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Thanks for watching this video in which I’m going to try to answer the question, “Now what?” that I received from parents who are brand new to home education. They have completed the notification or registration process for their son or daughter, so they’re all set, they’ve received their confirmation letter or email message, and they’re ready to go, but they’re just not sure how to take those first steps. So I’m going to share with you some ideas and suggestions. This video is going to be a little longer than the other videos just because we will be covering a lot of information, but I’m hoping that the information will be helpful to you and that this will be time well invested in your future home education plan and adventure there with your family.

I’ve got several items on my list here, and then I’ll conclude with some special comments for those parents who have chosen to home educate for the first time in for the high school years for their son or daughter. So let’s jump right in.

Number one, I did want to just start with a bit of information in summary just in case you didn’t watch any videos on the first initial videos on how home education is, I was going to say is done here in Alberta, or at least what the regulation allows. I don’t like to use the word “allowed” because parents always have 100% authority to do what they want; thankfully our government recognizes that, so that’s where, that’s the context for my use of the word “allows.” So here in Alberta as a home ed parent, you can choose from grades one to twelve exactly what you want to do in your home education program. You do not have to follow the Alberta Education curriculum. You don’t have to use any particular resources, especially not the ones used in classrooms. It’s completely up to you. You can follow any type of method, and we’ll get into that, and there are videos. I do want to say, I should say at the beginning here, much of what I’m talking about is already represented in the video open house. So when I talk about learning methods or teaching methods or styles, resources, things like that, please know that this is not the only video in which I’ve discussed this. You will find full videos on each of those topics elsewhere in the video open house. Anyway, with that said, you are completely free to use any resources, any style, any method that you deem suitable for your son or daughter. You can do one style with, say, your son, a different style with your daughter, and you can change it up and make it look exactly how you want to do it. And we at THEE will support all day, every day of the week, all year long your right to do that, and not only is for your right, but actually provide help, ideas, suggestions, you know, lessons learned when we were homeschooling as parents, you know, those kind of things. So we, you’re not left on your own. Your facilitator is your consultant. We in the office are also here to help as well. So all right, with that said, we’ll jump right in.

So these first several things on my list have to do with preparing on the part of the parent for the entire school year. Oftentimes, you know, we as parents, especially with young children, you don’t have any spare time. You’re you’re just going 24/7. So often time, then I may make the same mistake. So I’m, it’s not like I had this figured out and you learned from me. You do need to take at least, I’m recommending to you to take time. I don’t know how much time it will take, everybody’s going to be a little different, but take time to plan out your home education program. What I mean by that is, think of the questions, you know, why are you home educating? Why, why have you chosen this year to home educate? What kind of resources do you want to use? What are the goals for this year’s home educating? So vast, there’s a vast array of other questions, and we’ll hit some of those, but spend some time planning and preparing for the school year. So that first question, “Why are you home educating?” That’s really going to drive much of what follows. What’s your point, what’s your purpose for home educating? You know, because if it’s academic, then you’re going to go one path. If it’s perhaps relational healing, whatever it is, that’s going to be a different path. So determine right from the start why are you home educating. Put it on paper, you know, so you so you can come back to it because it you these decisions are fundamental. So I would suggest even writing them down. So after you’ve identified the why, I would say move on to determining the how. How are you going to home educate? And not only the the how in terms of resources, like don’t think in terms of the learning resources yet, put that down the list, and we’ll get to that in a second, but how are you going to to accomplish the reason why you’re home educating? It may sound obvious, but it’s not necessarily that obvious, especially when you start trying to plan out the nuts and bolts of what this looks like. So take time, write this out, follow your line of reasoning, and come back to it. You know, if you get stuck a month or two from now, come back to the the why and the how and so and the what, right? So this really does pay off dividends. It’s an upfront investment of time, but I really do believe it’s going to to help in the long run. So how are you going to accomplish the purpose? Because if your purpose is to ignite your child’s learning, perhaps rekindle it even, maybe you had a bad experience in a school situation because that happens and your son or daughter just has no interest at all in learning. They’ve been burnt out, they’ve been whatever, fill in the blank. Well, then going back to that first question, when you ask yourself, “Well, why am I home educating?” perhaps it’s to rekindle your child’s interest in learning, perhaps it’s to strengthen or repair your child’s, I would say, self-esteem or their their, what’s the word I’m looking for, their trust in themselves in terms of how they can learn. Like, sometimes family, students are just beaten down for whatever reason, they think they can’t learn or they’re dumb or they’re, they’ve been told somehow or by someone that they just can’t learn. Well, you’re going to spend six months, maybe the whole year, rebuilding their confidence in themselves and their God-given abilities to accomplish certain things. That could be a why you’re home, an answer to the why question. Well, then the how is going to really look differently to you than it would to someone else who’s looking at it because of some other reason, right? So answer those critical questions, it’s it’s really important to get that as your foundation.

Next thing down here is, determine what you want to teach to your son or daughter, right? Sounds obvious. These questions are all very obvious here in the video, so you may wonder why I’m talking about it, but a lot of these questions, I would say, need answers that you write down because again, you’re going to have times during the school year where you want to perhaps revisit these answers that you’ve given. So what exactly you’re going to teach? Are you, do you think you want to teach the, you know, the school-type of things where you have four core courses and electives or are you going to teach more topics, topically based things? So all these things determine all those answers to those questions. That also includes goals per subject area or per topic. Really break it down because later on you’ll see when you have these things written down, they really guide your your future decisions and you really are are able to stay on track really well when you write these things down. Oftentimes in business, we’re required to do these things and they’re very helpful, but when we get to our personal lives, we think, “Oh, I don’t have time to do that.” And we don’t. I mean, I’ve I’ve failed to do those kind of planning things myself, so I can speak from an experience that it really does help to have these things in writing.

So the next thing you want to look at are, I would say, what are your, what are the strengths of your son or daughter? If they’re really strong with something, and this is the first time that you’re going to home educate, then I would recommend starting with that strength, right? A lot of times parents ask, “How do I start? Where do I start?” Well, after you’ve asked, answered your question of your to yourself, “why are you doing this” and “how are you going to do this,” well, and “where to start,” what subject, what topic, what do I even do tomorrow? Well then I would ask you or suggest to you to consider your child’s strongest area, whatever that is, and start there, and then you build with that. So the weaknesses, maybe, or you know, again, going back to the why, maybe you’re taking time out. It could be a year, it could be a multi-year decision as well, it just depends on your situation, but going back to that why, well maybe one reason that you’re home educating is to help your son or daughter to strengthen a weakness, right? So your focus is on strengthening a weakness. Well, that’s going to drive your decisions as well. So determine what your child’s strengths are, what their weaknesses are, relate that to the why for home educating and the how, and everything really comes together when you’ve taken time to step back and answer those questions. And then as you build your answers to those questions, you’ll be able to match your future answers to those previous questions and just make sure everything’s unified and on track. I do also want to say in terms of identifying weak strengths and weaknesses, usually those are across different topics, so you can have one way of teaching or presenting information for a strength area in a different, another way of doing it for a weakness area. So you can customize your learning plan how you want, and you’re not locked into one one way for everything that you do.

So after all these questions, and I have I’m going through them a bit quickly just so I don’t have an hour’s long video here, once you’ve got those answers on paper, then then I would say then start considering the learning resources that you’re going to buy. I would say a mistake that most new to home educating parents make is they start with the learning resource after they finish their registration. They’ll email me and say, “Well, now what do I do? What do I buy?” You know, that kind of thing. I’m like, “Whoa, whoa, that’s that’s later. Like on my list, that’s number eight.” So start with the first questions, answer those questions, find out again the why, keep coming back to the why, determine why you’re home educating and then the how and so forth. So once you’ve gotten those things in place, sure, let’s talk about their learning resources. And again, the learning resources are going to look differently to various families because those families have answered those questions differently, let’s say. So for example, if you’ve chosen to home educate because you want to rekindle your child’s natural curiosity and desire to learn, or they’re just bored in school or whatever the reason, maybe that’s your answer. So your resources could be more non-traditional. You know, you’re not going to get a textbook, you’re not going to get a workbook or maybe you do, but that’s more secondary or even further down the line with the resource that you’ll use. So, you know, the resources could be library, it could be field trips, could be interviews with, you know, people in that area. It could be a work experience, and I I only want to use that work experience term because that’s actually a school term, but you you could be shadowing, a job shadow kind of thing. You know, I was going to say “apprentice” but again, that’s another school term, but you want to getting it, you’re not you’re not recreating the classroom in these circumstances. So your resources are going to look differently than compared to someone who is following a very academic, structured, per topic type approach. So do at this point consider your answers from before to know which resources you think are going to line up.

So with those resources, you know, do you want a hands-on curriculum? Do you want textbooks? Do you want workbooks? Do you want primary sources? Do you want library resources? Do you need hands-on, building, tactile, as we say, construction-type materials or resources, or or just what? So that would be an answer that you’ll have to come up with. Do you want things that are visual-based, you know, video-based? Do you need something that’s more linear, which is more reading, just facts, you know, lists, things like that? So those are all the things that you’ll need to consider. Do you want your resource to be computer-based or do you want them to be offline or do you want a mix, you know, so lots of choices there in front of you. And then before you go out and spend money on certain resources, do consider going to YouTube and other websites to find what other parents have said about those resources. That’s always a good a good thing as well.

When you’re designing your teaching plan, your learning plan, also keep in mind that the resources that you choose and the topics that you choose to teach need to align to the best interests of your son or daughter, and I I mean “best interest” meaning how your son or daughter is wired to learn and the interests of your son or daughter. Oftentimes parents will find a resource, for example, that they really like that’s how they learn and so they buy it because it clicks with them at the moment of purchase, but then when they try to use it, their son or daughter, the resource doesn’t click with their son or daughter. So just keep that in mind as well. Another thing to guard it against as you’re getting into home educating and this is true for any time of the school year, is guard against isolating yourself. It is more difficult to, or it can be difficult in all the busyness to find others and take the time to reach out to others, but I think it’s really worth it. Two two places that are pretty good for starters would be the Facebook page Alberta Home Education Association or AHEA, and then another site is the Facebook page for Alberta Homeschooling Association or AHA. So both of those Facebook pages are run by associations that have literally thousands of members. So those are places that would be a great place to start or online places where you can really get, you can you can interact with other homeschooling parents. You can ask questions, you just tap into a really big community of like-minded parents who are eager to help those people who are new to home educating.

Also, you’ll want to establish a routine. So again, as you’ve answered those big questions and you’re moving into implementing your plan, don’t don’t shy away from establishing a routine and even making a chart, putting in writing somehow. I’ve seen some really beautiful visual graphical schedules that parents have made. Sometimes they’re more basic. Whatever fits what you want to do and how much time you have, but establish a routine, at least I’m recommending to establish a routine that fits your family’s schedule. Think how much time you want to spend each day. Again, this goes back to the why, why are you homeschooling? So you’re going to use all those answers, like I mentioned before, to determine how much time are you going to give to this subject or to that subject or this topic. What are you not going to teach? That’s a big part of it too because you don’t have to recreate the classroom, and that’s a big thing I try to tell all the home educating parents, there’s nothing anywhere that says you’re a home ed program and journey and everything else at your house or wherever you you are has to look like a classroom. It doesn’t, and usually, it I will say at least in my experience it’s fine also to start there if that’s where your comfort level is. I wasn’t home educated as a child, so I had no frame of reference at all, but my frame of reference was the classroom, so that’s how I started. It clear it soon changed to more of a topic-driven, delight-driven which is awesome and I can talk about that with you later if you’d like, but all that to say that if your comfort level is more classroom, subject by subject, just like a school would do, then don’t don’t hesitate to to to start there. Start where you’re comfortable. You will soon be flying, you know, 100 miles an hour. You’ll be fine, you’ll be fine, but if that’s where you need to start, then start there. But establish a routine. Find out, answer for yourself how much time you’ll take with each subject, where you’ll be teaching, where your children will be learning from you. Oftentimes it’s in the kitchen. The kitchen table soon becomes the the local hub for learning. A lot of families basically buy a second kitchen table and that’s where the home ed stuff stays out, and it’s you don’t have to keep putting it away at every meal. So but it’s still in the kitchen because that’s where a lot of the the time is spent during the day.

Next on the list, let’s see. You can communicate this schedule to your children. Give them a give them that sense of ownership of planning. A routine is really good for people in general, right? Not knowing what’s coming up, that anxiety can build anxiety, so I would I would recommend to you to communicate these details to your children. They can help you even in the design, depending on their ability and their age and maturity and things like that. So consider bringing them into that whole process. Consider what your daily routine is going to look like. The overarching comment here is that the routine can, I don’t want to use the word “should,” but it certainly can fit your family’s schedule. You don’t have to make your family fit your schedule. Make your home ed schedule fit your family. You know, if you’re farming, then that’s what you do, and then you fit the learning stuff around what your family’s doing on the farm. If you’re in the city, you know, same thing. So again, you’re in control. That’s the great thing. It’s flexible. You figure out how what it’s going to look like and then communicate that with your children. And scheduling routines are always a, I think, a good thing to do. And then in terms of that first week, maybe the first month, I recommend starting really slowly. Start with that first class, I say “class,” first topic, first subject which is also your son or daughter’s strong area. Start with the area that’s going to bring the most success. Give your time, give yourself time, give your child enough time, especially, you know, when you’re brand new, to get into the flow, right? This is brand new. Give yourself till, you know, Thanksgiving to just get comfortable with with everything. There’s nothing that says it has to be just up and running perfectly the first week or two. That usually doesn’t happen. If it does for you, then that’s awesome. But give yourself some grace, give yourself some time, give your children time to get into that routine. Don’t be afraid to change it if it’s just not working, and change up your routine, whatever, but don’t put that stress on yourself. I find a lot of home ed parents are high achievers, which is awesome, but with that high achievement comes high expectations, and those expectations don’t give you don’t give yourself enough time to build up to it. So give yourself time, even sometimes into Christmas until you really feel like you’ve got a handle on it. Most veteran home educating parents will tell you they after many years still don’t feel like they have, you know, total control of what’s going on and that’s fine. You rarely get to the point where everything’s just fine and you feel like you’ve arrived. So give yourself time, especially at the very beginning, to get things up and going. And again, go back to that purpose statement, “why are you home educating?” If it’s to build relationships in the family and focus on more relational things and quality non-academic kind of things, then then that’s where your focus needs to be. You know, you can get depressed, “I’ve only gone through this much of the lesson or this much of a workbook or this much of a textbook,” but again, go back to the why, “why are you home educating?” and oftentimes that will relieve a lot of the stresses that you put on yourself. So again, just give yourself some time.

All right, moving on to the other questions that are specific to high school. I have four four items here. The first is, “Will your decision to home educate apply just to one school year?” Again, this is high school, so say you’re going into home educating for grade 10. Will your decision apply to grades 11 and 12 are the rest of your child’s formal, official learning as a high school student, or is this just going to be a one-off school year? The decision there will drive what you likely will decide, which what and how. Again, that’s a why. Why are you doing it for just one year? The answer to that will drive what it is that you’ll plan to do. If you’re planning on doing all high school years home educating, well, then you need to ask yourself, “Am I wanting or is my son or daughter wanting to earn the high school diploma or individual courses or or is anything that has to do with Alberta Education not even on your radar?” Like you have no interest in anything from Alberta Education. Those answers are going to of course drive what it is that you do as well. And then, “Do you want access?” If you go with the the decision to look into course credits for your son or daughter, then the there are other questions there. There’s another video on the $650 grant funding for a teacher-directed course, you know, “Are you interested in course challenges?” you know, “exams or portfolio?” So those kind of things you need to think about and and and put into place because they affect everything or go into everything, but it affects just a lot of what you do. So those are the questions that you’ll want to be asking yourself.

So I hope this video is helpful. There’s a lot of information that we can get into if you’d like to have a phone conversation or email. Just contact me here at the office, or you can contact Natasha or almost anyone else here at the office can help you out with those next steps. So again, thank you for joining us here at THEE, and we look forward to supporting you in your home education.