our kids so that they can make the right choices for themselves
00:05:01.380and that they'll start to begin again to respect their own bodies and respect others.
00:05:06.660The other program that that will be starting, by the way, on October 16th, Friday, it will run for eight consecutive weeks, 4pm PST, 7pm EST.
00:05:20.480So you'll be able to register, start registering for that and sharing that link very shortly, hopefully tomorrow.
00:05:25.580If you haven't joined Action for Canada, and somehow you ended up with this link today,
00:05:30.200and you're interested in receiving our information, please make sure you go to join and actually put your email in so that we can be in contact with you and sending you this information.
00:05:41.520Okay, so consecutively, as we're running the youth program, we're going to be running a nine week parent webinar, but it'll be in a part one and part two.
00:05:53.120So the first part will run October 3rd, every Tuesday, October 3rd to the 31st, all five Tuesdays in October.
00:06:00.460And then we're going to take a pause, and we're going to do a five week marriage course from November to I think it's the first week in December.
00:06:09.460And then in January, we're going to recommence the parent webinar, and that will be four more sessions.
00:06:16.420And so we're also changing the time of the parent webinar from the 10am to 4pm, in a hopes to try to help as many parents as possible after work, be able to attend, it's going to just be phenomenal.
00:06:31.680I think the two, the youth program and the parent program complement each other, because the parent program is going to be focused on helping parents talk to their kids about what's going on in the world, and how to handle that and manage it and about healthy sexuality.
00:06:48.920Okay, as I was mentioning, we have a program that campaign that we've launched for the month of September and beyond, where we have a SOGI 123 or WINSEX ED flyer.
00:07:05.200And this in a nutshell, lets parents know outside the schools what's going on, what they're teaching their kids, and gives them the opportunity, one to be informed, and hopefully more parents will pull their kids out.
00:07:17.560So when I was talking about the chapters and the campaigns that we're doing, we have parent groups literally going out with 1000s of these flyers, it's called the WINSEX ED in Ontario, SOGI and other provinces, but they're going outside of the schools and handing these flyers out to parents, and we are getting very positive feedback.
00:07:34.920So if you're homeschooling, that's amazing, but you may have nieces and nephews where, you know, the parents can't pull them out, or it's a single mom.
00:07:43.220And we need all hands on deck with this, because what's happening in the schools, in the public schools ended up, you know, folding over into the private schools, and of course, they're coming after the homeschoolers as well.
00:07:57.280And so we've got we're trying to hit this at all levels, and we're not going to cease and desist until this whole thing is out of the education system that's with a big period and exclamation mark behind it.
00:08:09.980This is a copy of the notice of liability that we have also been serving school educators, school board trustees, ministers of education, and as a result, we're having amazing success, I'll explain that in a minute.
00:08:24.920And also to protect and uphold equal rights of all Canadians, there is a duty of state neutrality, which means that all public spaces must be neutral.
00:08:35.160So if anybody's trying to pressure anybody about having an LGBTQ symbol, there's Palestinian flags going up, there's different kinds of flags, but of course, the major one is the very political LGBTQ and trans flags.
00:08:52.000And there is 100% duty of state neutrality, which means all of our schools must be neutral.
00:08:58.140All of this propaganda in the hallways, the classrooms, the principal's office, school board superintendent's office, it has to come down.
00:09:05.740And so we're working and we've had some great successes there.
00:09:23.680Okay, we are in a battle for the hearts and minds of our kids.
00:09:33.480And so we're going to talk about in the parent course as well, how do we manage social media?
00:09:40.280Because it's not, they're just not picking this up in the class, they're seeing it on TV, and on social media, it would be awesome if we could just pull the plug completely on our kids having access to it.
00:09:50.860But this is an example of what Trudeau is pumping out of the public education system.
00:09:56.220And that's why we are encouraging parents to homeschool.
00:09:59.680I don't know how you can undo this in a reasonable amount of time.
00:10:03.380This is very serious behavior that's coming from these children.
00:10:08.320All right, and then just in closing here, this is Action for Canada in the news.
00:10:15.660This is not all of the articles on Action for Canada.
00:10:19.380We're being flooded with reports about the work that we're doing nationwide.
00:10:23.660Our team, we have over 100 chapters nationwide.
00:10:26.620We have thousands of volunteers, and they are so committed to turning this around and, like I say, protecting the hearts and minds of our kids.
00:10:34.160And we've had huge success in Saskatchewan.
00:10:38.040They were going to implement the SOGI resource in September.
00:11:41.540You know, the school board trustees are just throwing the notice of liability aside like it has no effect, but it does.
00:11:46.900And this is evidence that legal liability is coming.
00:11:52.120So, a mother who had no idea that they were transitioning her daughter has just won a legal action against the school district, and she was awarded a $100,000 settlement.
00:12:02.740And so, yeah, if you're on the call today, and you still have your children in school, and you're so concerned, but you're just here to learn more, please be encouraged.
00:12:15.420We're very serious about this, because it's infecting all of society.
00:12:19.520And as we're all working together, I'm thankful, very, very thankful to all the homeschool leaders, associations that are here today, because the work you are doing is incredibly vital.
00:12:32.480And so, Doris, I'm going to hand that back over to you and just thank everybody.
00:12:36.220Please also share the link so that others can join this call today as well.
00:14:12.580Some of them actually have summaries to kind of zero in on how registration, enrollment, whatever the process is, and the laws in that province are in there as well.
00:14:21.880And then all the way down here, Saskatchewan on the bottom.
00:14:27.640I'm just going to go back to the resource page.
00:14:31.380And these are the parent webinars right below that other link.
00:18:16.340So, this website here, homeschoolinginnovascotia.com, basically gives you all of the easies on how to get started here.
00:18:25.480So, in a nutshell, it used to be that your children had to be five years old by October 1st, but now it's changed.
00:18:33.400If your child turns five by the end of December, you can start homeschooling that year.
00:18:40.680Now, you can actually hold your child back for a year, and we did that with one of our oldest, actually.
00:18:46.900She was really, really small, and we really didn't lose anything.
00:18:51.500So, it says right on here that you should register your child by the 20th of September, although you can pull your child out of school at any time and start homeschooling.
00:19:01.320You simply have to inform the school that you're pulling your child out, and go ahead and register them, and I'll show you that process in just a moment.
00:19:09.200The thing is, if you pull your child out by the September the 20th, the schools here, or the Department of Education, we don't have school boards here in Nova Scotia, although I just heard this week they're thinking of bringing that back.
00:19:23.760The Department of Education then would not get the funds for that.
00:20:35.640But if your child has been registered, you have a birth certificate, somebody comes knocking at your door, they'll want to make sure that you're actually homeschooling, so you'll want to go ahead and register.
00:21:27.340And I'll show you what one of those reports looks like in just a moment here.
00:21:30.220There is a section here called Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, where it gives you a copy of the credits for Nova Scotia High School Graduation Diploma.
00:21:39.560So this is where you want to pay attention just a little bit, because when they say that you need to submit a yearly report form, it looks just like this.
00:22:24.220So looking back now, we would do this different for high school age.
00:22:28.440I would go ahead and put percentages or put like an A, A plus or B minus or whatever, especially for the higher grades.
00:22:40.420Having said all that, I'm going to stop sharing my screen.
00:22:43.920As you know, children learn differently.
00:22:46.060Your children in a couple hours at home will learn very differently from the school settings, especially if you're pulling your children out.
00:22:52.920If you're children at home, you spend a couple of hours with them.
00:22:59.080And those of you, you know, I'm very familiar with OCHEC and with NB.
00:23:06.400And I mean, we've had dealings with neighboring provinces.
00:23:08.900We would go to homeschool conferences.
00:26:28.900So I have a 15-year-old, an 18-year-old, and a 20-year-old.
00:26:33.900My daughter is in her second year at Holland College for graphic design and finished her first year, which they weren't even going to let her in the school.
00:26:42.960But I advocated for her, and she finished her first year with a 96.7% average, and within the first week had established herself as a leader and is well-respected and has done just amazing.
00:26:55.720And she did a grade 13 with me, and so my son's going to do the same thing.
00:27:01.840So I have the other two home this year.
00:27:04.500So I have, when I first started homeschooling, there wasn't a peachy.
00:27:13.320So I didn't know of any other organization here.
00:27:16.200There were some meetings and such, but Facebook was a passionate pastime of mine, and I wanted to connect with other people.
00:27:24.900So I created a Home Educators of PEI group, which started from nothing, and pre-pandemic was around 200, and now is 436 members today.
00:27:36.840So we have doubled since the pandemic, and I moderate that group.
00:27:42.820And in 2017, the previous people who were leading PEACHY, which stands for Prince Edward Island Christian Home Educators, decided that they really wanted to resurrect that and have something official under HSLDA that would be active here to promote homeschooling as a viable option to protect the rights of homeschooling
00:28:08.780and to provide support and information to families who are looking to homeschooling and, of course, those who are on their journey.
00:28:17.300So myself and several other couples started that up.
00:28:21.560We are comprised presently as four couples that are Christians, but we are the, we basically service the entire community, trying to get information out, make sure the events are happening,
00:28:36.500give information, give information, that sort of thing, but our actual membership is extremely small.
00:28:42.640We were, we were last year 30, and this year we're 22.
00:28:47.980So we're, keep trying to encourage people.
00:28:50.880I think the C in our name has, especially because a lot of secular people have joined homeschooling in the last couple of years.
00:29:00.060So we just keep trying to prove and to show to people that, you know, we're here to help everyone who's homeschooling, no matter your race, your religion, you know, your curriculum preferences or educational philosophy.
00:29:13.620We just want to unite and help one another move forward here in that.
00:29:24.660There used to be some moth meetings here, managers of their home meetings that I helped with once a month.
00:29:30.340But again, as the pandemic went through, they've just fallen to the wayside and it's been difficult to get people out.
00:29:36.840However, I personally organize a, we call it, I took over from somebody else who is a seasoned homeschooler that used to do this and has moved on to other things.
00:29:47.120But we call it the not back to school picnic on the first day of public school.
00:29:51.420We all meet at Canoe Cove Beach and enjoy getting to know each other and give information about upcoming events.
00:30:00.820And we had like 150 people come out to that last week.
00:30:09.620And the end of the year school picnic that I do was at the other area of the island.
00:30:15.600And we also have around that many people that will come out.
00:30:18.600So there are those events that people are drawn to try to socialize and connect.
00:30:23.540And on the island, like I said, there's the Home Educators of PEI group if you're wanting to get connected.
00:30:31.880There are a lot of small groups, but that's kind of the overarching group that, you know, will tell you what's going on everywhere else or what other groups to get connected with.
00:30:41.240Um, so on the island, we're really thankful that we don't have a lot of oversight, you have to fill out if you want to homeschool, an intent to homeschool form, which is quite simple.
00:30:55.980Um, you're basically just acknowledging, um, that you want to, uh, homeschool your children and that you recognize the responsibilities, um, entailed in that, that you recognize that they won't be getting high school credits.
00:31:10.660That, um, if, as long as you let them know by April 15th of the previous year, although we have had people do it many other times by just contacting a principal and not having any issues at all, but you can, that you have the right to still enroll your child in, say, woodshop or, or, or any other course that you would like in the school system, even though they're not a full-time student.
00:31:32.480Right. And, um, what's the other thing? Uh, oh, and that you can pay a $50 deposit to get the books or the curriculum from the school. Um, if you would like to do that now, something that they've changed this year, which has never been an issue before is that you used to only be able to have to have, um, one parent signature for that intent to homeschool form.
00:31:57.180And all they do is send you a letter back saying, you know, thanks for your letter basically. Um, and this year they want two signatures, both parents, which has never been an issue before.
00:32:08.860Uh, so literally I think Peter stock just messaged me this morning, um, cause they had been looking into that a little bit because we've had some parents on the Island saying like, I've been homeschooling for like 13 years. I've never had to have two signatures. Now they don't want to like, you know, grant my, I mean, you're not even really asking for
00:32:27.040permission. You're just telling them what you're doing, but still they're not willing to acknowledge that or, or, um, give the curriculum out unless you have both signatures. But what about, um, in the case of like, you know, custody battles or where there's one parent that's just really not in the picture at all.
00:32:42.540Um, so, um, Peter was saying, uh, you know, that's, I'm just going to look at his, um, words here so that I don't mess up. Um, uh, yeah, just basically that they, they're trying to protect themselves so that they don't get caught in the crossfires of a cap custody battle.
00:33:00.900Um, and really just another indication of how HSLDA is important, um, you know, to have that protection, um, for yourself and, um, to advocate for your family, to be able to do that and to get the resources that you have.
00:33:16.980Um, other than that, there's nothing else that you have to do. My encouragement for new homeschoolers, um, is to recognize that this is going to require a lot of work on your part.
00:33:29.640Like if you're going to take your children out of school, please do your best to advocate for your child and do your due diligence in educating your child because, um, you know, we want to promote homeschooling as a viable option and as a good option.
00:33:46.840And so we need, um, we need everyone to do a good job homeschooling their kids. Um, and so that requires time and effort and research.
00:33:54.980And it's not something that, um, I have learned over my years that you can't compare yourself or, you know, I could do the exact same curriculum as somebody else.
00:34:04.840And it would look completely different. We have different personalities. We have different family dynamics. We have different styles. We have different, um, learning abilities.
00:34:13.440So you really have to do what suits your family. And that is the beauty of homeschooling that you have the freedom to be able to do what works for your family, how it works for your family.
00:34:24.640In, in my family, um, everyone's really rather creative. So my daughter being in the graphic design, um, course, but like when she was 12 years old, she was selling her polymer clay jewelry on Etsy.
00:34:36.640And that's at, at Bluefield high schools, uh, fairs and all over the place. My son is 18 years old and he has been mentored by an international, um, magicians group.
00:34:48.640And he does shows like he's a professional magician, like really good. He just had a call with someone who fooled Penn and Teller recently, um, because he wants to, she does, um, restaurant magic for people who are waiting for their food.
00:35:03.560So, um, he's doing that. And my 15 year old loves cooking. So he went to culinary bootcamp this summer and he won the award for chef of the week.
00:35:13.020And so I just love that homeschooling allows us to not put our children in specific boxes. We, it gives them so much space to explore who they are, what they like, and to cultivate their interests and to, um, really learn and grow in, in those areas so that they can be the person that God designed them to be.
00:35:33.560And what's going to bring them passion in their life, that they don't have to be a cookie cutter image of anybody else. So I could say a lot more, but I'm sure you would like other people to speak. So I'll stop there.
00:35:45.640Wow, Emily, that is so great what you've shared and your, your energy is, um, contagious and, uh, it makes homeschooling come alive. And, uh, yeah, I've, I've got similar stories, not just with my kids, but people in my life. So thank you for sharing that. And, um, thank you for the work you're doing in PEI.
00:36:07.140Thank you. And so we're going to move on to New Brunswick with Rod Cumberland. And if Rod, after you sort of talk about, you know, all the legal stuff and all those things, why don't you address what you shared with me in the email about, uh, uh, uh, Christians keeping the faith and all that at the end.
00:36:26.180Okay. Well, uh, thank you for having me. Um, my name is Rod Cumberland. I'm the president of HENB right now. Um, I spent 22 years as a wildlife biologist in the government of New Brunswick. And then the last seven years as a teacher at a post-secondary institution in New Brunswick. So I will touch on a little bit about those that are concerned about what, what do your kids do when they, uh, enter post-secondary, uh, education.
00:36:50.340And I guess what I would say is as an instructor at a college where, where all of our students have to have a high school diploma. So, and that's the big, uh, problem in New Brunswick is if your kid is homeschooled, you don't have an official high school diploma.
00:37:05.580Jumping the bar is easy. Okay. All you people that are thinking of homeschooling, it is not tough to jump the public school system bar. I taught those students that came in. A lot of them can't read. They can't write. They can't do math.
00:37:20.780Jumping that bar is not tough. Okay. So I'll, I'll just leave that for now. And then I'll, I'll cover some of the questions that you wanted me to cover. So, uh, our website is HENB.ca. Everything you need to know about, uh, starting homeschooling is there. Um, we have a getting started, uh, page. Uh, you can just go through that. It has a forms that you apply to in New Brunswick that you fill out and send it to the government.
00:37:43.620And, uh, we're similar to Nova Scotia and PEI where you just, you fill the form out and away you go. Our legislation is, could be very restrictive if they actually applied it and went down that road.
00:37:57.220But we're, we're letting a sleeping dog lie. It's been like that for over 26 years in the province right now. And things are, it's fairly easy to home educate in our province. Um, some people don't want to fill up the forms. The only thing I would say to that is we had a son
00:38:10.600that wanted to get into the RCMP. He went through the process when they found out he was home educated, they said, okay, well, where are your forms that you were, uh, that you had signed by the government saying you could home educate, became a little bit of an issue. Thankfully, I had a few contacts in government.
00:38:24.840I was able to get our last, cause we didn't fill the forms out the last few years for whatever reason. So we had to go back and get the forms filled out. It became a little bit of an issue. We did get them signed and he provided them to the RCMP.
00:38:35.840We, but nonetheless, um, you know, it's not that onerous. They, they don't have a whole lot of hoops, hoops to jump through in New Brunswick. So fill the form out. Usually it's a rubber stamp process here.
00:38:48.220Um, how to find a local support group. We also have a page on our website that has all the local support groups around the province. You can just link up with one of them very easily. Click on the links that we provide and away you go.
00:39:01.780Um, it's easy to stay connected, uh, through our website. We also have, uh, it's you, it depends on the year, but usually it's either a monthly or a bi-weekly newsletter that we give updates and what's going on within the organization and what's going on around the province.
00:39:17.740So there's lots there. Um, some of the things you get to do, what I would say, uh, some of the things you get to do with your home educate. And again, my wife and I were both educated in the public system. So, you know, and I had a great time in the public system.
00:39:33.380I wanted our kids to go to the public system and I was probably one of the biggest deterrents for my wife home educating. So any guys out there, if you give your wife a lot of resistance, you'll wind up being the leader of your provincial organization somewhere down the road as penance.
00:39:49.060Um, but anyways, I'm really glad she stuck to her guns. Our kids, uh, the biggest reason we did it was because I was coaching, uh, uh, hockey and baseball in our community.
00:40:00.760And the difference between the home educated kids and the regular kids was unreal. Uh, home educated kids could carry on a conversation with older people.
00:40:09.740They didn't have a problem looking after little kids. If they were around, it was really noticeable that the kids in the public system could only seem to interact with kids their own age.
00:40:18.360And, uh, the other kids, the home educated kids were really respectful. They, they, they had character. So that's really why I said, I'd like to try this.
00:40:28.720And we did, um, some of the things we get to do. Um, I was a wildlife biologist working with the natural resources. So my kids came with me, they were holding, you know, uh, bald eagles and, and owls that I was picking up on side of the road.
00:40:42.540They came with me aging deer. Uh, they flew with me in the helicopter counting deer and moose. I mean, you know, we, because they're home educated when a chopper landed in our backyard to take me to work in the morning.
00:40:52.380Then when it landed at night, the kids went up in the chopper. So, uh, you didn't get to do that kind of stuff if your kids were in the school system.
00:40:58.500So, um, whenever I was a biologist and we had annual meetings every year in the Northeast United States. So the Northeast deer meeting, Northeast fur meeting, whatever I was a biologist of at the time, we would incorporate those, uh, those trips for my, uh, professional work.
00:41:14.280And, and they became holidays. So we took the kids along, they were on the beaches of Cape Cod, you know, they were doing Plymouth rock. We did the Boston trail. We, every year we do something different with the kids. So it was like a holiday. I just had to pay for the extra little bit for the family.
00:41:29.740Um, so they became learning opportunities, our, our holidays. Um, we also had a farm that we, uh, the kids all, they all had chores and we didn't pay them, uh, whatever it's called the, your annual, you know, they didn't do that.
00:41:42.920It was part of, if you're in our family, part of the job is you contribute. So, uh, and I also had a, an ax handle business and a tree business that they helped me out with as well. So we were able to, we just think home education is not doing school at home, put that out of your mind.
00:42:00.020It is a way of life and you teach your kids, uh, what to do. And probably one of the biggest things that I would say, even above the reading, writing, arithmetic is character development.
00:42:11.820That's what your goal should, from my perspective, that's your goal. You want to raise good people that are, that can contribute to society and be strong people, especially the way this world is spinning out of control.
00:42:23.320So, uh, the only, the last thing I would say that we talked about Doris and I is, uh, I'm in a few, uh, groups with other men.
00:42:31.200Um, we'd spend a lot of time talking about our kids and how they're making out. And, uh, if anybody out there is, uh, is a faith or, you know, we have strong convictions about what you believe in.
00:42:40.200Uh, we spent a lot of time, you know, praying for other guys. Uh, their kids went through the public school system and most of them don't follow their faith.
00:42:48.460Um, thankfully all four of our kids did, um, you know, again, glory to God for that. And, uh, and I think the biggest difference is what a lot of guys in our groups have said.
00:42:58.280The biggest difference is, is you lose them. Once they get into that system and they start pounding that stuff at them, you know, evolution and everything else, you'll lose them.
00:43:05.620It's, it's, you only have them for a few hours a day. The system has them for the rest of the time and it doesn't take too much until that erodes and you lose the kind of character things you want to invest in your kids.
00:43:15.480So, uh, I would really encourage you to, uh, to do that. Um, I think, yeah, the last thing I'd say is, uh, you know, what do you teach in high school?
00:43:27.040Um, what we've done because I was very involved with post-secondary is look at where they want to go, what they want to do.
00:43:32.580We, uh, we had one kid did not want to do high school biology. We tried pushing that rope for a few years and realized it wasn't working.
00:43:40.920Uh, we said, why fight? Hey, you don't want to do biology? No problem. Well, obviously he's not going to become a biologist. He has no interest in it.
00:43:48.660So, uh, he's actually a successful engineer technologist now because, uh, you know, and he didn't need biology for anything. He did post-secondary.
00:43:56.160So you get the opportunity to be flexible and what your kids, you know, teach them what they want, what they, what they love to learn. So that's probably long enough for me.
00:44:06.560Thank you, Rod. That was amazing. And, um, you know, how you were talking about jumping the bar to get into post-secondary education, the same in BC, like there's so many ways to get in.
00:44:18.580And my, my oldest just challenged the university to take her on and they went, Oh yeah. Okay. Sounds like you're a good kid. We'll take you.
00:44:27.060So there's those kinds of things that you just have to sort of advocate for your kid and to get them in there.
00:44:32.860And there are lots of schools across the country that want homeschoolers.
00:44:37.340And so those are the other ones you can look for. Um, when you see the direction your child is going is find those homeschooling friendly, uh, colleges and universities.
00:44:46.900Um, I also wanted to just say, um, I won't have time in the chat to address any personal questions directed to me.
00:44:54.420So you can send an email to homeschooling at action for Canada.ca and you'll get me directly.
00:45:02.640And then I will be happy to help you at another time. I just want to make sure we get through our panel here today.
00:45:09.360Okay. So, um, the next, uh, province is Ontario is Quebec here yet.
00:45:16.900Did she sign in? I don't want to skip her Miriam, if she's here.
00:45:22.340Okay. We'll move on then to Ontario, Heather's work and her husband, Jake, and welcome.
00:45:29.500And, uh, tell us about your province. There's lots going on there as well.
00:45:34.020Thank you very much, Doris. Um, just a quick rundown on the legal aspect first.
00:45:40.420Um, Ontario law has compulsory education requirements as to all provinces, I'm sure.
00:45:48.580And then there's a bunch of excuses of why you don't have to.
00:45:53.380The one that pertains to us is if you're providing satisfactory instruction at home or elsewhere.
00:46:00.260It's interesting that satisfactory instruction is nowhere defined, nor is it defined who determines
00:46:09.920what satisfactory instruction is. So as homeschoolers, we maintain it's the parents of the child that
00:46:16.880determines it. The ministry of education maintains it's the school board, but no court has actually
00:46:24.440ruled on it. So it's indeterminate. Um, we also have policy, which in our case is PPM 131.
00:46:36.120And you can find all this on our website, but the policy, the government would like us
00:46:42.440to inform the school board that we're homeschooling. It's not mandatory. And if, uh, you're not doing
00:46:49.400it, or you've got a child that's preschool, we sort of say, why bother? Um, but the government would
00:46:57.320like us to inform them through PPM 131. And if we do that, they will send us another form back saying,
00:47:06.520based on filling out that form, we recognize that you are providing satisfactory instruction.
00:47:13.400If you're, uh, withdrawing your child from school, chances are that's the most polite way to go.
00:47:22.360Uh, certainly if you've got special needs child, or you want to use, um, the government, um,
00:47:29.320correspondence courses or virtual learning center courses, then you need to fill that format.
00:47:37.320So there are certain cases where it's, um, pretty, uh, other cases by Bob.
01:18:15.040Yeah, I'm just trying to think. The funding available, it's $900 per student per year for grade one to grade 12.
01:18:27.040$450 if you're doing kindergarten, because it's half of that. But like I said, a lot of strings attached.
01:18:33.040Your facilitator, you'll have to give them a program plan of what you're planning on doing. That's your first visit.
01:18:41.040The second visit will come and say, how did you do?
01:18:45.040You're allowed to change your program plan anytime during the year. You don't have to stick to it.
01:18:49.040You just let your facilitators, how we call them, know that you change something or at the end of the year when you did, you just say, hey, this wasn't working and we changed that and this is what we did instead.
01:19:03.040If you have the facilitators are credited teachers, we suggest that you ask the facilitator, are you a homeschooler? Have you homeschooled your own kids?
01:19:18.040Because that's important, because if they don't or if they weren't homeschooled, they may not even understand what homeschooling is.
01:19:25.040You don't need to sign with your local school board.
01:19:29.040So if I live in Edmonton, I don't need to sign with a school board in Edmonton.
01:19:33.040If I'm a Christian, I can pick one out in Calgary if I want.
01:19:36.040The facilitators will come and meet you at your home or at...
01:19:41.040Everyone thinks that they have to come into your home.
01:19:44.040I try to tell parents, no, they don't.
01:19:46.040I've had some come in my home if I wanted to, but you can meet at the library, you can meet somewhere else.
01:19:52.040So don't feel that they need to come. It's intrusive enough.
01:19:54.040They don't need to come into your home to evaluate.
01:21:31.040Hey, well, if we're struggling with math and having temper tantrums over math, maybe we need to talk about character instead of doing the math.
01:21:39.040But, you know, just have your goals of homeschooling so that you can go back during those really, really hard times.
01:21:46.040One thing maybe to what I found with starting to homeschool, we pulled our children, our two older ones, when they were finished grade four and grade six.
01:21:57.040And my second daughter, we are very similar in character, so we a lot of times have our struggles because we're too much alike.
01:22:07.040And I found that those struggles didn't go away when we started homeschooling, but we had all day to deal with them.
01:22:14.040Instead of when they came home from school, you're running, you're trying to do extracurricular activities, you're trying to prepare supper, you're trying to do homework, she's tired, I'm tired.
01:22:23.040And those battles, you only have the kids for about three hours before they're in bed, or four, and then you're having these battles during those times.
01:22:32.040During the day, if you have the battle at 10, or you try to build and correct attitudes, then the rest of the day is a glorious day, it's a day that you can redeem and spend good time together.
01:22:46.040I just saw, for those that are starting, we talked about time, it said that if your kids go to school for 12 years, they'll spend 16,380 hours away from you.
01:22:59.040And if you take it per year, it's about 1,365 hours a year that you gain again.
01:23:05.040And you get to influence who will impact your children during this time.
01:23:11.040You get to decide which stuff comes into your home instead of letting other people during those thousands of hours.
01:23:19.040You can, you can decide who's gonna teach them who's gonna which curriculum comes in what which influence there you allow into your home where at the school you have no control over those things.
01:23:31.040I think that's probably yeah and if you have questions our office, please call at at our office at a he online.com go check it out.
01:23:41.040We have an administrator that answers telephones and redirects that the calls were need to be.
01:23:46.040Like I said, Alberta some sounds pretty convoluted compared to other other provinces, but with the funding, but a lot of people like the funding, a lot of people like to have.
01:23:59.040A facilitator to guide them for some of us that's why we push for so long to get notification only because we go yeah the funding is great but man is it nice to just do what I need and not have to have the government inside my home school.
01:24:21.040I'm going to talk about BC and it's very similar to what Alberta has.
01:24:27.040I think Alberta started the whole funding thing in Canada and then BC started to follow that so the way it works in BC.
01:24:37.040Anyways, it's BC HEA so as British Columbia Home Educator Association would be the website.
01:24:43.040And by the way, all the websites are on action for candidates homeschooling link so.
01:24:48.040We've been posting that in the chat if you can't keep up with how to find your your provinces contact information it is on our website.
01:24:56.040So yeah, and BC back in the day when I started in 19 I think it was 95.
01:25:03.040There was only traditional homeschooling.
01:25:07.040And so the parents came up with their own curriculum and curriculum conventions and curriculum affairs were just getting started.
01:25:16.040And man, they were my highlight of the year I go every year and find out about everything curriculum and meet other homeschool parents and listen to amazing speakers who motivated me and see the big picture.
01:25:32.040So that's a little plug for conventions, I highly recommend you get to them.
01:25:36.040And it was there was the only thing you had to do and it's still true if you still want to just do traditional homeschooling where you have no accountability to the government, but they don't give you money either.
01:25:48.040All you have to do is register to any school in the province, so we chose schools that were friendly to homeschoolers, and there was a big one in Syria at the time.
01:26:02.040And they pretty much ran almost an online program, not to teach but to offer support.
01:26:11.040And then today they also have the the funding option as well.
01:26:16.040They had a Christian school also a brick and mortar school outside.
01:26:22.040And then over time, I want to say when my oldest might have been starting or maybe the end of elementary school for her.
01:26:32.040When was that in the 2000s late 90s 2000s, then the whole funding opportunity came up for parents and that's that's the second option in BC where you enroll.
01:26:45.040And when you enroll you can still use your own curriculum.
01:26:50.040And all you have to do is submit the learning outcomes to a facilitator at the end of the school year, you can actually mix and match you can do a little bit of both.
01:27:00.040Or you can do 100% with an online teacher.
01:27:05.040Now, in a traditional sense that's not really homeschooling anymore that's school at home, because you're using.
01:27:13.040That's sort of a sort of a provincial program.
01:27:16.040But a lot of people think they're homeschooling when just because their kids are at home, but in the eyes of the law in BC homeschooling really is that traditional homeschooler with no money.
01:27:28.040But there's thousands of kids who are also again like Alberta who are home and they're learning at home.
01:27:35.040And so registration and enrollment that makes them different registration.
01:27:43.040All you have to do is let them know you can you don't even have to tell them you're going to homeschool.
01:27:46.040You're just going to say my child will not be in your school next year.
01:27:50.040You have till September 30th to let them know and you can pull your child at any time.
01:27:56.040If you decide in December, we're taking our kid out of school, whether it's private or a public school, then you just notify them and you don't have to tell them you're homeschooling.
01:28:09.040But you just need to be registered somewhere else with them and which one are you going to choose.
01:28:14.040So on the BC link on our website, you'll see quite a list of different schools that are home, very friendly to home education.
01:28:25.040And those are the ones I would encourage people in BC to link up with and connect.
01:28:31.040I made some notes here, so I wouldn't forget.
01:29:21.040We rented the pool in a town that was an hour and a half away.
01:29:27.040We created our own gymnastics program, our own skating programs.
01:29:30.040And one of the fun things we did was we we had a contract with the RCMP to wash their police cars on Wednesday afternoon.
01:29:37.040And so instead of the police paying, you know, a cleaner to come in or if they go through the car wash or whatever, which we didn't even have so they probably had to wash their own cars.
01:29:49.040I don't know, but they had funding set aside for that, and so that was a way for our kids to pocket some money and it was so successful.
01:29:57.040We did it for years, and we built a relationship with these families and with these RCMP members.
01:30:04.040And so and the kids learned how to clean like they know how to clean a car.
01:30:10.040And of course us parents had to be in there showing them how to clean.
01:30:14.040And so it was a very family directed very social amongst the kids amongst each other.
01:30:19.040And so there's so many creative ways to get our kids to be together and socialize you can run these co ops.
01:30:26.040Where different parents take turns teaching a subject and like those words for talking about, you know, you can hire a tutor to cover a subject or somebody who's really good at something to help your child develop in a passion that they're really good at.
01:30:41.040And so these websites that we've given you, I've gone through all of them, and they're loaded with how to and speakers and finding your support groups, convention dates curriculum fairs use book sales.
01:30:59.040There's all kinds of things, and you could even check each other's out to get ideas to or go to each other's conventions if you want to do that.
01:31:07.040So anyways, I just want to thank our panel for being here and giving us your your your time today I want to thank all of you for signing in, and I hope you you leave here encouraged.
01:31:22.040And we're excited I just want to put a little announcement in for two weeks from now on September 26 our next webinar will be with fill these who is going to give us an overview on the parent program and the youth program that Tanya had talked about prior at the beginning.
01:31:40.040So that would be a 10am PST on Tuesday, September 26.
01:31:49.040And any Tanya did you have any final comments.
01:31:54.040I just want to thank everybody I'm sitting here feeling so encouraged and we'll have this video on the parent webinar within the next couple of days I say tomorrow but it might take a couple of days.
01:32:05.040And then we're going to ask you to share it as far and wide as you can because there are so many parents that are sitting there thinking I don't think I can do this, but you have given us such encouragement.
01:32:16.040And I love the value of it where you're talking about the commitment within your family to your kids and it does come with some sacrifice, there will be a bit of a life change for you, but you know, you have also mentioned that we each have gifts and strengths.
01:32:34.460And that is why it's also important to be involved in your community because there's others in your community with strengths and gifts that you don't have and to share those gifts and talents.
01:32:42.920And this is doable, and I think that we're at a critical time, you know, for the hearts and minds of our children and these wonderful associations homeschool associations are giving their all to support you so please reach out to them share this information and again, thank you so much for joining us.
01:33:00.400Thank you, Tanya I'm just I see a comment in my chat here, Andrea wanted to say one more thing, and before you do.
01:33:11.500Lori Dunbar if you're still around I didn't know if you want to add something after Andrea let me know, but go ahead Andrea.
01:33:18.260You talked just just to clarify something in Alberta, the funding is not for doing school online the funding is for if you're doing traditional, which is different than than BC so if you're doing traditional and the parent is leading the education.
01:33:32.620You will you will you would get the funding so it's not for online online there is no funding available because it's all done you sign up with the school you get the teacher you go online so if you're doing traditional that's where you would get that 900.
01:33:44.680So that was just one of the difference that I wanted wanted to say and to add that's different from BC so the funding is for doing traditional homeschooling you pick your curriculum, you can do either the Alberta curriculum, or you can do an outcome, what they need to have accomplished by grade 12 and there's a form for that on my on our website too so sorry just kind of.
01:34:04.680No, no that's I'm glad yeah no that's a big big distinction and I'm really glad you clarified that I bet that is going over quite well.
01:34:15.740Yeah, yeah it is yeah you know you get you do have to submit receipts you do have to, but it is to do traditional and you get your your money back after you submitted 75% of your funding you get the 100% back so just kind of it's there to help out.
01:34:32.280But there are more requirements you have to put you know receipts you have to have facilitators come and do two visits and things like that so and a program plan where notification only just notify them.
01:34:45.060Right. And you know, I mean if this all sounds overwhelming for those who are just getting started.
01:34:50.600Your homeschool association leader will help you walk through those steps and it's it's not meant to be overwhelming.
01:34:57.820It I've noticed almost everybody has said it's actually very easy to homeschool in Canada and and I'm thankful for all the pioneering work that was done 25 30 years ago.
01:35:10.100And HSLDA protecting our laws okay go ahead, Lori, do you have any final words you want to add.
01:35:26.720I just wanted to encourage everybody that education is discipleship.
01:35:30.620It's some indoctrination is when you don't allow any kind of questions.
01:35:34.020Um, but we educate we disciple our kids, and I've had two kids that went through the school system, and two kids that I've homeschooled all the way through.
01:35:46.100It's a wonderful opportunity to do this and I just started kind of going I'll just do it for a couple years and 14 years later.
01:35:52.980I'm so thankful that I've invested in our family we've had some sacrifices that we've made because we're a single income family, but it's so worthwhile.
01:36:02.220So just wanted to encourage everybody with that that education is discipleship and you get this amazing opportunity and just don't waste it just take advantage of it and make the sacrifices make it work.
01:36:15.840It's worth it, man, what a great note to end on Thank you everyone Thank you, Lori Thank you everyone for being here and we're going to say goodbye here and see you in two weeks.