Okay, well, you know what, we could be quite fluent with this. This is all informal anyway, so whether it’s a formal presentation or or just Q&A, that’s, that’s fine. We’re, we’re an easy group here today.
“Sounds good. Sounds good. I’ll just give you my spiel and then I’ll take questions afterwards. So, thank you, Brett and Judy, for having me come and speak to you on behalf of AHEA, that stands for the Alberta Home Education Association. My name is Shawna Sundell, and I’m the Executive Director. So, let me start by telling you a little bit about my story because perhaps, like some of you, home education was not how my family started schooling. I had no idea I would end up advocating for home education. My husband and I have two children that started out in public school, the Logos program for those who may be familiar with it. We were in the public school system for six years before deciding to make the change to home education. It wasn’t that we weren’t aware of it as an option, for we had many friends that I’d grill about their plan. But eventually, the kids who dreamt of learning under a tree or staying in their pajamas some days, and then us as parents, became convinced that it was the best choice for our family. We wanted to be responsible instead of the public system to shape and choose the educational plan for our children because we knew it would shape them. And although we weren’t sure how it would all work out, we took the plunge and realized that our story would be our own. No matter how much research we did or how much we asked others, each education plan, action and choice created our family’s unique experience and was the right call for a customized education for our children. You know, an author named Isaac Dinesen once said, ‘To be a person is to have a story to tell.’ Each of us associated with AHEA has a story of choice that is unique just like your story, and they are all being woven together to make something very special in our homes, our communities, our support groups, and in AHEA, a provincial representative body. We are a complicated and wonderful blend of stories. They are made up of that personal learning, sacrifice and effort. That quote made me think of the intricacy and complicated beauty of a collage, and this image rings true because AHEA is made up of families like yours and we work to represent this collage of parents from across Alberta. That’s why you do it. AHEA believes our children are the reason we are united in our choice to home educate. They are unique, and so are the forms that their individual education takes. As parents, you have the right and responsibility to determine the content, means and methods that you employ to accomplish your educational goals. AHEA believes that you have the God-given responsibility to care for, instruct, teach and guide your children. It has not always been as easy as now to make those choices. That’s where we come in because even though you may not have known about AHEA yet, we’ve been working hard to help your family have this choice for a very long time. The Alberta Home Education Association was born in 1986 and turns 35 years old this year. Parents used to gather in groups in order to go to meetings and have their concerns and demands heard by the government. They worked tirelessly, pooling resources and sacrificing to advance the cause of home education. They won some very significant battles that changed the face of how every home educator in the province could do home educating. I’d encourage you to get a copy of the booklet that AHEA sells called ‘Striving for Educational Freedom in Alberta,’ where you can read up on our predecessors and our province’s educational history. These early home educators in Alberta left a legacy for us to safeguard. AHEA continues to stand in the gap with year-round lobbying, defending and promoting of home education. We are a well-recognized and significant voice in the education community through our work with the government and other organizations. We’re also well known for our annual convention, the largest in Canada. It’s usually in the spring, but this year we’re planning for our AHEA convention to be held June 3rd to 5th with new home educator sessions for all of the parents who are new or wishing to explore home education. All of this continues because we are you with a volunteer board of parents who have or are home educating. The organization has been continuing to work to build the structure needed to maintain our high level of activity on behalf of the home education community that we serve. Minister LaGrange, who’s the education minister, has advanced the rights of the home educator significantly this last year by proposing and delivering the promised ‘Choice in Education Act.’ That was important in a few ways. Now stated in legislation are that parents have the prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children, that the Government of Alberta recognizes home education programs as being valued and integral in providing choice and education to students and parents and supervision if any, which made possible the notification-only, no-funding option. Some of you may not know what the effects of this legislation are. In short, it not only validated home education as an educational model, it made a way for Alberta to now have the most freedom of choice for home educators in North America. Nowhere else will you have the ability to choose between supervision that is funded and an unsupervised option with no government funding provided. AHEA has advocated for this over decades. There’s more work to be done on the regulations now that they’re out, but that ongoing work is what we do on your behalf. Other advocacy work that AHEA has been doing that affect you directly this year included funding clarity. $850 is the amount of your home education grant, no more and no less. The full refund of grants after submitting 75% of your eligible receipts. The standards of reimbursement were adjusted and now allow 100% allowance of lessons like music, swimming and language and also tangible assets like cameras, musical instruments, sewing machines, physique equipment. There’s mandatory tiers of access to the funding from your supervising authority, so the current year and one consecutive year if you’re with the same authority. You’re also able to donate part or all of your share of the grant to your board. You have to fill out paperwork, it doesn’t just happen. And if you don’t not use your funds and you do not give the funds to your board, the government will reclaim the rest. And that’s okay because we’re all taxpayers and we actually want it to be used where it’s supposed to be used. And then we do things like fixing policy wording. For example, uh, we talked to them about on count day. It was badly written. A lot of people for many years thought that you had to be in Alberta on September 30th because that’s count day. But no, you just have to know that you’re a resident and it’s okay if you happen to be on a family vacation then or if you’re on a trip. So, in any event, it is good to have made some decisions before that September 30th count date, well before that, and complete your notification process so that you and your family are ready for the next school year. And of course, if you’re with a supervising authority, they’d like to know, too.
“The lack of funding for a special needs home-educated child is another issue that is overdue and being addressed. Though our educational model is different, meaning we cannot expect to act and pool funds like other models, we anticipate that there is room for some change and improvement here. We had an online survey that closed in November of 2020 to collect data province-wide from our families that will help us better understand their experiences and opinions. I was pleased to work on this survey jointly with my friend Judy. AHEA began advocating for this months ago, and we will continue to keep this a priority in our regular interactions with all levels of government. The bottom line is that AHEA cares that parents have the right to choose what is best for their families, and we continue to advocate for these freedoms. It’s a privilege to be able to go in and speak on your behalf to the issues that home education faces. AHEA is thankful that one or two of us can meet instead of having to pack the room with families in order to prove concern or solidarity like they did in the past. However, as this change happened over the years, families have become less aware of the work being done year-round. They have not had to make the trip to the government offices, missing work and preparing for the topics of the day. AHEA’s tireless work has meant that you have had more time to focus on your families. AHEA stands as an independent voice for home education parents only, advocating for you and your child on your educational journey. I want you to know that AHEA is Christian in its perspective, in its advocacy, educational philosophy and events. That does not mean that our work cannot be supported by those with a different perspective, just as you can have a facilitator with a different perspective than yours. This just means that you know where we’re coming from and you can count on our perspective being unchanging as we have a clear and solid basis from which to act and make decisions. You can explore if you align most closely with AHEA. We are committed to working for you and hope that you might like to support our work, too. Home education is always vulnerable as we’re the smallest educational segment, and there are those who are threatened by individual freedoms, so AHEA’s efforts to safeguard our group are always critical. However, support for home education is broad in Alberta. We provide an amazing option that many people wish they could have chosen or were currently able to choose. AHEA educates and encourages people to see that thinking or educating outside of the box is a good thing. Freedom is our song, and it resonates with the broader community today. Anyone who wants to support home education in general is welcome to make a one-time or monthly donation. You can visit our website at aheaonline.com. There’s a button at the end. We’ve got many resources on our site, so if you want to pop into it and look around, I’d recommend stopping at the tabs about the convention, the home education information, political updates and publications. You’ll see some items like this, which is our ADC series on AHEA and home education, and you can also sign up for our newsletter which is called ‘The Arrow.’ We hope to expand the reach of that to all interested parties as it gives a summary of what’s going on in our world and keeps our need for support visible. I’d like to share a challenging quote from a well-known home education advocate, Ken Swanson. He said, ‘Freedom is quickly disappearing in the Western world. Big government tyranny is on the rise just about everywhere. Liberty is hardly a value anymore in the minds of the masses. The Christian West provided a legacy of liberty for over 800 years, and it is a heritage that is quickly disappearing and soon to be forgotten. Many have enjoyed the blessing of liberty over the centuries. Hundreds of millions of people have fled tyranny for the safe haven in Christian countries, but the heritage is almost gone now. Many who have enjoyed the fruits of liberty, but there are so few who do anything to produce it.’ Thank you for considering taking this unique opportunity to enhance that love of liberty in your family. AHEA loves liberty too, respects your choices and stands at the ready to aid our families. Help us to help you because AHEA is you working for you every day. If you’re interested in more information about AHEA or becoming a member as well, please contact me. I’ll put my email address in the chat. [Music] to connect again, we’ll make a party out of it and we’ll invite Brett too. So, thanks for being attentive. I have time for questions.”
“Thanks, Shauna. Yo, let’s hold the, the Q&A for the end because oftentimes Q&A, uh, it gets rolling and it’s, it’s tough to to stop and go back to presentation. But we’ll definitely have time at the end for, for Q&A. So, thank you again, Shauna, for letting us know about AHEA and it has been around for, for so long. Oftentimes, people forget or maybe take for granted that it’s there. So, definitely good to remind everyone of of not only your existence but also your, your role, especially at the government level. A lot of things that happen, uh, are behind the scenes. So, it’s, uh, one reason I, I really wanted Shauna to be here is, is to for everyone to know what goes on behind the scenes. As you’re busy there at home doing your home education, there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes. So, uh, but we’ll get into some of that, um, at the end through your questions that, uh, that can focus on some things like that. So, turn our attention over to Judy. And Judy, um, I would really like to know because I don’t know myself how AHA began. We heard from Shauna how, how AHEA began back. Shauna, did you say 1985? ’86? We’re 35 this year. We’re 35. Okay, so. So, Judy, let us know about your history with homeschooling. I know you’re an author, you have at least six or seven books, I believe, um, and let us know how you got involved with, with homeschooling and then what led you to even start what is now AHA.”
“Okay. Thanks, Brett, and thanks for hosting this today. So, um, I got involved in homeschooling when my oldest son was in grade two and my second son was in grade one. And my oldest son, actually both of them, went to public school, and neither’s needs were met. One had a learning disability, the other one was bored, and they wouldn’t go after a while. So, I thought, ‘Okay, um, let’s try this homeschooling. I can’t do anything worse.’ Um, a lot of the schools in our catchment area were shutting down due to underutilization. So, I thought, ‘Okay, let’s try this.’ So, I did, brought them home, and by, um, November that year, they kind of stopped listening to me. So, I’m just a mom, and, um, so then we kind of slid more into unschooling, so we did a more self-directed, um, unschooling approach, and we just played. We played for the next 10 years pretty well. I have five children, and, um, there’s a 10-year age span. These are my lovely kids, and the three oldest ones, they did a more self-directed high school program, but still under home education. Um, and my math ends at grade eight. So, they, as I tell parents, at around age 13, they start going online with tutors or maybe doing an online course, or they’re very good at self-directing their education and buckling down and learning. So, um, so I have three kids who are university graduates now. One’s in a master’s program, and one is in year three at university, and one is just, um, about to go to university this fall. So, and four of them are in STEM careers. So, my, I love promoting unschooling and STEM because it’s, those two are not mutually exclusive. So, I started homeschooling 1999, and many of you might remember CHEERS, that was around as the support group in Calgary only. They folded in about 2003, and I joined a whole cohort of home educators that felt that our voice wasn’t captured in the province, nor did we feel supported in a more secular non-faith-based manner. So, um, in 19, or 2018, my kids are pretty well independent. I got lots of time on my hands, although I still work. I actually work teaching adult education and child development, which I wrote a bunch of parenting books like Brett said, and in adult education it is so, so learner-centered. And yet in child education, it’s not. So, I really found it fascinating to understand that. Um, I also wrote, in case you don’t know, I wrote a book, 400 pages, how to do child-centered education. So, anyways, back to 2018. Then, um, we started Alberta Homeschooling Association. So, we’ve been around three years now, and our membership exploded this year. So, we are very parent-focused, and our whole goal is to support parents with education that takes place in the home. So, in contrast, probably a major difference between us and support groups is that we focus on everything. We help parents if they are virtual, if they’re taking online, if they’re doing teacher-directed, if they’re doing traditional home education. So, if it happens in the home, we got our fingers involved, right? So, um, and we are not faith-based focused, so we’re inclusive to anybody, regardless of family structure, um, religion, non-religion, culture, um, sexual orientation, we support everybody and we try and offer, um, helpful things to support everybody. So, what are things we do? We do webinars, monthly webinars on quite a few different topics, but they’re very open-ended. They’re the third Wednesday of every month at seven o’clock, and anyone can sign up. Um, our membership is free. We are not supported by government, we’re not supported by anything other than any donations you want to give us, and we find we don’t have a lot of costs. We are grassroots, so we work on a, army of volunteers. Absolutely. So, our membership is free and, um, so we provide webinars. Like AHEA, we are really active behind the scenes with the government. This morning I spent two hours with the government on ironing out the regulations for homeschoolers to gather in homes. So, we do a lot of advocacy behind the scenes. We travel to Edmonton, we meet with the government, we put out monthly newsletters of updates of what’s happening, what we’ve been working on. We’ve been collaborating with AHEA on more funding for special needs. And again, unlike other support groups, we are advocates of funding. We believe that choice in education are funded choices. It home education should not just be for parents that can afford it. It should be for everybody who wants to do it. That is a core difference with Alberta Homeschooling Association and it’s right there on our front page what we represent. We are pro funding. Um, what else do we do? We, this summer we took over 3,000 calls, messages, Facebook questions, text messages, emails from people wanting to know where to start. So, we built a very huge website of answering all those questions. It is very, has tons of resources. It’s at albertahomeschooling.ca. And we also, um, two years ago, put out a 120-page book on ‘The Happy Homeschooling Handbook.’ So, we looked at the government homeschooling handbook and it was so off-putting, we couldn’t stand reading it, and we thought, ‘Okay, we gotta write something that is way more encouraging and actually tells what it’s really like, the real scope.’ So, sales of the handbook is and donations is the only funding we get to survive and exist and, um, yeah, so we do that. This summer and fall, we’ve done a lot of Facebook Lives. We get on there and we do live Q&A, answering questions. We have a, um, Twitter account. We organized last spring a school board meet and greet, which we are going to do this year too, where we interviewed the school authorities, regardless of whether they’re just offering home education, but if they’re, there’s more and more obviously that are offering online. So, we, we showcase their videos, and they’re on our website to help parents view them, decide. We were going to run it in person, but due to COVID, we couldn’t, so we went online. And actually it has been very good because everybody’s had, been had access to those videos all year, even though a lot of funding changes took place after those videos and through the summer all the way up to September. I think they were helpful. Parents felt that they could get a tone of the philosophy behind the school authority and they could play it over and over again and, and then they could go to the school authority. So, I think it really helps school authorities, too, right? Um, answer a lot of basic questions. Yeah. Did, did you think so, Brad? Did that really…?”
“I think so. I heard from several families, uh, who told me that they learned about THEE through your, um, your interviews, and I greatly appreciate it. So, thank you for doing that and thank you for sending me the, the audio of that as well. So, the PowerPoint presentation as well, that was very helpful to have. But a lot of families said that they really appreciated hearing, um, from the different, uh, programs because, like you said, Judy, they, the families really could tell a difference, um, by how the presentations went, you know, the tone, what was, what wasn’t said, and they really could find there was such a, a choice to, uh, presented. Um, families had a wide array of voices to listen to and then they could make a better decision because, you know, THEE’s not for everybody and people were really able to find, um, I think a really good fit for their family because of those videos or the, the intro what you got the presentations, the interviews. Yeah.”
“Oh, good. Yeah, it’s, um, at a physical meet and greet, uh, we usually have a hall and, um, the school boards each have one table, and then parents can go shop kind of thing. But we put it virtually so people could do it at the, you know, at midnight in the comfort of their home. So, we probably will do that again because all of Alberta can access it. So, stay tuned for that. That’s coming in April of this year. So, so that’s pretty well us. This is Alberta Homeschooling Association. We are the yellow, green, sunshine colors. If you’re looking for AHEA, they’re blue and white. So, that’s the differences.”
“Well, thank you. Before we go into Q&A, I did want to ask Judy and Shauna for their perspectives on trends that you’re seeing this year. Obviously, this year is a, a crazy year, a very different year, and can you identify anything that’s, that’s different from this year that’s trending than that you haven’t seen in the past? So, how about we start with Shauna and then we will go over to Judy. Oh, let Judy go first this time. [Laughter] Okay, um.”
“I would say a lot of our inquiries this year were, um, were parents of kindergarten, grade ones. They were really scared to send their little ones to classroom, um, and they really wanted information on where to start. Where to start. Um, I think AHEA has a lot of long-time home educators that know exactly what they’re doing, but we got the brand-new newbies. And, and it’s, and the trend was that, um, um, a lot of them probably might, I’d say, I wouldn’t want to say proportions, but I think a lot will put their kids in classroom next year, but a lot have told us that this was the push they needed to home educate. They were starting to think about it. Yeah. And then they decided, ‘Nope, nope.’ Um, but they, a lot said, ‘Yes, I am taking the jump.’ And they loved it. They loved it this year. They noticed their kids were behind in school that they hadn’t noticed before, and they, um, really concentrated on those areas and the kids caught right up, like within weeks. They were so happy. And one thing I want to tell you about the, um, the numbers from the government was that they, they made it clear that homeschooling numbers had doubled. So, we were up to, we were 13,000 last year home education. That’s code 600 parent-directed home education. That’s not shared responsibility and that is not teacher-directed or online. That is just parent-led. Um, and this year the numbers were about 24,000 and change, but they didn’t include the 13,000 kindergarteners that did not show up for classroom on September 1st. They stayed home. And because it’s not funded through home education, they’re invisible in the numbers. So, if you add them in, that’s 38,000 numbers for code 600 home education, which is about 5% of the school population. So, we’ve kind of exceeded charter schools and maybe even independent schools. So, yay, we’re growing, and it is our job at Alberta Homeschooling to support parents and keep those numbers growing because once we reach 30%, we are totally mainstream.”
“Awesome. What about you, Shauna? What do you notice?”
“Um, I think this year is definitely a spike. Um, we all know there’s a big difference between anti-schooling and pro-home education, and so home education has experienced a nice steady climb over its lifetime here in Alberta. And I think next year we’ll see a real number come back because the people who do decide that they love it will stay, and hopefully those who are just biding their time will have had a taste and hopefully a pleasant experience in their home education journey. It’s not the same thing as COVID schooling, right, where you’re still trying to do work with a teacher online at your house. And and you know, the jokes about everybody home educating at the beginning kind of started to fall flat later when it was hard for them. And home education is a sacrificial move by parents because it actually is a commitment to doing work with your children, and it’s not easy every day. And so, AHEA really does have a perspective of empowering the parents. We believe in local support groups, and that’s kind of why we have such a strong group of parents who know how to answer questions with their friends. They’re there reaching out. And we really want to see the families reconnecting, especially after the lockdown is over because I think everybody does want to get together and the virtual or digital experience does not supplant local community. And so, AHEA kind of believes in, you know, the families being the core for home education and then having support groups. And our job as a provincial representative body is a step up from that in dealing with government or larger issues and really empowering the families and the local support groups to do things that are within their purview. So, it’s a slightly different perspective, um, and I think empowering those families in order to to have their own educational journey and become confident in it. So, that’s a trend that we’d like to see, you know, return once lockdown is over, um, the support groups and the return to a realistic number. So, like Judy, we are very committed to seeing home education grow. Um, I think there’s been a lot of wonderful work that we’ve been able to do with the Alberta government. Um, you know, it’s nice to be consulted on things, and so there’s positive interactions that go on, and it’s not something that, you know, you tell every detail to every family that you meet, but you need to know that we’re working for you. The lockdown situation is something that we’re in constant discussion with them about, encouraging, you know, change and movement in that area. And we all know that Alberta Education is working under the constraints of the Alberta Health Department as well, right? And so, we need to encourage pressure in the right places so that we have movement for our home educating families because we do want them to be seen as educators, not social gatherings, which is a total misnomer. And so, I was very pleased that our discussions about that resulted in some of those changes yesterday, so we are not misconstrued as social gatherings and so the kids have some latitude now. Not enough, of course, and Judy and I, I’m sure we’re both interacting today about some of the other language, and I think that, uh, as a, yeah, there’s certain things that we want to have our joint efforts put to focus on government change because that will be a positive for home educators in the whole. And so, I’m pleased to be able to work with everybody involved in home education. I, I just want to add, too, Brett, um, one change I saw is in media. So, we, we did over summer and fall, we’ve done about 15 media presentations through radio and TV, and media is warmed up to home education. Is there, um, they’re asking more questions, they’re not being so, you know, um, asking about deficiencies or that, that negative tone. They’re being more encouraging. So, I say, I think that’s a good trend too, um, now if we can just get it right where there, they make that distinction between school at home and parent-led at home, we’re working on it. Right.”
“Excellent. Well, I definitely wanted to highlight something before we get into Q&A, and this is to just a big shout-out of thanks to both AHEA and AHA, um, and that is just the, the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes, uh, is, is tremendous. It’s hard to describe how much goes on behind the scenes, and it’s not just work that goes on behind the scenes, it’s stressful work because oftentimes the people who are doing that work are working with people who one that sometimes, I would say, don’t understand home education, and some of them are openly against home education. So, it’s not just that it’s a lot of work, but it’s stressful work. So, here AHA and others who are also involved in supporting home education really, um, deserve our round of applause and and thanks. And that’s one reason why I wanted both AHEA and AHA here to be here today, so that the parent, so you parents, know that one, you’re supported at a local, immediate level, which would be or whatever helmet program, you know, you’d be with, but also at a higher level, or, um, I guess a more distant level, um, where you don’t see it, uh, maybe you’re at the AHEA convention or maybe you’re at the AHA Facebook page. You may be seeing the names of these organizations and and you might be aware of their name, but maybe not really be aware of what they’re doing behind the scenes. So, and, and some of that’s on purpose. I know for THEE, I try to keep a lot of the dealings that go on behind the scenes behind the scenes so you can focus and keep all your energies right there at home on your home education work. You don’t need to know all these other details, um, at least I don’t think you do. I think it’d be distracting and and sometimes frustrating to you too, and you, I’m thinking you don’t need to know all that stuff. You’ve got enough on your plate to deal with, um, but I just wanted to let you know that there’s a lot that does go on behind the scenes, and I just want to say thank you to both Shauna and Judy for all that you do that nobody will ever see. They’ll see the fruits of your labor, they’ll see new, uh, they’ll see improvements. And there is a list of improvements this year. Uh, every year seems to be, um, we do, we do see those improvements and they don’t happen by themselves. So, it’s not just by chance that those things happen. So, with that said, let me open up, uh, to some Q&A. Does anyone have a question for either Judy or Shauna? Uh, go ahead and unmute yourself and we’ll try to coordinate this as best we can. Any, any questions? Yes, Claire.”
“So, this is my first year doing it, and I decided to homeschool because the whole COVID thing. I wasn’t comfortable with the back and forth to online because last year my eight-year-old didn’t do so well that way. So, I and I’ve currently had to move back to my parents. I’m having a hard time. He was in, he was getting bullied and he’d get bored at school, so I thought also that homeschooling would be better. Well, now that I’m at my parents, I get a lot of, um, harp or whatever because I’m not doing enough with him and he’s not schooling and this and that. So, I don’t feel like I’m doing enough, and I’ve talked, I’ve heard a lot about the unschooling thing, so I don’t know how that works. And they’re also worried that if he does go back to school he’s going to be behind because I’ve also been, I’ve also been asked is, um, people have heard that homeschool kids have a harder time getting into university. Is that true? I’m like trying to fight the whole the family situation to like what I want to do.”
“Yeah. Okay, I’m gonna take a stab at that one. First of all, I, I always tell parents because, you know what, there’s a lot of principals out there that don’t know this either. But all the major universities across Canada, you need five grade 12 courses, course marks, right, to apply, depending on the program. Now for engineering you need six. Or but you, but you do not need a diploma. That’s the big thing is my son who was in engineering, he didn’t get his high school diploma until second year. Right. So, he’s like, ‘Yeah, I graduated.’ The roommates are going, ‘What?’ So, um, but a lot of people don’t know this. Media doesn’t know it. A lot of, like I said, schools don’t know that. Teachers, principals, they’re telling parents out there. And there was so much miscommunication this summer over, over things like that. So, when your family says they don’t want your son to be behind, um, rest assured. Schools may do when kids go back in the classroom in the fall, and Brett, you probably know this too, is that schools, the teachers, will do assessments on where to place the kids. I know my son’s in a, in a classroom class this year and his teacher for grade, grade 12 biology did an assessment of where the kids were at. But it does not affect them at all. They’re not going to be fired or dropped down a grade. Alberta doesn’t fail anybody anymore. So, it’s, it’s more an assessment for maybe helping her place the kids in the classroom on what needs more, which kids need more support and which kids need less support. Um, so, but guaranteed, I would probably guarantee you that your child will not be behind because you don’t learn, right? So, um, yeah, they keep on learning. They can’t, you can’t stop them from learning, maybe not learning what the government wants them to learn, but then they’ll be had in other domains with, whether it be socially, um, or emotionally or academically.”
“Because I’m not following the actual the whole curriculum where he sits there all day and does the 2,200 outcomes. Like, that’s not what I want to do. So, I’m having a hard time explaining to people, like, explaining to them, like, ‘That’s not what it is. Like, he’s still.’ Yeah, that’s my struggle right now is my whole family being pressured and it’s like, ‘Well, you’re not doing enough.’ ‘Oh, you haven’t done any school.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh my god, you guys, like, this is not it.’ And self, self-directed education is just a methodology of home education. So, um, a lot, like you say, it’s called unschooling. Some people use unschooling, some people use self-directed education, but that’s just your methodology. And I’m sorry, like the rest of us, you have to educate those people in your family, the relatives, the mother-in-law, the neighbors. And after a while you just get tired of educating and you may want to hand them our handbook and say, ‘Read this and then we’ll have a conversation.’ Yeah. I know he’s getting bored this year, but I think it’s just because he wants to go back to school. But I think he’s just missing his friends. There’s no activities right now outside of everything, so it’s making it harder for him to be social. It’s a tough year for home educators and the social aspect. This is not a normal year. Usually we’re out and about and running around that. So many people have to say, ‘Well, we should stay home and do some home education.’ We’re so social. But it’s a tough year maybe…”
“With the issues you’re dealing with, but also for all families who are deciding on what’s enough and what should I focus on and things like that. I think it’s very interesting that Alberta Education has cancelled diploma exams for science and social studies. They are keeping in place the diploma exams for language arts and math. So, that is definitely, um, uh, consistent with their prior and I think a good thing, a consistent on their emphasis on what they say, literacy and numeracy. So, basically, language arts and math. So, if you look at other methods, uh, like I said, like Judy said, unschooling is, is a method. The classical education approach is another method. And within the classical education approach, the primary years are called the grammar years, the grammar, right, and the focus is language arts and math. They’re taking advantage of the child’s developmental faculties of strong memorization, and you know, abstract thinking comes a little bit later on. Anyway, my point is, you have a strong track record. Even Alberta Education is saying that the focus needs to be on math and language arts. So, you can, you can build an amazing program, interest-based, independent learning, whatever, on just those two focus areas and just let things grow from there. So, thank you. And, and, uh, we also, I oftentimes hear from families wondering if they’re doing, quote, ‘enough.’ What is enough? You know, I mean, you can drive yourself crazy. There’s always this pressure. So, I, I would definitely guard yourself against that pressure whether it’s the pressure you put on yourself or from other people.”
“Yeah. One thing I want to ask for Shauna and Judy from an organization standpoint, have you heard from your members, especially those who would be new to homeschooling, what they, what their initial thoughts are with the support or lack of support? Sometimes I hear from families thinking that they would have more, more support in the area of actually someone teaching home schooling. They, you know, they’re, they’re thinking more along the lines of online. So, have there been any surprises, um, perhaps even unpleasant surprises that you’ve heard of from families who are brand new to home education, like they thought it would be your current…?”
“Can I take a stab at this question just for a moment? Um, I think it’s helpful, Claire, to understand some of the choices that you get to make when you start home educating, right, because you don’t just decide to home educate. Your first choice is, do you want to do the Alberta Program of Studies or the Schedule of Learning Outcomes? So, you probably discussed that with your facilitator if you’re doing that this year, right? If you chose, which one did you choose? The 33 outcomes or whatever it is? Okay, the Schedule of Learning Outcomes. So, that’s an interesting thing that lots of homeschoolers who like to have a little bit more freedom want. If you’re planning on putting your child back into school, obviously it’s easier to stay with the Alberta Program of Studies, right, and be ready for re-entry. But if you aren’t committed to that necessarily, and you wanted to explore a little bit more, the Program of, um, or the Schedule of Learning Outcomes allows you to look at a list that you have between now and grade 12 to finish, right? So, you have freedom. A lot of home educators might choose to do history instead of social studies. Why? Because history is actually like cause and effect. Like, don’t we wish more people knew history today, right? Cause and effect. But, uh, social studies is like taking a little segment of that and then packing it with a whole bunch of opinions, right? And so, the important thing, I think that maybe, you know, AHEA leans a little bit more towards the traditional, uh, positioning, which is definitely not, you know, government-led, right? And we have asked and received now the notification-only, no-funding, which is total freedom for the parent to be able to work their own program, right, even without the two visits because you get no money. So, Judy’s point earlier about them, you know, focusing on getting full funding, AHEA kind of has an opposite philosophy. The more funding you get from the government, the more the government’s in your face and in your home, right? So, if you get $10,000 per kid, they’re going to be very interested in what you’re doing because it’s not managed by a school. And so, the notification-only, no-funding option has zero dollars and it has zero facilitator visits. Now, that’s not something that everybody should do, right? It’s something that some people will do, and we’re very happy that it’s got a slow start because it’s going to be respectful of people’s ability, right? The facilitating family or supervising authorities, like THEE could be, right, provide a service to families and then give you support through your facilitators, right? So, this is all balancing, but you’re still responsible for making an education plan that lets you have some goals and your child have some goals. And if there’s ever a question from the government, those are the things that your facilitator, right, and your supervising authority or you yourself, in other circumstances, we progress and work. It doesn’t have to be X amount per year, but you know, if you do the Scheduled Learning Outcomes, by this time you need to get there. Right. So, it lets you go slower if you’re at a difficult math stage or faster if it’s an easier one for them. Right. You’re able to have that kind of flexibility that you don’t have in like the Program of Studies per se. Right. And you’re supported, but you’re still ultimately responsible. So, one of the things that we look at, right, when we look at the regulations, is, you know, what’s the criteria if somebody’s going to be in trouble for their home educating? Right. Like Judy’s right, they probably never kick out a kid that’s not up to par in, in school. But there’s criteria for home educators, right? And it’s like, you know, we, we work on that being fair, right? And I kind of laughed in a meeting I was at this fall, and I’m like, ‘You tell me what kid didn’t go home and their parents are like, ‘Hey, this isn’t that grade level.’ You know, they’re all surprised by what their kids did or didn’t learn. So, just to encourage you, it’s not bad to have your educational plan, right? And that’s something that’s helpful in discussion with family members that are adjusting to you doing it instead of them being in a formal setting, right, because it’s kind of that translational piece. You still aren’t, you still aren’t saying, ‘Well, it’s just whatever.’ Right. Yeah. Um, most people aren’t comfortable with that. Most of us that went to school aren’t as comfortable with that, right? And I know I had to relax, but there’s only so much I can relax, right? So, there’s, there’s a balance and part of that will be your personality and your child’s and you’ll find a way that makes it work for you and your child, and every child can be different. And so, that’s why it’s exciting to be a home educator because you can customize that program to your child, but you still have a program and a plan of some kind, right? So, that helps you feel more confident in your discussions, too, I think. Right. Yeah. So, that’s it. I’m going to answer Brett’s question about, um, I think one of the challenges parents have found this year, um, was, you know, because there’s so much openness in Alberta where we get to use whatever resources we want, that was too open for a lot of families. They especially knew. So, you can tell by the numbers who chose the notification-only option, it was something like 250 versus 38,000, which tells us parents want support. They want you school authorities to help them, um, and that is a huge gap we’re discovering right now because a lot of families are jumping [__] from virtual and the government is saying, ‘Well, um, those school boards got their funding but they don’t have to support them now,’ so we’re filling that gap and we’re not funded. So, um, but what parents want is a, ‘Grade Kindergarten, Grade One, Grade Two, Grade Three, tell me what to teach curriculum.’ And, um, it’s not enough to just say, ‘Oh, there’s this curriculum here, this works for this people or this works for that people.’ They are overwhelmed by making a mistake. They want to be told what to do, what to teach, but under home education, not virtual. So, we’re identifying a gap in that. For grades four to nine, we send them to the Alberta Distance Learning Review Preview for that free curriculum online. But for grades kindergarten to grade three, there’s nothing that is standardized. So, we say, ‘Well, go buy the workbook from Costco and use that as your skeleton and build from that.’ But that’s not enough for a lot of parents. I did that. Yeah, right. Um, the other thing I wanted to, I just wanted to, um, just what Shauna said about funding is, Alberta Homeschooling did the research. We looked at all the funding increases for the last 35 years in Alberta. We looked at the regulation increases and we found that our funding did not go up but the regulations did. So, those two are not tied together. Um, we, the other thing, too, Shauna and I worked with the government on revising the regulations this year, which was great because a lot of new families have no clue what, what the regulations actually say and what does that mean? So, it’s nice to have long-term home educators look at those with a fine-toothed comb and anticipate problems with that. So, um, so one of, um, and so it was a great working together with that opportunity with the government to look at those regulations. But they are really flexible, but it, and it’s nice to have options of notification only, but it does lead you down the road of off-putting families off the support track into no support whatsoever, and we have to look at that piece. Kind of excited about it, actually, because we’re at the second generation level of home educating now, which is really great. And there’s a lot of people that have home educated for quite a long time. As you said, maybe AHEA has more of them. But I think, you know, the supervising authorities have had a ton of new customers this year, so nobody was out, and some of the families that are able to do that are kind of like the success stories of like independent learning, right? And so, it’s kind of a complimentary situation. I don’t think it’s a, it’s a concern. The families that are doing that are competent to do it and the families that want to have support are getting it in abundance from excellent supervising authorities like these. So, I think you have to find your niche, just like you have to find your schooling methodology and do what’s right for your family and your kids. And AHEA supports your choices.”
“Let me keep… I know it’s, it’s, it is after two o’clock, so I definitely want to respect everybody’s time. You’re welcome to, you’re always welcome to do whatever you want. You can stay or go, but I wanted to ask before if someone had to run, if you had a question for either or both, um, and or Shauna, about either their organizations or in general, anything that you want to ask, especially if something was on your mind and hope to get it answered as a result of attending today. Does anyone have a pressing question that they’d like to ask?”
“Anybody?”
“One question I want to jump in real quick is with, with both of you, Judy and Shauna. Uh, Judy, you, you’ve especially talked about the kindergarten age, and a lot of our family, a lot of families who contacted us who were new to home ed were, I think, surprised that there was no home education for kindergarten. So, are you hearing, are either of you hearing any, any movement at all for kindergarten-age students? From my perspective, it’s actually going the other way where Alberta Ed actually increased the age, the minimum age of funding by two months. And it’s only two months, but it’s going in the opposite direction from kindergarten, it’s going older. So, do you have any hope at all? Is it even on the table to discuss funding for kindergarten?”
“No. Okay. So, we’re trying. We, we advocate for it for funding for kindergarten, especially increased funding for high school because, um, if a family wants to follow the Alberta Programs of Study for grade 11, for example, to buy all the grade 11 textbooks, it comes out to something like 1,200, and that’s not even CTS or options like phys ed. So, we’re advocating for funding for home ed kindergarten, high school, and children with special needs, but the government hasn’t moved on that yet.”
“Okay. Have you heard from, so Judy and and Shauna, from an organizational level, have you heard from family, um, or any consistent hearing from families about the level of support that they, they are getting? Like, are they feeling now? Do you have a sense through your interactions with them that they are now in a groove, you know, they’ve kind of found their zone, that found what’s working?”
“I guess, uh, some encouragement to pass on to families. Like, it, it took a few months, maybe, but now they’re, they’re feeling better. We do. We, we’re hearing from a lot of families actually on the good side. We’re not hearing from a lot of families. So, that tells me they are being supported and the families we’re hearing from are the ones that maybe need a little more professional development and home education for their teachers and facilitators, right? But, um, they’re, yeah, that I think they’re, they’re pretty good. The big gap though is those families, like I said, who want to pull their kids out of virtual teacher-directed in-class and want to go to home education now, and the government sends them to the government with no support. That’s, so we can’t sign them up with a school board now that will take them on. So, that’s a big gap that we have to fill. Okay. What are you seeing, Shauna?”
“Um, I think that our families are well-connected. And when somebody starts home educating, there’s a community that comes around them generally, and so they are supported on multiple levels, which is always nice. And so, AHEA does its best to support support groups because that’s a much more personal touch and intimate to your life, and children can build relationships, too. And so, I think that people are very happy. There’s those people, like we talked about earlier, that just needed that little bit of an encouragement, you know, they had thought about it and and kind of knew what it was all about but weren’t quite sure if they should do it. And of course, because they had seriously considered it before, those will be the keepers, right? Um, and I think that, um, it’s the people that, that treat home education as like a holding pattern. That’s the people that will probably not stay. And it’s not the fault of any facilitator that didn’t give enough or a group that wasn’t able to provide it. It’s just that it is a concerted and, uh, decision, right, that is important in your life and your child’s life. And so, I think personally, I’m very much encouraged when I see that steady growth because it means it’s real. Right. This year we’re going to see a big spike, and I’m really interested in next year’s number, and I’m sure Brett is, too, because that’s, you know, where you see the stability of the growth for all of our interests in the province that support home education. So, it’s quite exciting. I think it’s a really neat time and it’s an opportunity to expose people for the benefits of home education, to talk about what it is and what it isn’t, right, and to clarify that in people’s minds. We’ve actually got more work to do because it got muddled at the beginning. ‘Everyone wasn’t a home educator.’ I’m sure you are all talking about that too, even if you’re a new mom that says, ‘I’m home educating,’ you have to explain the difference between doing school online, right, and actually home educating your child. And so, um, AHEA has a little booklet that I showed you, which is only 16 pages and is free. You can go to our publications tab on our website. It talks about all the funding, uh, different answers to questions that you have. It’s very brief, um, and gives you the basics that you need to know that you’ll reach out if you need anything from us or if we can be of help to you. And know that as we work with the government, although everyone might not be with our group or Judy’s group, the work that we do benefits all the home educators in the province is the goal. Sometimes we have differences of things that we advocate for, but oftentimes there’s things that we definitely are pushing in the same direction, and we’re happy to work together on that because we want to have you at the forefront of our efforts. And so, um, AHEA has been doing that for 35 years and and we enjoy a long and established relationship, and we continue to use that for your benefit. And that’s, that’s what my job is, to talk to people and to talk to government and to make sure that they’re aware of what your needs are, even sometimes the supervising authorities. What can make their life better makes your life better. And so, we’re happy to work with you and, uh, and pleased to have the opportunity to join you today. So, thanks for the chance to meet you all and to listen.”
“Well, one more question I have for our facilitators. Um, as you’ve been meeting, unfortunately we obviously we can’t meet in person yet, but through your, your video conferencing or telephone calls, have you noticed any, any trends among the families who are new? Any consistent comments, uh, good or bad, any areas where we can improve, uh, in a general way to help support those families who are new to homeschooling, home education?”
“So, any facilitator, want to jump in on then? Anything, does anything come to mind?”
“Yeah, I could respond to that, Brad. Okay. Oh, yeah. Um, I think the number one thing I saw in the fall was that there’s still a lack of clarity that they do not have to follow the Alberta curriculum, the guidelines for their grades. You know, a lot of questions, ‘Oh, you know, like, is this program gonna, you know, help my kid keep up in math or whatever?’ That kind of thing. So, I mean, I know that that information is out there, but that is the number one thing that I have seen that people just are not clear about, that, that they can just make their own decisions about all that stuff and that there’s no, no exams, there’s no checklist, there’s no requirements with parent-directed home education.”
“Okay. Anybody else?”
“I was just going to say, I think the number one issue that I addressed with families was choosing curriculum. Uh, I can’t tell you how many emails I wrote out listing like, ‘This is good for phonics and this is a good app,’ and I’m trying to get a feel of, of what methodology families were wanting to use and what direction they wanted to take with their children with their homeschooling and then trying to support them to find resources that way.”
“Can I say that if we managed to pull off our convention, it’s a wonderful chance for people to have a hands-on look at, um, curriculum. Uh, it’s been two years because our, our last convention was cancelled two weeks before it was supposed to run when COVID started. And so, if we can, it is a very large exhibition hall, and families, it’s just not the same shopping online, right, and it’s not the same when you’re trying to figure out what they want. And I remember for myself, it’s kind of like one year you’re like, ‘Let’s just go and look at all the math,’ and this year, ‘We’re just picking the best math.’ Right. And so, yeah, if the facilitators or, or you families that are new, have a chance to sign up and come to the AHEA convention, it’ll be different this year, much smaller than, you know, what we might have had in the past, although the exhibit hall might be still the biggest thing. But it’s a real blessing to be able to see stuff in person, right, and to, to look at it and talk to the people who run the booths. They’re very helpful and informative. And then you’ll also find your supervising authority at the convention hall, too, so that’s fun. And you’re able to introduce your friends. So, yeah. Thanks for the work that you facilitators do and talking about so much curriculum. It’s fun for you.”
“Can I also add, um, right now the Canadian Homeschooling Conference is on and it’s usually every February. Usually they have a curriculum hall, but, um, you know what I would appreciate on behalf of Alberta Homeschooling, if facilitators, if you could give us your recommendations for grade ones, two and three for curriculum, like, what’s your most popular? Um, we would appreciate a more non-faith-based curriculum to, to, um, because people want Alberta Education Program of Studies things. So, if you could give us recommendations of what you think follows the Alberta Programs of Study the best, we could put those on our website and direct people to them because that’s been a huge problem for us this year is curriculum choices. And we, what we’ve said is, uh, okay, talk to your facilitator about that, I guess. Sorry. But we have no, and I have no clue because I didn’t ever use curriculum until grade 10. So, that would be helpful for us.”
“Well, one thing before, at least, I saw your hand go. One thing I wanted to add to that is, um, I, I too experienced the, the overwhelming, uh, stress from families who are new to homeschooling when they would call us or email us to the point where I, I did a little bit of research. I’m not a curriculum expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I did a quick, uh, gathering of, of those kind of resources, especially for, I would say, grades one, junior high, I would say, one and I maybe, and did a copy-paste of information and I think that was really helpful. And in that copy-paste information, um, I would also include ideas for an unschooling approach, which a lot of people, I want to get back to. I know, sorry Lisa, I want to jump in, but, um, Judy, you mentioned the unschooling, and I heard from a lot of families who are new to homeschooling who are really interested in unschooling. They just weren’t sure what it was because just like most things in life, it can mean so many different things. It depends. It’s that story of, you know, how, how many blind men trying to describe an elephant. It just depends on what side of the elephant you’re on, and, ‘Well, that’s an elephant.’ Well, there are so many ways describing unschooling or non-schooling or whatever term you want, but I gave, I think, a pretty simple description. And Judy, also, I really like what you said where adult education really is more of the unschooling and it’s how we learn as an adult. We don’t, we don’t get a textbook out when we want to learn something. We, we, well, we do whatever is, is in our own bent. But, uh, anyway, so I, I hear, I’m glad you mentioned that about the, the need for resources and suggestions. I, I definitely want to do a better job of, you know, it’s a fine line, but because, you know, and Shauna, you, you mentioned that it says as well, ‘the freedom to choose,’ we don’t want to be seen as saying, with THEE, doesn’t want to be seen as saying, ‘Here’s what you do, here’s a kit.’ Um, you know, sometimes that has a place and perhaps this is the place. Someone who’s brand new to homeschooling, maybe in that first year, it’s not, it’s actually a good thing. It’s not decreasing someone’s liberty, but it’s giving them a, uh, there’s so much to choose from, um, it’s saying, ‘Here, start here and we’ll help you grow.’ It’s like a starter pack when you start gardening, right? You don’t, you don’t start with a cord connection. You start… Yeah, kind of talking out loud or thinking out loud here through what we can do better with families who are brand new to homeschooling. And, uh, because I always thought, ‘Gosh, if I’m, I’m pushing one or two resources,’ but I shouldn’t really look at it that way. I should look at it as, ‘This is a starter kit.’ Yeah, and then you grow from there. So, okay, good. Lisa, go ahead, uh, your thoughts.”
“Well, I’ve definitely noticed a trend as well as the other ladies with everything they’ve said. Um, definitely that overwhelming feeling with the curriculum is huge from the families that I’ve met, and I think that this, um, a general maybe misunderstanding of where we believe that the school system is taking our children and that they actually do have to be at a certain spot by a certain time when the reality in the school system as well as in homeschool, we all develop and grow at our own different rates. That’s right. So, the suggestion that I’ve been giving to parents in that situation that it’s like across the board, coming out of the school system, so many gaps noticed in, especially math in L.A. Often it’s with like the very basic skills, such as addition and subtraction, multiplication and division. I’m not sure a few other ladies have noticed that as well, um, but it’s certain things they can go back sometimes four years and have to catch up. So, I, I, what I’ve been telling the parents is, ‘This is your year to catch your kids up. Like, they will not get this kind of help in the school system. You get to help them right now, fill those gaps. Try not to be too attached in comparison because to me comparison is the killer of all joy in your homeschool experience. Just get them up the ladder. And if they request curriculum or if they’re feeling lost, like, ‘I don’t even know what to do,’ I say, ‘Start with the simple language arts books and go up the ladder from there.’ Same with math. If you’re more comfortable, I’m more comfortable with that right now because I’m new as well, but I said, you know, ‘You don’t have to be attached to a curriculum. If it doesn’t work, ditch it. You have some resources. You have a little bit of flex room. If this is your first year and you’re not feeling like you’re sure yet, start somewhere, but better to start than to wait.’ Right. So, that’s just kind of what I’ve been saying and what I’ve noticed.”
“Thanks, Lisa.”
“You’re welcome.”
“All right. Well, if anyone else, uh, if, if there’s any other questions, if there are any other questions, go ahead and speak now or wrap them up. Anybody have a parting thought, parting comment, parting question? [Music] Go ahead, Lisa.”
“I do have a question. Um, Judy, you have been mentioning, I don’t know if you can speak on it, but talking to the government about potentially because homeschool families don’t really have much of an outlet right now, whereas kids in school they get to go to school, they, I mean, it’s a totally different ball game. It’s a different choice for sure, but they get that social outlet. Can you tell us what the government had said maybe on what they’re thinking?”
“As of this morning, is this the first time we’ve talked to them? I don’t know. Oh, no, no. We have been. Shauna and I have been in conversations with them since forever. Um, as of this morning, um, it’s very clear that, it’s very clear an intent that home educators cannot have to follow, um, household rules for socializing. Um, now the wording of the new health order, and maybe Shauna can talk more about this too, is that, um, it sounds like we can meet. Our kids could go to other homes to, um, for learning, academic learning. And we have really been pushing that, uh, they need to fulfill their home education plans, and this is not just socializing, socializing, which is very important for mental health, but it’s also, um, academic, um, achievement, too, of the home education plans. So, um, the wording is not quite right. So, right now it’s, uh, it’s a bit muddled and confused, so I can’t really say definite on what we’re facing right now. Sorry. The articles in the past, if you’d like to read them, that will help you a lot. The thing that we were talking about this morning is there’s a small exception clause for certain individuals to visit a home, as you probably are aware, right, like if you need special services or something there’s an exception. And so, there is a small bit of verbiage there that would allow a single individual to come to a family home. So, um, I was trying to find out if we could reverse the order of that. So, for example, let’s say you have a piano teacher that comes to your family’s home, right? That would, the piano teacher visiting you. The most lessons are the families go to the piano teacher’s house, right, and they stay there and have all the kids visit them. So, I’m like, if they schedule that, you know, is that possible? I expect that’s not going to be a ‘yes,’ right? But, um, right now, tutoring would be allowed, right, if you have an individual that goes into a family home where there is no, um, other family members there, that would be okay if they came and tutored the family. Most of the situations have multiple families involved usually, and so that’s why we’re still not satisfied. But there was a huge change that you can read about, the, um, at the beginning of the home educators accessing off-site facilities. They, what they did was they removed a negative. So, before it was like, ‘School children can do this, but not home educators,’ right? And this time, with the new order, they didn’t single us out for exclusion. Right. If a school child can do it outside in a cohort group, we should be able to do it too. Right. And it’s also expanded the ability of educators to use facilities. Now, that makes it difficult because, of course, most home educators didn’t budget to rent facilities in order to do activities. However, if that’s something, for example, your child was in a certain class, right, it’s possible that that facility can open up for a home education cohort group and continue on with their classes, but they cannot be open to the public. So, this is actually really a nice little wedge for us to encourage small business opening right at the same time as get the home education restarted. And so, yeah, please do read those articles. They’re under the political updates blog on our website, and those last three will probably give you a pretty well-rounded. There’s a lot of links and stuff in there, they’re pretty detailed. But, um, you can go outside. You can play in groups as long as it’s your cohort group. You can be as large as a classroom. You’re not limited to ten. Okay. So, same thing, physical activity when you do or do not have to wear masks. Right. I maybe pushed it a little because in high school, the cohort groups change depending on what class you’re in, right? And I’m like, ‘Well, you know, homeschoolers, we’re weird, so we do that all the time.’ You don’t have to be in high school. So, you know, read those things. If you’ve got any questions, you can reach out to me and let me know and we’re happy to continue the conversation with Alberta Ed that we always are having. So, good question, Elise. Thank you.”
“All right. Well, with that, I will wrap up our session. So, thank you both, uh, Shauna and Judy, for being here, for representing, uh, your organizations. I definitely want to encourage everybody to check out their websites, the AHEA website, the AHA website and of course the Facebook pages, um, as well. So, uh, thank you again, new parents for being here. If you have any other questions, uh, you know how to get, you should, uh, Judy and Shauna, would you, uh, put in the chat your, your preference for how you’d like people to contact you, whether it’s website or email, and they can jot that down.”
“Thank you for hosting this and, um, people contact us anyway. Facebook chat, message, phone, smoke signals.”
“Whatever works. Awesome. All right. Well, thanks again, everybody, for being here. If you have ideas for future topics, please let me know my email address, b-r-e-t-t at t-h-e-e.c-a. So, I’d definitely love to hear from you if you have any other ideas for future, uh, sessions like this. So, again, great, great to see you. On the question, what’s that? Caitlyn has a question. Oh, Caitlyn. Yeah, go ahead.”
“Uh, yes, sorry, I just had a quick question. Um, kind of what you were talking about with your cohort, um, is that with like a homeschool co-op or something, like, are those kind of groups still allowed to go on right now?”
“Yes. And in fact, the, the Deputy Minister has been a little bit more generous with his language use than, uh, the actual health order. So, if you look at the last, or the first article that I posted, which is the last one, uh, you can actually see how he speaks of co-ops and also learning groups, right? And I’m like, ‘It would be great if we could see that language in the actual health order so that people were less confused.’ But Alberta Ed probably doesn’t need a phone call from every parent in the province getting clarification. That’s kind of what our job is, and so the articles are meant to inform you, right, and sometimes I will give you an instruction, ‘This would be helpful,’ right, because you guys are the muscle that we need to see talking in order to have a better result when we do our work. So, read the articles, take some of those hints, try and get involved in making that momentum felt. And that helps us when we go and do our work, right, because the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and we need to be squeaking not in pain, but actually like, you know, a daily email to Dina with your family’s, you know, status is perfectly within the realm of, you know, encouragement to understand that this is a stressful thing for home education families who probably have fared the best out of anybody after 10 months of lockdown. And, you know, when you’ve got moms calling you saying, ‘My kids are breaking,’ and you can tell they’re breaking, you know, it’s heartbreaking. And, you know, I’ve been very frank with Alberta Ed, saying, ‘You know, this is wrong,’ right? And in one of my articles I said, ‘We’re prepared to parent, but we are not prepared to be the enforcers of what’s government-mandated abuse. In any other situation, this is not okay. And our families aren’t okay living like this. It’s not healthy for children,’ right? And so, even no matter where you are on the spectrum of how you respond to the situation, you have to know that this is not a healthy thing for your kids. So, if you look at the middle article in particular, there’s a very helpful action item about ‘Save Our Youth’ that I would encourage you to participate in because it’s Canada-wide and we’re really trying to help bring attention to the distress that children and youth are in. Uh, the Kids Help Phone has got kids that are up to 28 years old calling with problems because they don’t have any place else to go. So, it’s, it’s a, that’s a pandemic of problems, right, and we need to, we need to do our job, and that’s just not my job or Judy’s job. That’s all of you doing what you need to do to help resolve the situation for the sake of our kids who shouldn’t be growing up like this. So, I’d encourage you to take this seriously because it is pretty serious, and we can talk, but we need you guys to do your part so that it’s a serious situation on their end, too. So, thank you for taking the time to read them.”
“All right.”
“Thank you all. Hello for being here. Does anyone? Look. Just checking the chat, making sure there’s. All right, we’re all good. All right, well, you guys have a great day. Talk to you all later. Bye-bye.”
“Hi. Thank you, Brad.”
“You’re welcome. Judy, Shauna. Thanks for being here.”
“My pleasure. Thank you.”
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