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Well, this is round four in our frequently asked questions series, and in today’s video, we’re going to be looking at 15 questions which parents who have been interested in THEE have sent my way. So I will answer them for you, and hopefully, you’ll find these answers to be helpful.

Education Plans and Facilitator Visits
1. Do you provide sample education plans?

The answer is no, not because we don’t want to, but actually we very rarely—I can’t even remember a time when we were asked before this question came up. But I want to say no. If you don’t know how to fill out an education program plan, just let us know. We’ll guide you through it. I have some old program plans I could send to you, but typically we don’t provide them, nor also because our system is quite intuitive and most people don’t have problems, don’t have any problem going through the step-by-step procedure and answering the questions or filling in the information that is required for an education plan. It’s not that daunting. There is a section in this video series on this webpage that talks about how to fill in or how to complete a program plan, so we definitely provide you with information, the tutorial on how to complete a program plan. But in terms of giving you a sample, it really hasn’t been needed in the past. I would certainly, if you asked and just really needed one, I could make that possible, but in the past, we haven’t because we haven’t needed to.

2. Will a facilitator assist in the creation of the home education plan?

Yes, that is required by regulation. We would help you anyway, but I just want to let you know that’s not something unique to us. Any in every home ed program by regulation is required to help you create your education plan.

3. Can the facilitator provide suggestions, recommendations for appropriate curriculum based on my child’s needs and interests?

Absolutely, yes, they can. We in the office can as well, and also on this webpage with videos, I’ve provided several videos that talk about appropriate curriculum and suggestions based on previous students and previous interactions I’ve had with other homeschooling families. You know, we talk about methods and learning learning methods and learning styles, for example, unschooling to classical education and so forth. We talk about learning resources. Our website has an entire webpage called Resources. So we definitely want to help you and do help you with these kind of details.

4. How many facilitator visits throughout the year?

Two as a minimum, but two as a norm. One in the first semester and one in the second semester. There’s there are some videos in this webpage that talk about facilitation, both the facilitator and the two required evaluations, so you’ll find many more details in those videos.

5. Is there a limit on the number of times a facilitator may be contacted?

No, we definitely want to be here to answer your questions. So as many times as you have a need, you can certainly contact us in the office or your facilitator.

6. What is the average or expected response time for questions that you send to a facilitator?

I would say average or expected time will depend on the time of year. You know, the beginning of the year is incredibly busy, so you’re going to probably experience it maybe two days. It could be faster, but I would say no more than a two-day delay and/or wait time for that. Typically, it’s within a day. Once once the dust is settled, you know, mid-October onward, you’re looking at a day or two for sure.

Funding and Reimbursement
7. Is there a list or guideline that funding can be used for?

Yes, there’s an entire section in this webpage of videos that talks about such details. So you can find a lot of information there. There’s also a webpage in the, you know, “How it Works” for THEE under “Funding.” So lots of information about funding, reimbursements, what is allowed, what isn’t allowed, the reimbursement form that you’ll need. All the information that you need is in that page, and it’s also on the video page, on the video section on the same webpage.

8. Are there any restrictions or percentage of how funds must be used?

There used to be in the past. Alberta Ed had set these limits in terms of percentages of your funding that you could use on certain learning resources. They removed those, and so no, the answer now is no. And we as a homeschooling program here don’t have any of our own internally decided policies that would restrict the amount of funding you can use on any particular learning resource.

9. Once registered, how soon may I start purchasing curriculum for reimbursement?

So you can start buying your curriculum for reimbursement up to a year prior to joining us. This question is actually based in at least one other home ed program policy that states you can only be, they will only reimburse a home ed family for a purchase made after that family has joined that particular home ed program. That is not a policy here at THEE. That’s not an official policy from Alberta Ed. That is just a policy that that particular home ed program has instituted, perhaps made it sound like all programs fall have that policy. That’s not the case. We at THEE will accept a resource or a receipt for a learning resource that you purchased during the previous school year, so we don’t we don’t play that game of saying, “Oh, you have to sign up with us first before we’ll reimburse anything.” That sounds more like a sales tactic than anything else. So if it’s a legitimate learning resource, if it’s eligible, it doesn’t really matter that you bought it a day before you register with this, and I don’t know why it’s important to that other program either.

10. How often can receipts be sent in?

All throughout the year. We don’t have only, you know, certain windows of time for intake of receipts. You can start, you can send us your receipts starting the first day of school all the way to a certain deadline in the middle of May.

11. How long does it take for reimbursement to be processed?

I would refer back to that video. Many factors depend, many factors will determine the answer to that one. Timing, you know, time of year is the biggest factor, so I would refer back to that other video in the “Funding and Reimbursement” section. Typically, I will say, just so I’m not dodging the, you don’t think I’m dodging the question, during the normal time of year, once we have the funding in place, we have the setup in place, once things start flowing, typically a week or two is what it would take to get not only, like, total turnaround, receive your receipts in your form and then getting the the funding sent to you. It’s going to be faster if you use direct deposit, so please do choose to use direct deposit as opposed to receiving the check in the mail.

12. Can used curriculum be purchased through another homeschool family for reimbursement?

Yes, all we need you to do is write up an informal bill of sale, and you just write out on that bill of sale the date that you purchased it. Perhaps you know, you don’t need to mention the family name. You just say a description of what you bought. You can mention, you know, you bought it at a homeschool sale or you just bought it from a fellow homeschooling family, the purchase price, and that’s pretty much it. So that’s definitely doable. If you buy something from, say, from Kijiji, take a screenshot of the Kijiji ad that shows the item that you’re buying and the price. That’s helpful.

13. Does the board have a used buy/sell program or forum for families enrolled?

We don’t, but we do have a Facebook, in our THEE Facebook page, we have a section that’s just for parents, so we have a parent group there. And within the parent group, we do have a forum for selling that parents can use to advertise items that they have for sale. But we don’t have a formal event, you know, a used curriculum fair or some kind of on-site sales event. That’s just something you can handle directly online with other families.

14. Does the board offer any curriculum or software apps either free or with discounts for the traditional home learning program?

Yes, to the student, to each home educating student here at THEE, we offer free access to Microsoft Office 365 and free access to the Google Education Suite. So those two pieces of software, those two apps, are free. On the website in the “Resources” page, there are instructions on how to go about accessing your free access to Office 365 and Google Classroom.

Some people have asked us if we offer the education version of Minecraft, and we don’t, but that’s because Minecraft Education is meant for a classroom environment, a closed learning system or environment. Closed meaning it’s not open to the public, it’s not internet-based where, you know, people from all over the world can can get in there. It’s meant for a classroom, a classroom environment where a teacher is using Minecraft for a specific project or something specific to a classroom, and maybe that teacher is going to share that space with another teacher. But it’s not it’s not an education version where it’s open to every single student in the world, and it’s an education price or some kind of different app of Minecraft. It’s just it’s a version that’s meant for a classroom, so we don’t offer that. There’s, yeah, that just doesn’t doesn’t apply to our home ed program.

15. Does the board plan extracurricular or field trip activities for the home school students?

Yes, we do. Check our website under the “Social Activities” and definitely be checking Facebook and the newsletter for information about social activities. One word on that, though, and you’ll find this in another video where I talk about when when you’re choosing your board, we don’t specialize or emphasize social activities because parents are quite capable of finding social activities in their local area. As a matter of fact, the problem is not a lack of opportunity, the problem is going to be choosing which activities to limit your child to. You’re going to have many, many opportunities for social activities to assault with with home ed and with other home ed associations. That you’ll have all kinds of opportunities, so we at THEE have chosen to focus our time and priority on the supports that we provide, and you’ll see that in the opening video on choosing your board. We really don’t put an emphasis on social activity and getting philosophical here, and I’ll be honest and very transparent, I don’t believe it’s the job of the home ed program to be providing socializing fun activities for the homeschooling students. Hopefully, it doesn’t sound harsh. It’s just not our priority. Our priority is supporting you in your home ed program, your learning opportunities, your methods, your strategies, a host of other things that we do very well, but we just don’t see our role as providing social activities for your children.

And we’re a provincial program, so there’s no way we could be offering social activities all across the province for grades students in grades one to twelve. That’s just that’s a huge undertaking, and again, we feel that the parent is best equipped to find the the activities and opportunities in his or her local community and build your local community that way. And often, well, I have other things to say about social activities. They’re great, I’m not discounting them, I think they’re wonderful. I just don’t think it’s up to that your homeschool board to be scheduling social activities for your children. There are just so many opportunities out there already. I think our work if we were to get into that would just be redundant and really not not necessary. So just being honest with you there on that one.

But we do provide opportunities for social events, like field trips that are oftentimes not available to individual families but they are available to a school-type environment. I’m thinking of a guided tour of a large number of students to say the Edmonton area waste management system and Telus has several programs that are for large audiences, such as cyber security and online safety for youth when they’re on the internet, things like that that are offered to to large groups and they’re not necessarily offered to individual families. So we’ll organize things that are not available necessarily to individual families but would be available to a larger audience. So we definitely want to do things like that, but we do offer social activities. It’s just that that’s not our our strength and we don’t make a priority of it just because, like I mentioned before, you have many, many opportunities there in your community that would be much better than what we could provide.

Second part to that question: Are students/families ever included in these activities?

Yes, it will depend on the activity, but in general, the entire family is invited to come.

And what is the approximate cost?

Well, oftentimes the activities are free. Some cost would be an example of a cost would be a ski day, but it’s hard to answer that question because it just depends on the activity. But we try to do as many things as free as possible, but where there is a cost, we’ll certainly advertise it.

So that’s it for this round four and for these 15 questions. If you have other questions that haven’t already been answered in the other rounds, please send them to me, and I’ll be sure to make another round of questions or video for those questions. So thanks so much for listening and see you in a different video.