Action4Canada - Parent Webinar Homeschooling Panel - Sept 12, 2023

00:00:00.000 Welcome, 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.

00:00:27.780 But 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.

00:00:43.580 Hi, 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.

00:01:02.400 And 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.

00:01:19.620 Action 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.

00:01:32.340 So 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.

00:01:45.520 We'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.

00:02:02.920 And 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.

00:02:26.920 We 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.

00:02:45.080 And 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.

00:02:57.340 Again, 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.

00:03:08.960 If 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.

00:03:24.140 Okay, 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.

00:03:38.320 In 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.

00:03:51.820 Our enemy knows that and that's why they're in our school system trying to really mess with their minds.

00:03:56.160 And 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.

00:04:11.920 And so we want to start teaching them about traditional values again, about abstinence and how to go about doing that.

00:04:20.940 And Phil Lease with Peace Education Services, he's in Ontario, he will be presenting the program with his team.

00:04:29.660 And the program is called Heritage Keepers.

00:04:32.400 And that is from the United States, amazing organization that again teaches on traditional biblical sexuality, abstinence,

00:04:41.380 and they're the only one of 40 approved organizations teaching on sexual health approved to teach sexual health in the United States.

00:04:52.380 And 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

00:05:01.380 and that they'll start to begin again to respect their own bodies and respect others.

00:05:06.660 The 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.

00:05:18.580 And it's just going to be amazing.

00:05:20.480 So you'll be able to register, start registering for that and sharing that link very shortly, hopefully tomorrow.

00:05:25.580 If you haven't joined Action for Canada, and somehow you ended up with this link today,

00:05:30.200 and 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.

00:05:41.520 Okay, 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.

00:05:53.120 So the first part will run October 3rd, every Tuesday, October 3rd to the 31st, all five Tuesdays in October.

00:06:00.460 And 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.

00:06:09.460 And then in January, we're going to recommence the parent webinar, and that will be four more sessions.

00:06:16.420 And 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.

00:06:31.680 I 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.

00:06:48.920 Okay, 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.

00:07:05.200 And 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.

00:07:17.560 So 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.

00:07:34.920 So 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.

00:07:43.220 And 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.

00:07:57.280 And 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.

00:08:09.980 This 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.

00:08:24.920 And 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.

00:08:35.160 So 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.

00:08:52.000 And there is 100% duty of state neutrality, which means all of our schools must be neutral.

00:08:58.140 All of this propaganda in the hallways, the classrooms, the principal's office, school board superintendent's office, it has to come down.

00:09:05.740 And so we're working and we've had some great successes there.

00:09:09.580 What is happening to our kids?

00:09:11.620 I posted this yesterday, and I said, this is Justin Trudeau's new normal, and it is horrific.

00:09:19.600 Can you hear that?

00:09:20.880 Is the volume working?

00:09:23.440 Yes.

00:09:23.680 Okay, we are in a battle for the hearts and minds of our kids.

00:09:33.480 And so we're going to talk about in the parent course as well, how do we manage social media?

00:09:40.280 Because 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.

00:09:50.860 But this is an example of what Trudeau is pumping out of the public education system.

00:09:56.220 And that's why we are encouraging parents to homeschool.

00:09:59.680 I don't know how you can undo this in a reasonable amount of time.

00:10:03.380 This is very serious behavior that's coming from these children.

00:10:08.320 All right, and then just in closing here, this is Action for Canada in the news.

00:10:15.660 This is not all of the articles on Action for Canada.

00:10:19.380 We're being flooded with reports about the work that we're doing nationwide.

00:10:23.660 Our team, we have over 100 chapters nationwide.

00:10:26.620 We 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.

00:10:34.160 And we've had huge success in Saskatchewan.

00:10:38.040 They were going to implement the SOGI resource in September.

00:10:42.960 We found out about it in April.

00:10:44.720 Our teams were working very hard in the background.

00:10:47.040 And as a result, we were calling to have Planned Parenthood banned as well as SOGI 123, and we have succeeded at that.

00:10:55.960 You'll see Manitoba as well.

00:10:57.320 We have teams there working very hard.

00:10:59.380 Ontario has made a decision to support parental rights.

00:11:01.780 And, of course, the good people in New Brunswick had begun that as far as undoing this.

00:11:09.740 Anyways, we've still got lots of work ahead of us, but the dam is broken, and it's floods.

00:11:17.000 There's floods.

00:11:18.120 The good kind of floods.

00:11:19.300 We're going to be raising the right kind of rainbows in respect.

00:11:23.800 And just so thanks to God for the successes that we're having.

00:11:27.900 And this is another success.

00:11:29.720 A lot of people are saying that our notices of liability don't have effect, and nothing will ever come of them.

00:11:36.460 And so, in other words, these individuals, I'm not sure.

00:11:40.200 There we go.

00:11:41.540 You know, the school board trustees are just throwing the notice of liability aside like it has no effect, but it does.

00:11:46.900 And this is evidence that legal liability is coming.

00:11:52.120 So, 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.

00:12:02.740 And 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.

00:12:13.280 We are working on your behalf.

00:12:15.420 We're very serious about this, because it's infecting all of society.

00:12:19.520 And 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.

00:12:32.480 And so, Doris, I'm going to hand that back over to you and just thank everybody.

00:12:36.220 Please also share the link so that others can join this call today as well.

00:12:40.400 All right.

00:12:40.680 Thank you.

00:12:41.900 Thank you, Tanya.

00:12:42.760 Yeah, I'm going to quickly share my screen here, how to find the homeschool site on Action for Canada's website.

00:12:50.580 So, I'm on the homepage here, and I want to go to resources and scroll down here, and parent resources is one way to find us.

00:13:05.880 You will find lots of good information there.

00:13:08.720 There's the notice of liability for a variety of things, some of those videos and interviews that we've done of the concerns.

00:13:20.080 And then over here on the right, homeschooling resources.

00:13:25.860 I love going here.

00:13:27.160 It's my favorite thing.

00:13:29.220 I'm a homeschooler through and through.

00:13:32.500 But here's an association directory we made up.

00:13:36.240 And if you scroll down first, you can see just different links we've got going on.

00:13:44.240 There's Nova Scotia, Ontario.

00:13:47.220 Some more interviews we've done.

00:13:50.700 At the top is the directory.

00:13:56.420 So, let's say you live in Manitoba.

00:14:02.640 You want to go here.

00:14:04.540 And you will find the website and the email contact.

00:14:08.380 And there's Alberta.

00:14:09.980 BC is right here.

00:14:12.580 Some 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.

00:14:21.880 And then all the way down here, Saskatchewan on the bottom.

00:14:27.640 I'm just going to go back to the resource page.

00:14:31.380 And these are the parent webinars right below that other link.

00:14:37.380 And we started these last spring.

00:14:38.940 And you can register here to get all the, we have webinars the second and fourth Tuesday mornings of the month.

00:14:51.000 And so, this is ours today.

00:14:53.280 And then anything that we've done in the past, there's Dorenda Wilson, the four-hour school day.

00:14:58.980 And then we did Israel Wayne, the history of homeschooling and the history of education.

00:15:06.820 And then down here, Tanya God gave, this is an excellent report.

00:15:11.440 If you guys have a chance to listen to that and watch that, it's very, very thorough.

00:15:16.560 And then, yeah, how to homeschool multiple ages.

00:15:21.380 And then Peter Stock from HSLDA we had on there as well.

00:15:25.400 So, pretty exciting stuff there.

00:15:27.040 Yeah.

00:15:29.640 Okay.

00:15:30.820 I'm just going to get my panel in my screen here so I can see everybody.

00:15:35.480 All right.

00:15:36.640 Doris, while you're doing that, I just want to make a correction.

00:15:39.140 I apparently said October 16th that the youth program starts.

00:15:43.080 It's Friday, October 6th.

00:15:44.540 So, I just want people to know that.

00:15:46.300 All right.

00:15:46.640 Thank you so much.

00:15:48.220 Thank you.

00:15:49.060 You bet.

00:15:49.400 All right.

00:15:50.780 We're going to move forward here now and introduce our homeschool association leaders.

00:15:58.260 By province.

00:15:59.980 And so, I'm just going to read them from my paper here.

00:16:03.200 We've got Emily Ross from PEI.

00:16:06.360 If you want to just put your hand up, they can see you.

00:16:09.200 And Dan Vashon is from Nova Scotia.

00:16:13.240 Rod Cumberland from New Brunswick.

00:16:15.400 And did Miriam come in from Quebec yet?

00:16:19.660 Not sure.

00:16:21.200 Heather Swart and her husband, Jake, from Ontario.

00:16:24.080 Pamela Wusterman from Saskatchewan.

00:16:29.600 And Lori Dunbar is in there to support her.

00:16:33.500 And Andrea Vrugog from Alberta.

00:16:37.420 And then I'll just talk quickly about BC when we get there.

00:16:40.100 And so, thank you, each of you, for being here and making time to talk to us about how homeschooling

00:16:48.060 works in your province.

00:16:49.320 We're going to start with Dan in Nova Scotia.

00:16:54.600 Just give us a quick rundown of how it works to register or not.

00:17:00.600 Some provinces, you don't have to do a thing.

00:17:02.560 Some you have to do a lot.

00:17:03.760 And tell us a little bit about that, if you homeschooled your kids, and what that was like.

00:17:13.020 And just encouragement to parents getting started.

00:17:16.960 Absolutely.

00:17:17.600 Thanks, Doris.

00:17:18.220 Well, the best thing about homeschooling in Nova Scotia is you would be doing it in God's country.

00:17:23.600 Right?

00:17:24.240 So, I've got all that experience.

00:17:26.060 So, my wife and I, we actually had nine children, and we homeschooled the majority of them.

00:17:30.920 And it's super easy to homeschool here in Nova Scotia.

00:17:34.700 The rules.

00:17:35.560 So, we started homeschooling back in 1996, and we homeschooled for 17 years.

00:17:42.080 So, I'm into the grandkids now.

00:17:44.680 So, things have certainly progressed with us.

00:17:48.380 So, I'm going to share my screen here really quick as well.

00:17:52.280 And I just want to show you a couple things.

00:17:54.820 So, here in Nova Scotia, so for a number of years, as a matter of fact, I was the,

00:18:00.400 I don't know if the title was, the president or in charge of the Christian homeschooling groups here in Nova Scotia for four years.

00:18:06.960 But we also worked very closely with the Nova Scotia Home Educators group as well.

00:18:14.620 We had a really good relationship.

00:18:16.340 So, this website here, homeschoolinginnovascotia.com, basically gives you all of the easies on how to get started here.

00:18:25.480 So, in a nutshell, it used to be that your children had to be five years old by October 1st, but now it's changed.

00:18:33.400 If your child turns five by the end of December, you can start homeschooling that year.

00:18:40.680 Now, you can actually hold your child back for a year, and we did that with one of our oldest, actually.

00:18:46.900 She was really, really small, and we really didn't lose anything.

00:18:51.500 So, 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.

00:19:01.320 You 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.

00:19:09.200 The 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.

00:19:23.760 The Department of Education then would not get the funds for that.

00:19:27.900 All right?

00:19:28.260 So, this particular website here would give you some of the websites to go to, the DOECD website here.

00:19:38.840 If you click on that, it would bring you to over here.

00:19:42.540 Over here would be the homeschool registration form, which was updated this year.

00:19:47.640 Up here would give you the legislation and the regulations, which I'll show you in just a moment here.

00:19:52.980 But the pertinent information is here.

00:19:54.760 You can call the Department of Education to register.

00:19:58.820 You can mail the registration education forms to this address, or you can simply click on this online form here to register your child.

00:20:08.420 Now, sometimes you run into the odd situation where, you know, people have had children, and they have not done this process here.

00:20:18.600 They have not registered their live birth with their children.

00:20:21.440 And so, you know, you may not have a birth certificate for your child.

00:20:25.340 I did hear of some parents actually just this past week say, you know, we don't even bother registering with the government.

00:20:31.860 In that case, carry on.

00:20:33.760 Do your own thing.

00:20:35.640 But 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.

00:20:45.480 All right?

00:20:45.840 All right.

00:21:16.200 You have to submit a yearly report on the DOE website in June.

00:21:23.220 And that's about it.

00:21:27.340 And I'll show you what one of those reports looks like in just a moment here.

00:21:30.220 There 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.

00:21:39.560 So 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.

00:21:50.920 It's very lax and it's very simple.

00:21:53.560 You put the title, the courses that you're doing.

00:21:56.860 And this is basically how we did ours for elementary school.

00:22:01.460 My wife decided to do it like this for high school as well. 1.00

00:22:04.780 The problem is some of my children went on to higher education.

00:22:08.120 And so they wanted to know, well, for example, for math and science, my wife had put pass.

00:22:14.840 They were like, well, so in math, did the pass mean 50?

00:22:19.120 Did your child get an 80, an 84, a 96?

00:22:22.540 What did that mean?

00:22:24.220 So looking back now, we would do this different for high school age.

00:22:28.440 I would go ahead and put percentages or put like an A, A plus or B minus or whatever, especially for the higher grades.

00:22:40.420 Having said all that, I'm going to stop sharing my screen.

00:22:43.920 As you know, children learn differently.

00:22:46.060 Your children in a couple hours at home will learn very differently from the school settings, especially if you're pulling your children out.

00:22:52.920 If you're children at home, you spend a couple of hours with them.

00:22:59.080 And those of you, you know, I'm very familiar with OCHEC and with NB.

00:23:06.400 And I mean, we've had dealings with neighboring provinces.

00:23:08.900 We would go to homeschool conferences.

00:23:10.460 We would go to the ones in Maine.

00:23:12.160 We would go to book fairs and we would talk to parents.

00:23:16.260 And oh, my goodness, back in the day here, we used to go to the landfill back when we used to be able to bring stuff out.

00:23:22.920 OK, and we're there one day and I had my truck and one of my sons is like, Dad, where's why is there a big pile of lawnmowers there?

00:23:30.300 I was like, I had no idea.

00:23:31.900 We brought nine push mowers home and out of it, they got three of them working.

00:23:35.620 The ones that they couldn't work.

00:23:37.660 I mean, I see some of your smiles, right?

00:23:39.320 I mean, they took all the wheels off.

00:23:41.260 They built these little wagons and they were carton.

00:23:43.940 I mean, we had a farm then, too, right?

00:23:45.420 They were carton the goats around.

00:23:47.300 OK, and then we're talking to somebody one day that fixes old radios in that.

00:23:52.140 He's like, oh, you homeschool, right?

00:23:53.880 He says, wait right here.

00:23:55.140 And he came out with a box full of old radios.

00:23:57.740 He said, take these home to your boys.

00:23:59.320 And I had six boys and they took them apart to see how they were.

00:24:02.680 I mean, that's how our children learn to do stuff, right?

00:24:06.260 If the grid went down for a month, all nine of my children could go out in the woods and forage.

00:24:11.900 They can all shoot guns.

00:24:13.360 They can hunt.

00:24:14.320 They can take dirty water and drink it.

00:24:17.700 They can clean it.

00:24:18.460 My kids could survive, right?

00:24:22.900 Kids today, they can hardly spell.

00:24:25.740 They can hardly read.

00:24:27.520 And I bet you most of them can't even cook an egg. 0.78

00:24:30.060 So by homeschooling, you'll be doing your children a favor.

00:24:34.320 You'll be doing you a favor because they can take care of you as well, right?

00:24:37.960 So it's not just about registering, about filling in the dots and putting in the grades.

00:24:42.760 You'll be teaching your children how to really live and life skills, all right?

00:24:47.460 So it's exciting.

00:24:49.060 And one last thing I want to suggest to you, too.

00:24:51.400 People in the community may think, oh, you know, you don't really socialize your kids very well, right?

00:24:56.260 Like, I mean, what do homeschool kids know?

00:24:58.960 I had somebody give a suggestion one time, and I think they actually did it.

00:25:02.500 They started with a little homeschool po-op.

00:25:05.020 They started a community YouTube channel where their children will go around and find stuff out about their community.

00:25:11.500 And they would do these little short videos that the children would do.

00:25:14.560 And they'd say, well, this building was built in 18-something-something by so-and-so.

00:25:18.860 And, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

00:25:20.200 And then they advertised their YouTube channel to the community.

00:25:23.840 And the community folks were like, we never knew that about our community.

00:25:27.320 And the children would do it.

00:25:28.780 Well, these homeschoolers, kudos on them, right?

00:25:31.620 And so the whole atmosphere about homeschooling in the community went up.

00:25:37.220 So just simple things that, you know, you can put your minds together and make homeschooling really catch on.

00:25:44.440 Because there's other people that are not on this call that are thinking, what am I going to do about my children?

00:25:49.860 And you are the influencers, all right?

00:25:52.440 So go out there, influence.

00:25:55.060 Homeschooling is the way to go. 0.98

00:25:56.740 You've got a great job to do, but it'll be easier for you to do.

00:25:59.500 So God bless you all.

00:26:02.620 Thank you, Dan.

00:26:03.780 That was a great story.

00:26:04.980 I love it.

00:26:06.920 We're going to ask Emily Ross now to speak from PEI and share a lot about how it works on your island.

00:26:16.280 And I've been there.

00:26:16.860 It's absolutely beautiful there.

00:26:19.020 So go ahead, Emily.

00:26:20.660 Thank you.

00:26:21.500 So, yes, my name is Emily Ross.

00:26:24.880 Our family has been homeschooling.

00:26:26.880 We're going into our 13th year.

00:26:28.900 So I have a 15-year-old, an 18-year-old, and a 20-year-old.

00:26:33.900 My 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.

00:26:42.960 But 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.

00:26:55.720 And she did a grade 13 with me, and so my son's going to do the same thing.

00:27:01.840 So I have the other two home this year.

00:27:04.500 So I have, when I first started homeschooling, there wasn't a peachy.

00:27:11.380 Well, there was, but it was dormant.

00:27:13.320 So I didn't know of any other organization here.

00:27:16.200 There were some meetings and such, but Facebook was a passionate pastime of mine, and I wanted to connect with other people.

00:27:24.900 So I created a Home Educators of PEI group, which started from nothing, and pre-pandemic was around 200, and now is 436 members today.

00:27:36.840 So we have doubled since the pandemic, and I moderate that group.

00:27:42.820 And 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

00:28:08.780 and to provide support and information to families who are looking to homeschooling and, of course, those who are on their journey.

00:28:17.300 So myself and several other couples started that up.

00:28:21.560 We 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,

00:28:36.500 give information, give information, that sort of thing, but our actual membership is extremely small.

00:28:42.640 We were, we were last year 30, and this year we're 22.

00:28:47.980 So we're, keep trying to encourage people.

00:28:50.880 I think the C in our name has, especially because a lot of secular people have joined homeschooling in the last couple of years.

00:29:00.060 So 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.

00:29:13.620 We just want to unite and help one another move forward here in that.

00:29:20.420 So what else can I say?

00:29:24.660 There used to be some moth meetings here, managers of their home meetings that I helped with once a month.

00:29:30.340 But again, as the pandemic went through, they've just fallen to the wayside and it's been difficult to get people out.

00:29:36.840 However, 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.

00:29:47.120 But we call it the not back to school picnic on the first day of public school.

00:29:51.420 We all meet at Canoe Cove Beach and enjoy getting to know each other and give information about upcoming events.

00:30:00.820 And we had like 150 people come out to that last week.

00:30:07.580 So that was excellent.

00:30:09.620 And the end of the year school picnic that I do was at the other area of the island.

00:30:15.600 And we also have around that many people that will come out.

00:30:18.600 So there are those events that people are drawn to try to socialize and connect.

00:30:23.540 And on the island, like I said, there's the Home Educators of PEI group if you're wanting to get connected.

00:30:31.880 There 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.

00:30:41.240 Um, 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.

00:30:55.980 Um, 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.

00:31:10.660 That, 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.

00:31:32.480 Right. 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.

00:31:57.180 And 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.

00:32:08.860 Uh, 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

00:32:27.040 permission. 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.

00:32:42.540 Um, 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.

00:33:00.900 Um, 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.

00:33:16.980 Um, 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.

00:33:29.640 Like 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.

00:33:46.840 And 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.

00:33:54.980 And 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.

00:34:04.840 And it would look completely different. We have different personalities. We have different family dynamics. We have different styles. We have different, um, learning abilities.

00:34:13.440 So 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.

00:34:24.640 In, 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.

00:34:36.640 And 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.

00:34:48.640 And 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.

00:35:03.560 So, 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.

00:35:13.020 And 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.

00:35:33.560 And 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.

00:35:45.640 Wow, 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.

00:36:07.140 Thank 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.

00:36:23.920 If I forget, just remind me.

00:36:25.800 For sure.

00:36:26.180 Okay. 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.

00:36:50.340 And 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.

00:37:05.580 Jumping 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.

00:37:20.780 Jumping 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.

00:37:43.620 And, 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.

00:37:57.220 But 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

00:38:10.600 that 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.

00:38:24.840 I 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.

00:38:35.840 We, 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.

00:38:48.220 Um, 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.

00:39:01.780 Um, 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.

00:39:17.740 So 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.

00:39:33.380 I 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.

00:39:49.060 Um, 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.

00:40:00.760 And 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.

00:40:09.740 They 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.

00:40:18.360 And, 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.

00:40:28.720 And 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.

00:40:42.540 They 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.

00:40:52.380 Then 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.

00:40:58.500 So, 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.

00:41:14.280 And, 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.

00:41:29.740 Um, 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.

00:41:42.920 It 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.

00:42:00.020 It 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.

00:42:11.820 That'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.

00:42:23.320 So, 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.

00:42:31.200 Um, 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.

00:42:40.200 Uh, 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.

00:42:48.460 Um, 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.

00:42:58.280 The 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.

00:43:05.620 It'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.

00:43:15.480 So, 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?

00:43:27.040 Um, 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.

00:43:32.580 We, 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.

00:43:40.920 Uh, 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.

00:43:48.660 So, 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.

00:43:56.160 So 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.

00:44:06.560 Thank 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.

00:44:18.580 And 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.

00:44:27.060 So there's those kinds of things that you just have to sort of advocate for your kid and to get them in there.

00:44:32.860 And there are lots of schools across the country that want homeschoolers.

00:44:37.340 And 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.

00:44:46.900 Um, I also wanted to just say, um, I won't have time in the chat to address any personal questions directed to me.

00:44:54.420 So you can send an email to homeschooling at action for Canada.ca and you'll get me directly.

00:45:02.640 And then I will be happy to help you at another time. I just want to make sure we get through our panel here today.

00:45:09.360 Okay. So, um, the next, uh, province is Ontario is Quebec here yet.

00:45:16.900 Did she sign in? I don't want to skip her Miriam, if she's here.

00:45:22.340 Okay. We'll move on then to Ontario, Heather's work and her husband, Jake, and welcome.

00:45:29.500 And, uh, tell us about your province. There's lots going on there as well.

00:45:34.020 Thank you very much, Doris. Um, just a quick rundown on the legal aspect first.

00:45:40.420 Um, Ontario law has compulsory education requirements as to all provinces, I'm sure.

00:45:48.580 And then there's a bunch of excuses of why you don't have to.

00:45:53.380 The one that pertains to us is if you're providing satisfactory instruction at home or elsewhere.

00:46:00.260 It's interesting that satisfactory instruction is nowhere defined, nor is it defined who determines

00:46:09.920 what satisfactory instruction is. So as homeschoolers, we maintain it's the parents of the child that

00:46:16.880 determines it. The ministry of education maintains it's the school board, but no court has actually

00:46:24.440 ruled on it. So it's indeterminate. Um, we also have policy, which in our case is PPM 131.

00:46:36.120 And you can find all this on our website, but the policy, the government would like us

00:46:42.440 to inform the school board that we're homeschooling. It's not mandatory. And if, uh, you're not doing

00:46:49.400 it, or you've got a child that's preschool, we sort of say, why bother? Um, but the government would

00:46:57.320 like us to inform them through PPM 131. And if we do that, they will send us another form back saying,

00:47:06.520 based on filling out that form, we recognize that you are providing satisfactory instruction.

00:47:13.400 If you're, uh, withdrawing your child from school, chances are that's the most polite way to go.

00:47:22.360 Uh, certainly if you've got special needs child, or you want to use, um, the government, um,

00:47:29.320 correspondence courses or virtual learning center courses, then you need to fill that format.

00:47:37.320 So there are certain cases where it's, um, pretty, uh, other cases by Bob.

00:47:46.200 Um,

00:47:49.160 The information requested on the form is basically the child's name, gender, and

00:47:55.080 age, and the parent signature. And that's it. It's not like they're asking curriculum, et cetera.

00:47:59.960 The problem we have here is some school boards and some organizations are telling our parents that

00:48:04.680 they need to file that letter of intent. And the school boards, half of them, uh, provide their own

00:48:11.720 letter of intent for you to use. And it includes much more information. So it becomes invasive. So we,

00:48:20.200 we'd like just to stay away from it. So we encourage our members to use the government approved

00:48:27.880 form rather than the school board enhanced. Yeah. It's on our website, the actual group form.

00:48:34.920 So in terms of finding a local support group, uh, again, we recommend to go to our website, www.ochdc.org.

00:48:51.400 And, uh, there's a map on there. And, uh, we have the province divided into different areas. You click on

00:48:59.000 the appropriate part of the map. It brings you to an area rep and an email goes to the area rep,

00:49:07.000 as well as to some local support group. And, uh, they will, um, try to get that person connected

00:49:15.560 to a local support group. Otherwise you call the office here and, uh, Heather feels a lot of calls.

00:49:23.480 You wanted to say something else? Oh, no, it actually doesn't connect you to the area rep,

00:49:27.880 it connects you to a form that gets sent to the area rep. I'm stickler for words. Okay. Um,

00:49:34.280 but yeah, our area reps do a good job trying to either put you into a support group, getting connected

00:49:39.800 to one or taking the number of people who are in your area without a support group and helping you

00:49:45.000 to connect to each other to form a new support group. So OCHEC doesn't run the support groups.

00:49:50.360 OCHEC is just a provincial network. And we have a lot of support groups who are members of OCHEC.

00:49:56.520 And they keep us connected, keep us networking.

00:50:03.240 Yeah, I was going to say support groups are probably a very big part of homeschooling. And

00:50:10.040 I know on your website, I've looked at all your regions. It's like Action for Canada. You know,

00:50:14.920 we've got people all over the country and you've got people all over your province. So

00:50:19.080 yeah. Go ahead, Jake.

00:50:24.520 One of the big things OCHEC does every year is run a provincial convention, usually the first weekend

00:50:31.800 in May, where we try and bring everybody together. Normally held at Redeemer University and the

00:50:40.680 outskirts of Hamilton here. And that's a really good time of encouragement, sharing and learning,

00:50:48.600 learning about what others are doing and just realizing you're not alone. It is a movement.

00:50:55.560 There are many, many people doing it.

00:50:57.800 One of the sad things I've listened to this September is all these people who are going to

00:51:01.560 start homeschooling and they've just missed the convention. They didn't know about it.

00:51:06.280 But I try to tell them, look, start homeschooling, but don't miss it next May, because that's where

00:51:11.160 you're going to find your people group too, where you're going to find all the encouragement

00:51:14.760 that you want to keep on going. So it's just hard to get the information out there.

00:51:23.880 So the top three things to stay focused on in homeschooling, I think previous speakers

00:51:31.320 we've been doing it well. It is a way of life. For us, with me having a sedentary job,

00:51:41.560 being an engineer, but living rurally, one of the things we did was cut and split wood.

00:51:51.960 With my work, I do consulting. So once they got to be old enough, I took them with me sometimes on the

00:51:58.920 consulting trips and going into paper mills, taking measurements there, seeing what the work world

00:52:06.200 really is like. High school, people get worried about high school. Can I really do it? And I know

00:52:17.640 Heather, when we started homeschooling high school, was pretty concerned about that. But in actual fact,

00:52:26.120 what it turns out to be is a lot more self-study. And just like the workplace, if our student or child

00:52:36.440 ran into a problem, they would take a look at what subject is it and who's available. So if it was

00:52:43.640 English, without a doubt, they'd go to Heather. If it was math, that'd be who's available, because we're 0.97

00:52:51.800 both pretty good at math. If it was physics, without a doubt, they'd come to me. But that's what the

00:52:58.440 real work world is like too. You figure out what your issue is, who's available, and who's got the

00:53:05.160 expertise. So they would also go outside of our home because there were certain parents or other

00:53:10.120 homeschooling families that had a lot more expertise in theaters and music and arts and all kinds of

00:53:15.480 things. And they were free to call those people too. It was great. It's a working together community

00:53:22.520 in the whole school in the family.

00:53:26.760 And I think grade 12 chemistry, I think for every one of them, I ran into a problem that I said,

00:53:34.600 I don't know the answer to that. But I used to work with a PhD chemist. I'll ask him.

00:53:40.760 And so there again, you see how expertise beyond the family comes in. Other things you get to do,

00:53:51.640 in our case, yeah, in our case, when we started a home building project, and it really was a family

00:54:03.000 project. All of our children were involved. Two of our children's careers were greatly affected by that.

00:54:15.640 One of them decided to become a carpenter and went through a carpentry apprenticeship.

00:54:23.080 And one of the guys he was working with at the time said, if you can become an engineer,

00:54:28.120 you really should do that. When you get to be my age, you'll have sore elbows. He said,

00:54:33.800 I'm already feeling my elbows. So he went on and now is a civil engineer. And then the youngest one

00:54:40.600 said, I don't think advanced education is for me. And he now has his own timber framing business.

00:54:48.520 So they all find their niche. All four of our children, as Rod mentioned, for his family,

00:54:59.800 are following the Lord. So if you look at the homeschooling research,

00:55:04.680 I think 90, 95% of the people, children growing up maintain the faith of their parents.

00:55:16.600 One bit of research I'd like to point people at is if you look up the initials, N-H-E-R-I,

00:55:24.680 and then space gen2, G-E-N-2, the generation two survey, you'll find a PDF. N-H-E-R-I is National Home

00:55:36.840 Education Research Institute. But this is a survey on 18 to 38 year olds that grew up in the church. So

00:55:46.120 they were church growing up. And down on page 12 and 13 of the PDF, it shows what factors

00:55:54.440 in their childhood correlated to positive outcomes. And the two most positive correlations are

00:56:01.800 relationship with father and relationship with mother, equally positive. Homeschooling was really

00:56:08.360 high up. Public schooling was most negatively correlated. Private schooling was almost as

00:56:15.400 negatively correlated. So I'm thinking, you know, God invented the family with different ages,

00:56:24.200 man invented school where all ages and all grade twos are with all eight grade twos.

00:56:31.720 So this age segregated environment sort of naturally leads to a bully being at the top,

00:56:40.680 whereas the family naturally leads to loving parents being at the top, being the respected ones.

00:56:47.560 So that dependency on parents versus peer dependency, I'm suspecting, is the big difference there.

00:56:57.880 The other really positive thing Ontario has done, or at least this part of Ontario,

00:57:03.880 one of our children and a fellow homeschooler started what's called Canadian Bible quizzing.

00:57:12.840 And the children, a lot of homeschooled youth and others as well,

00:57:18.600 and memorize portions of scripture. And then there's four meets a year, they sit on jump seats,

00:57:28.040 and answer a bunch of questions. So this is memorization intensive, memorizing the Bible.

00:57:36.600 And it gives you a social and reason to memorize a word where you can show your proficiency.

00:57:47.320 So it gives you milestones. So that's been really effective for many people.

00:57:52.360 The promises of Alberta and Saskatchewan also have Bible quizzing.

00:57:57.080 What our group over here found in Ontario is the requirement to be a member of a specific

00:58:02.040 denomination or a church to participate in it. So our son and the other quizzers said,

00:58:08.280 it's just open to homeschoolers and non-homeschoolers. And that allowed more people to,

00:58:14.600 more of the homeschoolers to participate. And it's been a great education for those leaders

00:58:21.160 in learning how organizations get going.

00:58:25.240 So to say, at least I think, would we do it again? And we're now grandparents and have

00:58:31.720 graduated all our time. But absolutely. I like telling new homeschool parents,

00:58:39.640 it certainly is work. But as Rod said, even if you think you're a failure,

00:58:46.840 you won't fail as spectacularly as the school system.

00:58:51.400 But the rewards of the earthly rewards of family unity more than make out for the effort you put

00:59:00.840 into homeschooling. And that doesn't even count the heavenly rewards of children remaining faithful to God.

00:59:08.280 I think some of the things that we'd like to advise or share with families who are considering homeschooling,

00:59:14.920 considering taking their kids out of public school now, is to allow a transition time. Don't jump in and

00:59:20.120 expect to recreate school at home, because that's not what this is. As Rod said, it's a lifestyle.

00:59:26.760 And your children may object to this change in their lifestyle. They'll need some time to transition.

00:59:32.360 Don't be surprised if there's going to be some difficult times. So try and get connected to some

00:59:38.920 local homeschool families, maybe just two or three, maybe a support group, because they'll help you get

00:59:44.360 over those hard days. You'll be an encouragement to the support group, too. But they will be a huge

00:59:49.880 important importance in your life and for your children as they get to know other kids. So try to

00:59:57.320 do a little bit of that socializing and try not to just say, well, this is the way it's going to be.

01:00:04.120 Make the transition with your children, not without them. You don't want to leave them behind.

01:00:10.600 Give them time to adjust. We used to say, if they've been in school for a year, give them a month to

01:00:16.200 adjust. If they've been in for eight years, give them eight months. There can be a lag. The curriculum is

01:00:22.680 not what's important. It's the character that's really, really important. They will keep learning.

01:00:27.320 It's really hard to stop a child from learning. You put things in front of them and they'll keep

01:00:31.000 on learning. I think that that was one of the things I wanted to add. There was a lady here today and 0.99

01:00:37.560 there's a family here homeschooling with us today. They're making applesauce because the tree is loaded.

01:00:43.160 That's homeschooling. That's a life skill. They're learning it. I happen to know how to do applesauce and

01:00:50.600 they come to learn. They've had to leave because we're on here. I said, we should have just held

01:00:55.000 this in our kitchen so that all the rest of you out there who haven't homeschooled can see that

01:00:59.400 this is homeschooling. We're just working together and learning together.

01:01:05.320 And I would do it again in a heartbeat. My four sons treat me like a queen and your kids can too.

01:01:10.760 Same. I agree with you. Wonderful. I love what you had to say. Man, you guys could be speakers all

01:01:21.080 the time. Jake, could you also just repeat that study from the National Research Institute so we can

01:01:29.320 get it in our chat here, that PDF, how to find it? Can I type it in the chat? Yeah, it's N-H-E-R-I,

01:01:37.320 are the initials of National Home Education Research Institute, Brian Ray,

01:01:46.440 and then the Gen 2 study. So Gen as in generation and then the digit 2.

01:01:55.160 Okay. Now I can't quite hear the details so very clearly. I don't know if anybody else, but if you

01:02:00.520 could type it in the chat, that would be helpful too. We will do that. All right. Thank you so much.

01:02:06.760 Okay. And we're just going to now introduce Saskatchewan with Pamela Busterman and all the

01:02:14.840 excited things in the homeschool world of that beautiful province. Go ahead, Pamela. Hi. So I'm

01:02:22.360 from East Central Saskatchewan. I have four children that my husband and I homeschool and range from high

01:02:29.400 school down to preschool at this point. So we're kind of running the gamut. I'd say Saskatchewan is

01:02:37.160 pretty easy to homeschool in. We do have some regulations that other provinces don't, but

01:02:41.960 if you just keep it simple, you're pretty good. So in Saskatchewan, you can give 30 day notice at

01:02:48.520 any point, any time in the school year to start homeschooling. You give your notice.

01:02:56.840 I'm not sure if it's really an issue that you'd have to wait the 30 days.

01:03:00.760 There's rules and then there's what actually happens. However, and then annually we report

01:03:06.040 once a year, August 15th is our deadline. And what that includes is just a simple letter of intent,

01:03:15.000 which is like a form from the province that requires your demographics. So like the kids' names

01:03:22.520 and you signing off stating that you are home educating. Then you submit to your local division

01:03:28.680 a written education plan. And that is three goals for your four core subjects, which is math, science,

01:03:35.880 English, and social. They're very basic, broad annual goals. We call them really simple, really broad.

01:03:42.840 You're not talking about curriculum. You're not talking about details or specifics of what you're

01:03:47.560 doing. So just kind of like overarching goals for the year. So like, for example, in language arts,

01:03:53.320 maybe one of your goals is just to work on comprehension. Like it's pretty simple. Science

01:03:59.560 could be you're going to study biology. You don't have to say what or when or how or anything. That's

01:04:06.200 it. And then at the end of the year, you just report back stating that you actually met those goals.

01:04:11.160 If you didn't, what you did instead or why generally, if you make your goals broad, no matter what you did,

01:04:18.040 you've met them. So like, for example, on the one with comprehension, reporting back would be

01:04:23.160 a sentence stating improved comprehension through reading literature done. And also there's what's

01:04:31.960 called like a monthly log where you would just write a few activities. Mine always consists of

01:04:37.080 like two to three sentences at the very most saying, maybe in September, we started on working on our

01:04:43.560 goals. Maybe we went to a museum. And maybe in February, I might write something. But each month,

01:04:49.240 you just write very, very basic, it seems daunting. So anyone in Saskatchewan, when you start,

01:04:55.240 a lot of people do kind of feel overwhelmed, but it is actually very basic. It should take no longer

01:05:01.160 than 30 minutes to sit down and get it done and submit it. So if you're taking longer than that,

01:05:06.120 you need to reach out to she be because I think you're overthinking it and we can kind of help

01:05:12.360 boil it down to something more basic. So talking about she be, I'm the president for she be which 0.98

01:05:20.600 stands for the Saskatchewan home based educators, we're the provincial voice for homeschoolers,

01:05:26.200 we advocate on behalf of homeschoolers, to the government, we try to step in and assist homeschoolers

01:05:34.280 when they're struggling with issues with the divisions. We support homeschoolers in any way

01:05:41.560 we can, which is, we have our own forms that you'll find on our website, like templates for

01:05:49.560 that written education plan. It's absolutely the bare basics that's required. It doesn't

01:05:55.720 include any extras, and it meets all legal requirements. We worked with HSLDA to come up with

01:06:01.800 it. And if you fill those out, you're in compliance with the law and you are not required to submit

01:06:07.160 anything else. Now in Saskatchewan, we are one of the few provinces that the divisions have the right

01:06:13.960 to choose to give some money if they want. This can vary anywhere from zero dollars with a division

01:06:21.320 all the way up to $1,000 with some other divisions. You can't pick and choose your division. It's just

01:06:26.920 geographically where you're located. It's weird, it's random, and it's unfortunate. But with the

01:06:33.560 money, of course, always comes more reporting. So some of the divisions that grant money do require,

01:06:38.680 if you want the money, you've done your provincial stuff, you're good to go. But if you want access to

01:06:44.200 the money, you might have to provide receipts, you might have to provide more information,

01:06:47.800 you may have to report more details. So that's something that you do need to consider when

01:06:52.760 government funding gets involved. There are always strings. So for, I recommend anyone from

01:07:02.040 Saskatchewan interested to go to shbe.ca. That's shbe.ca. We have tons of resources on our website,

01:07:10.840 including the kind of a step-by-step how to register. All of Saskatchewan, there's a representative

01:07:17.960 from shbe that you can contact if you have any questions that's local to your area. And it also,

01:07:25.640 we have a yearly convention that we hold in February. So if you're thinking about it, or you've

01:07:31.400 just started, and you want to get kind of plugged into the your local community, and you may be

01:07:36.520 struggling that way, come to the convention in February. It's being held in Regina, and you can meet

01:07:41.880 all sorts of other homeschoolers from the area from around the province who you can connect with,

01:07:47.800 and know that you're not alone, that there's people who have kind of understand what you're

01:07:54.040 where you're coming from, why you're doing things, and then make connections from there. There is a

01:07:59.480 Saskatchewan home Facebook group that you can join. I think it's called I Homeschool Saskatchewan,

01:08:07.400 and then locally there's tons of little groups that you can find within that group. Say, I'm from

01:08:13.160 here, and often you can be like, are there any groups in my area? And so Facebook is a very good

01:08:18.840 source in that way. The biggest, one of the questions was something about three reasons why,

01:08:27.400 or something about homeschooling. But I'd say the biggest thing for you to know when you're homeschooling

01:08:33.240 is just know your why. Why are you homeschooling? What drives you to homeschool rather than putting

01:08:38.840 your kid in school? So because when you're going through periods of time when things are a struggle,

01:08:46.680 you're pulling a arrow, your kids aren't listening, things are just not going well,

01:08:51.160 you can always go back to the why. Why it was important, and that's going to be what gets you

01:08:57.400 through. So for example, our family, we're a Christian family. We center our homeschooling

01:09:02.680 around God, and then we focus on our family. So we've gone through periods of months where the

01:09:09.720 kids have not even touched a school book. We've just done whatever, whether it's sleeping in or going to

01:09:17.960 social events with other homeschool families and focusing on that, or just kind of done hands-on

01:09:24.840 activities. We live on a farm. And then there's periods where we do lots of book work. So some

01:09:32.120 of it may have happened because we had a kid struggling, or some of it may have just happened

01:09:36.440 because we had the opportunity to do something, but we always know our why. And so we can always

01:09:42.280 go back to that and say, are we going in the right direction? Are we making good sound choices,

01:09:48.120 even though things aren't the easiest? Because homeschooling, as wonderful and as beautiful as it is,

01:09:52.840 we have an amazing relationship with our children. I would never give that up for anything. My children

01:10:00.120 are very family-focused and orientated, and they're very community-minded because we raised them that way.

01:10:06.920 So I would never send them back to the public system. But I can always, in the harder times,

01:10:11.880 look back at my why and say, okay, this is a hard day. I'm struggling. This is what we're going to do.

01:10:18.840 Does it fit with my why? And if it does, then I know just push through one step at a time, and

01:10:25.560 things will get better. Because they always do. Because homeschooling is about family, ultimately.

01:10:31.080 You don't do it because you don't like your family. You do it because you love your family.

01:10:34.120 Yes, thank you, Pamela. The whole why thing is really important. And for some people, they may

01:10:46.040 even have to write it down and put it on the fridge or in the bathroom mirror and say,

01:10:50.920 you know, it's been a rough week, but this is why I'm still doing what I'm doing. And I had lots of

01:10:55.560 days like that myself, especially as you move into the end of spring, and the days are warmer,

01:11:01.480 and you know, you've got these long-term goals, and you're just, you're this close, and you're

01:11:06.520 almost losing your mind. But then you realize it's okay if we finish it now, we only need another week,

01:11:12.760 or it's okay to roll it into the next year. And, and I also loved how you said, you know,

01:11:18.360 if there's a child that isn't sort of keeping up with the curriculum at the time, or not ready.

01:11:25.000 I had a child like that I just put the whole that subject away for three months. And then I brought it

01:11:31.960 back and I went is she ready now. And I think probably after six months she was ready. And then

01:11:38.200 we went into it. So that's the nice thing about homeschooling, especially if you've got the long

01:11:42.520 term plan in mind is, if you don't get it all done, because you love to check the boxes, and it

01:11:50.120 makes you feel good as a parent that we successfully finished a school year. Sometimes you got to go

01:11:55.800 easier on yourself as a parent to and going, well, we got this far. So we have success. And sometimes

01:12:03.160 if you want to document, sometimes it helps you if you document the success of each child. So you can

01:12:09.880 say, wow, we did come this far. And but we're going to take a break. And we're going to roll

01:12:14.680 that into the next year. And that's the nice thing about when you have years to accomplish

01:12:19.160 your goals. It's not like we got to get this done this week, we got to get it done today, because

01:12:25.160 the curriculum says so, like, you want to always lean back and then just be in the moment, enjoy what's

01:12:32.200 going on and juggling all that. We all got to figure it out a few years to figure it out. But

01:12:37.880 so worth the learning. Thank you again, Pamela. We're going to move on now to Alberta. Andrea

01:12:44.040 Vruhawk. Thank you for coming in and telling us about Alberta.

01:12:51.560 You got to unmute yourself.

01:12:55.080 Okay, got that. Okay. I'll probably share my screen if that's possible as I talk through things.

01:13:02.440 So as other provinces have said, fund with funding comes a lot more.

01:13:20.520 Yeah, government involvement. Alberta has funding, you can get $900 a year per child.

01:13:31.880 And with that, you must notify the government of your intent to homeschool. Two years ago, we got

01:13:38.280 what we call notification only no funding, which means I don't take the funding, I just notify the

01:13:45.400 government, I fill out a form, I don't need to send a program plan, I don't need any intervention

01:13:51.160 by the government. And that is it. If you want, if you want the funding, you have to go and sign up with

01:13:58.600 an associate board, which means that you'll go find a board. If you go on our website under home

01:14:05.160 education, you can go associate boards or private schools, and they provide, there's a list of them,

01:14:14.440 and you need to register or notify with one of them, and they will take you on. And with that, you have an assigned

01:14:26.120 teacher that will come and do two visits with you. So as as you get money, the more more restrictions,

01:14:34.280 the more things that come. If you want to do get the funding, you need to be registered or notified with

01:14:43.800 the board by September 29, because that is the cut off. That's when the government calculates or

01:14:50.680 determines which school the student is registered with and where the funding will go. After that time,

01:14:57.240 the funding is no longer available to you as a home educator, but you can still do notification only,

01:15:04.760 and you can take your children out and start homeschooling at any time.

01:15:10.920 Yeah, the regulations, I look at other provinces, and I look, the regulations in Alberta are a little bit

01:15:15.880 daunting sometimes. But once you get to understand what, how to go through it, it makes it a lot easier.

01:15:23.240 On our website, there's all sorts of all sorts of information. We have

01:15:30.280 new to home education, we have two booklets that we've put up, the ABCs of AHEA, which kind of just

01:15:36.040 gives the history of AHEA. And then we've got the

01:15:44.040 other one is the ABCs of home education, and it just talks about all the new terms, the things that

01:15:51.880 you're going to find. And if you get the download the PDF file, it has all the hot links to go. So

01:15:57.960 if there's a form that you need to fill out to do notification only, you press the link and it will

01:16:01.640 bring you to the government page to find those those resources. So I would suggest if you're starting in

01:16:12.600 Alberta, and you find that it's sounding daunting, go on our website, look at the information. And then if

01:16:19.080 you have more questions and call us, we're also willing if there's a group of new homeschoolers in

01:16:23.960 an area that would like us to come and lead you and help you and talk about this at a group, we're

01:16:29.960 willing to come across the province to come and do that. On our website, we have a lot of information.

01:16:39.960 We have an area where our support groups like other provincial people have said, get connected to

01:16:49.800 local support groups, we don't manage them, we just put the information of who they are, where you can

01:16:55.000 find them. We've also have special needs. The government, again, with money, has decided to put some money in

01:17:04.040 special needs for the homeschoolers so they can tap for some resources. I'm not sure it's quite what maybe the

01:17:12.040 parents were looking for for special needs. I think they were looking more for getting funding and to be able to reach out and

01:17:18.040 get speech therapy and some of those things. I'm not sure if that's exactly what they're getting. Maybe there are some resources

01:17:25.040 available there. We do a convention. Ours is in May 30th, June 1st. I think we had over 1,000 people come last year,

01:17:39.040 which was really good after not having one for two years because of COVID. At our convention, we have good speakers,

01:17:47.040 a good time to connect and to realize that you're not alone. Just to new homeschoolers, you're not alone.

01:17:53.040 In Alberta, there's over 19,000 homeschooling children. That means it's large, but across Canada, you're not alone either.

01:18:05.040 Just realize that you're connected, trying to find a good support group to stay connected.

01:18:11.040 Let me just close my screen now.

01:18:15.040 Yeah, 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.

01:18:33.040 Your facilitator, you'll have to give them a program plan of what you're planning on doing. That's your first visit.

01:18:41.040 The second visit will come and say, how did you do?

01:18:45.040 You're allowed to change your program plan anytime during the year. You don't have to stick to it.

01:18:49.040 You 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.

01:19:03.040 If you have the facilitators are credited teachers, we suggest that you ask the facilitator, are you a homeschooler? Have you homeschooled your own kids?

01:19:18.040 Because that's important, because if they don't or if they weren't homeschooled, they may not even understand what homeschooling is.

01:19:25.040 You don't need to sign with your local school board.

01:19:29.040 So if I live in Edmonton, I don't need to sign with a school board in Edmonton.

01:19:33.040 If I'm a Christian, I can pick one out in Calgary if I want. 0.98

01:19:36.040 The facilitators will come and meet you at your home or at...

01:19:41.040 Everyone thinks that they have to come into your home.

01:19:44.040 I try to tell parents, no, they don't.

01:19:46.040 I've had some come in my home if I wanted to, but you can meet at the library, you can meet somewhere else.

01:19:52.040 So don't feel that they need to come. It's intrusive enough.

01:19:54.040 They don't need to come into your home to evaluate.

01:19:59.040 Yeah, there's...

01:20:02.040 As AHIA, we try to advocate the government.

01:20:07.040 We have three meetings with the Minister of Education a year.

01:20:11.040 We put out...

01:20:12.040 We talk to them. We try to change things, get things.

01:20:15.040 We finally, like I said, got notification only.

01:20:17.040 No funding, so there's no funding, but the only thing you do is fill out a form.

01:20:20.040 There's no program plan.

01:20:22.040 You don't need to submit anything more than just your form saying that you're notifying that you're home educating.

01:20:29.040 We put out an arrow every two, three months, just with usually an article from...

01:20:37.040 To support, to encourage homeschoolers while you're doing things, how to do it.

01:20:41.040 Also, if there's any updates on government information that they need to know, we'll put that in our arrow.

01:20:49.040 So what else can I...

01:20:52.040 I think that's probably about...

01:20:55.040 Although I'll talk about the legal parts, but the three...

01:21:00.040 Maybe the three things.

01:21:02.040 Find a good support group in your local area.

01:21:06.040 Like a lot of people have said, a couple of families that will support you for those hard times.

01:21:11.040 Like Pamela said, know why you homeschool. 0.72

01:21:14.040 Have it written just so that you can go back in those hard days.

01:21:17.040 What was our goal for homeschooling?

01:21:19.040 Why did I pull them out?

01:21:21.040 And if I pulled them out for a specific reason, have those things changed in the school where I would want to put them back?

01:21:28.040 Or is it a character?

01:21:30.040 Are we trying to build character?

01:21:31.040 Hey, 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.

01:21:39.040 But, you know, just have your goals of homeschooling so that you can go back during those really, really hard times.

01:21:46.040 One 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.

01:21:57.040 And my second daughter, we are very similar in character, so we a lot of times have our struggles because we're too much alike.

01:22:07.040 And I found that those struggles didn't go away when we started homeschooling, but we had all day to deal with them.

01:22:14.040 Instead 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.

01:22:23.040 And 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.

01:22:32.040 During 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.

01:22:46.040 I 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.

01:22:59.040 And if you take it per year, it's about 1,365 hours a year that you gain again.

01:23:05.040 And you get to influence who will impact your children during this time.

01:23:11.040 You get to decide which stuff comes into your home instead of letting other people during those thousands of hours.

01:23:19.040 You 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.

01:23:31.040 I 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.

01:23:41.040 We have an administrator that answers telephones and redirects that the calls were need to be.

01:23:46.040 Like 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.

01:23:59.040 A 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.

01:24:18.040 Thank you, Andrea.

01:24:20.040 Thank you Andrea.

01:24:21.040 I'm going to talk about BC and it's very similar to what Alberta has.

01:24:27.040 I think Alberta started the whole funding thing in Canada and then BC started to follow that so the way it works in BC.

01:24:37.040 Anyways, it's BC HEA so as British Columbia Home Educator Association would be the website.

01:24:43.040 And by the way, all the websites are on action for candidates homeschooling link so.

01:24:48.040 We'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.

01:24:56.040 So yeah, and BC back in the day when I started in 19 I think it was 95.

01:25:03.040 There was only traditional homeschooling.

01:25:07.040 And so the parents came up with their own curriculum and curriculum conventions and curriculum affairs were just getting started.

01:25:16.040 And 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.

01:25:32.040 So that's a little plug for conventions, I highly recommend you get to them.

01:25:36.040 And 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.

01:25:48.040 All 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.

01:26:02.040 And they pretty much ran almost an online program, not to teach but to offer support.

01:26:11.040 And then today they also have the the funding option as well.

01:26:16.040 They had a Christian school also a brick and mortar school outside.

01:26:22.040 And then over time, I want to say when my oldest might have been starting or maybe the end of elementary school for her.

01:26:32.040 When 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.

01:26:45.040 And when you enroll you can still use your own curriculum.

01:26:50.040 And 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.

01:27:00.040 Or you can do 100% with an online teacher.

01:27:05.040 Now, in a traditional sense that's not really homeschooling anymore that's school at home, because you're using.

01:27:13.040 That's sort of a sort of a provincial program.

01:27:16.040 But 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.

01:27:28.040 But there's thousands of kids who are also again like Alberta who are home and they're learning at home.

01:27:35.040 And so registration and enrollment that makes them different registration.

01:27:42.040 There's no money.

01:27:43.040 All you have to do is let them know you can you don't even have to tell them you're going to homeschool.

01:27:46.040 You're just going to say my child will not be in your school next year.

01:27:50.040 You have till September 30th to let them know and you can pull your child at any time.

01:27:56.040 If 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.

01:28:09.040 But you just need to be registered somewhere else with them and which one are you going to choose.

01:28:14.040 So on the BC link on our website, you'll see quite a list of different schools that are home, very friendly to home education.

01:28:25.040 And those are the ones I would encourage people in BC to link up with and connect.

01:28:31.040 I made some notes here, so I wouldn't forget.

01:28:36.040 Oh, yeah.

01:28:38.040 Six years old is the when you have to register up to 17.

01:28:44.040 So notice it's not five.

01:28:45.040 So it's not kindergarten, and it may not even be necessarily if you're 18.

01:28:50.040 So six to 17 is when you legally have to register somewhere in the province.

01:28:57.040 I just wanted to share a little story about how we created a co op.

01:29:03.040 I was on the west side of Vancouver Island as far as west as the opposite ocean ocean.

01:29:09.040 And we created our own co ops, we created our own grad for our kids like we had no big city things to do.

01:29:19.040 We created our own Friday swimming.

01:29:21.040 We rented the pool in a town that was an hour and a half away.

01:29:27.040 We created our own gymnastics program, our own skating programs.

01:29:30.040 And one of the fun things we did was we we had a contract with the RCMP to wash their police cars on Wednesday afternoon.

01:29:37.040 And 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.

01:29:49.040 I 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.

01:29:57.040 We did it for years, and we built a relationship with these families and with these RCMP members.

01:30:04.040 And so and the kids learned how to clean like they know how to clean a car.

01:30:10.040 And of course us parents had to be in there showing them how to clean.

01:30:14.040 And so it was a very family directed very social amongst the kids amongst each other.

01:30:19.040 And so there's so many creative ways to get our kids to be together and socialize you can run these co ops.

01:30:26.040 Where 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.

01:30:41.040 And 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.

01:30:59.040 There'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.

01:31:07.040 So 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.

01:31:22.040 And 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.

01:31:40.040 So that would be a 10am PST on Tuesday, September 26.

01:31:49.040 And any Tanya did you have any final comments.

01:31:54.040 I 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.

01:32:05.040 And 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.

01:32:16.040 And 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.

01:32:34.460 And 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.

01:32:42.920 And 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.

01:33:00.400 Thank you, Tanya I'm just I see a comment in my chat here, Andrea wanted to say one more thing, and before you do.

01:33:11.500 Lori 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.

01:33:18.260 You 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.

01:33:32.620 You 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.

01:33:44.680 So 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.

01:34:04.680 No, 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.

01:34:15.740 Yeah, 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.

01:34:32.280 But 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.

01:34:45.060 Right. And you know, I mean if this all sounds overwhelming for those who are just getting started.

01:34:50.600 Your homeschool association leader will help you walk through those steps and it's it's not meant to be overwhelming.

01:34:57.820 It 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.

01:35:10.100 And HSLDA protecting our laws okay go ahead, Lori, do you have any final words you want to add.

01:35:19.080 Oh, you got you're still on mute.

01:35:23.060 Oh, there we go.

01:35:24.360 No, it's been really good.

01:35:26.720 I just wanted to encourage everybody that education is discipleship.

01:35:30.620 It's some indoctrination is when you don't allow any kind of questions.

01:35:34.020 Um, 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.

01:35:43.820 And it honestly is incomparable.

01:35:46.100 It'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.

01:35:52.980 I'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.

01:36:02.220 So 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.

01:36:15.840 It'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.

Action4Canada - September 16, 2023

Parent Webinar Homeschooling Panel - Sept 12, 2023

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