Frequently Asked Questions About Home Education
The Questions:
1. Why Do Families Choose Home Education?
2. What About Socialization?
3. How Do I Get Started With Home Educating?
4. What About Post Secondary Opportunities?
5. What if my son or daughter wants to earn Alberta Education
….credits or the Alberta Education high school diploma?
6. Can my son or daughter play on a sports team from our local
….high school?
7. Additional Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Resources
The Answers:
1. Why Do Families Choose Home Education?
Every year, The Home Education Exchange polls member families to find out why they have chosen to home-school. Here are the top five reasons paraphrased from our parents:
a) “All education, by nature of what is taught and what is not taught, builds a child’s understanding of their world. We home school because as parents we are responsible to instill our faith, values, and morals into our children through education. We are handing to the next generation what was given to us.” This has traditionally been the primary reason for many families to home-educate.
b) “We can spend more time being a family.” Our hectic work lives mean some parents rarely see their children over the course of a week. Vacation times can be especially fragmented between school and work schedules. Home-education allows the family to organize their time together more effectively.
c) “Our child wasn’t doing well in the school, and we were doing so much homework. We thought it couldn’t be much more work to home-school!” Many parents are choosing to home-educate out of some frustration regarding their child’s progress in school. Often when there is a problem in school, the parent is the last to find out — at report card time! Home education offers parents the chance to observe and work with their child’s abilities. Parents appreciate knowing first-hand how their children are doing.
d) “Home-education affords us special opportunities for learning.” Hands-on learners can spend time in the kitchen or garage, creating their own understanding. Students can pursue topics that interest them, such as computer programming. Individual learners can excel in their strengths studying more advanced subjects than their in-school counter-parts.
e) “My kids have learned to get along with each other.” Many parents have reported that the relationship between siblings has improved as a result of spending time together in home-education. In traditional school, siblings are grouped according to their age, and often learn not to have anything to do with younger kids. Unfortunately such animosity continues even when they get home at night. Spending time together at home often undoes the social behavior learned at school.
2. What About Socialization?
This is a serious question, worthy of an intelligent response. Socialization is the process of learning the rules of behavior of the culture within which an individual is born and will live. Two relevant questions would be
(A) What currently are the strongest agents of socialization?
(B) Are traditional schools effect agents of socialization?
In a CBC interview, Neil Postman answered the first question by stating that the most powerful agent of socialization shaping the behavior of our youth is television advertising, followed by the influence of “mom and pop”. Our kids learn by watching and imitating the behaviors of others on TV or in person, therefore, socialization will be occurring every time children are around other people. Going to school contributes to socialization, but so does going to church, or going to movies for that matter. Attending church may involve many rules of behavior while attending a movie may involve fewer such rules; the better question might be, “what rules of socialization are learned at school?”
Many people are starting to realize that traditional schools may in-fact be poor places to learn positive social behavior. The artificial environment of age-segregation is reflected no where else in our society. The school experience offers very little opportunity to practice appropriate behavior with people older or younger than the student. While traditional day school students are preparing for “real life”, home-education students are living real life.
It seems common sense that students learn most effectively through modeling. Whatever children see others doing is what they themselves learn to do. Given a child’s predisposition to model the behavior of others, it seems a bit risky to expose a child to a roomful of other immature children with only one responsible adult as the “official” model. Certainly students learn much of their socialization from their peers–for better or worse!
Are schools taking the job seriously? In Alberta, schools are accountable to the Auditor General for their performance. What is the measure of performance? Academic achievement, NOT socialization. Socialization appears to be the goal nobody checks up on. If good socialization happens in schools, it is likely in spite of the lack of culture development on the part of educators.
3. How Do I Get Started With Home Educating?
Administratively-speaking, your first steps are listed for you on our “How It Works” page. Here you’ll find the exact steps that you need to take to notify Alberta Education and/or the school that your child has been attending that you have decided to home educate your son(s) and/or daughters and to begin home educating with thee.
Practically-speaking in terms of your decision, reason, and beliefs for home educating, the decision to home-educate should not be taken lightly, but on the other hand, it should not be intimidating either. We at thee would value having the opportunity to provide our expertise and support to you and your family.
Home education is first and foremost a commitment. You must be prepared to put the time and energy in to home-education in order to reap the rewards. Usually this means one full-time stay at home parent. Some two-parent working families have been able to make home-schooling work although in these rare cases the student has usually been highly self-motivated. Obviously, an elementary student will require more parent involvement than a senior high student because it can be expected that older home-schoolers have become more independent in their studies.
If you have determined that you are prepared to put in the time and energy, obtaining the resources for your home-education program is relatively straight forward.
Determine your child’s ability level and interests. A rough approximation of what level your child is working at can be determined by talking with the child’s teachers, comparing notes with other parents that have children in those grades, and/or by having the child write placement tests. These placement tests may be general in nature, such as the Canadian Test of Basic Skills, as well there are program specific diagnostic tests that determine where a student should start a program. Accelerated Christian Education (A.C.E.) and Saxon Math, are both examples of programs that have their own diagnostic tests to determine the best place for the child to begin working in their programs.
Once you understand your child’s ability levels and interests, there are a seemingly infinite variety of materials to choose from. The key is to keep looking for resources that are interesting for the student. Programs that are too easy or too hard quickly become frustrating! Browse stores that specialize in educational materials and network with other home-education families to find out what they’ve found useful. Not all materials have to be bought; local libraries can provide a lot of resources, if you are prepared to make library trips a regular part of your home-education endeavor.
To get started home schooling through thee, please click HERE to download the Notification Form which you will need to complete, sign, and then mail to thee at
thee
201, 2 Athabascan Ave.
Sherwood Park AB T8A 4E3
You may also fax the completed and signed Notification Form to thee at 1-780-467-5514. Another option is to scan your completed and signed Notification Form and then email it to us at office@thee.ca.
4. What About Post Secondary Opportunities?
The Home Education Exchange has been, and continues to be, successful in working with students at the high school levels. Seeing home school students enter post secondary education is evidence of our expertise in this area. Home-based learners can and most certainly do earn admission to top-tier universities and colleges, and we at thee would value helping you navigate through the details and preparation for post-secondary readiness and options.
Please see our “High School” webpage by clicking HERE to see more information on this topic.
5. What if my son or daughter wants to earn Alberta Education
….credits or the Alberta Education high school diploma?
The Home Education Exchange actively supports our home educated learners who want to earn credits from Alberta Education. Our support includes academic advising, enrolment into the requested course(s) from the Alberta Distance Learning Centre (ADLC), ordering the needed course materials for the requested course from the Alberta Distance Learning Centre (ADLC), and our own online tutoring program, which we call thee+, that complements the official “Team Teaching” program from the Alberta Distance Learning Centre (ADLC).
6. Can my son or daughter play on a sports team from our local
….high school?
The Home Education Exchange is a member of the Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association (ASAA), and our membership allows our home educated learners to play on any sports team in Alberta from any school that is also a member of ASAA.
7. Additional Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Resources
Please visit the “Canadian Home Based Learning Resource Page” to read their list of FAQ’s related to home education.
