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Thank you for watching this video, which I hope will help families in their choosing of a homeschooling board. The questions that we’ll be going over today in this video are from AHEA, that’s Alberta Home Education Association. So AHEA has been around since the mid-’80s; it’s a fantastic organization here in Alberta. From their website, and I’ve printed off the webpage, but I’ll put it as a download below this video. They have provided from this website and it’s the “About” the “About AHEA” website, these 10 questions. And these 10 questions are to help families review and evaluate different home ed programs to see which one would be the best fit for their family. So, I want to give you the answers to these 10 questions from the perspective of THEE. So, let’s start with number one, and I’m just going to be reading off this list and answering them.

Here we go.

Question 1: Are all your facilitators home educators?

And I’ll stop right there because the answer is yes. All of our home education facilitators are themselves home educators. So they’ve either completed their home education journey with their children because now their children are adults, and/or they are currently home educating their own children. So the answer to number one is yes.

Question 2: What approaches of home education do your facilitators support and oversee?

The broad, sweeping answer to that is really whatever program, whatever method that the family has chosen. So to be specific, we would support, we support what the family has chosen. So our families come from a variety of backgrounds. So our families will have anything from an unschooling approach to a very school-looking approach, meaning distance education courses, online courses, even shared responsibility courses, because as you’ll see in another video on shared responsibility, shared responsibility is a home education subprogram. In everything between, we’re talking about the what some people will call “traditional.” Again, these are just terms thrown out there, you may have your own definition for these terms, but some people will call it “traditional,” that would be using school-type textbooks like Saxon or Math U See or Abeka or Bob Jones or Teaching Textbooks, right? So you’re using textbooks and workbooks, very school-type learning resources, very good resources that are grade-level specific, course content, course topic specific. So that’s what I would call “traditional” or what some people would call “traditional” homeschooling. Others would use a classical education model, and while others would use something along the lines of Charlotte Mason approach. So lots of different things, lots of different approaches, methods. We support what the family is doing. Every family does things a little differently from the next, so it’s hard to say what we support other than saying we support what the family is doing, and there’s not any type of education method or style that we don’t support. It’s not like your facilitator is going to show up and say, “Oh, no, sorry, this program plan won’t work.” That’s not what we’re about. We would not do that. We’ve never done that in the past. So we are here to support the learning plan that you’ve put together.

Question 3: Will your facilitators be able to provide us with advice and suggested resources in the various subject areas?

Yes, quick answer, short answer, yes. We will definitely provide you with advice and suggestions because our facilitators have been where you are, and if they’re not, they can certainly relate to where you are. We are fellow homeschoolers. We’ve done it ourselves with our children. So yes, we can certainly give us, give you our opinions, our suggestions, our stories, the lessons we’ve learned. Hopefully, you can learn from our mistakes. So yes, we can certainly answer those kind of questions and give you suggestions. Matter of fact, on the website, there’s a whole webpage called “Resources,” and those resources include non-Alberta Ed resources. So again, the Saxon, the Math U See, the Bob Jones, the Abeka, the Math U See, etc. Mystery of History comes to mind, all of the Dawn Ward materials from Northwood Press, all the way to Alberta Ed type resources. So we have many, many different resources. We’re always adding to it. We listen to our families. Every year, I get feedback from the families, from the facilitators, and so I’m always adding resources to that resources webpage. So we definitely place a high priority on giving you as many ideas and suggestions for methods and resources. So that’s a resounding yes on that one.

Question 4: What can we expect during the two visits with the facilitator that are required in the Alberta Home Education Regulation?

So the home ed regulation requires our program, every program in the province, every home ed program in the province, to do a, conduct a student evaluation twice per year. So for just about all programs I know of, including THEE, that means one student evaluation per semester. And that student evaluation is not a policing type of visit. We certainly don’t have that approach. Our evaluation is by regulation to evaluate progress and achievement. So what you can expect, you can expect just walking in, wanting to encourage you, wanting to see what your son or daughter has done up until that point in the school year. Let’s say it’s in the first semester. We just want to know how things are going. We’re measuring progress, we’re measuring achievement. That’s going to look differently in the first semester than it will in the second semester. So I do have other videos in this virtual open house webpage that talk about specifically about the evaluation visits. So please refer to those videos, but just to say, those are low-key, low-pressure visits with the family, and usually the families look forward to it and the children look forward to it. The children look forward to having an adult who’s not mom and dad or dad come in and just see what they’re doing. You know, we’re looking at the trophies. We can do it informally. Like I said, trophies, ribbons, certificates, awards, all kinds of things are evidence and proof of progress and achievement. So we’re not looking at just assignments and not just textbook-type things. We’re looking at a wide variety. I remember one family I facilitated, the son was this brilliant piano player and he would play music. He was a public speaker, so he would give or he would rehearse, not rehearse, but he he would do part of his public speaking that he often would win an award for in the local community. So all kinds of things will constitute an evaluation. It’s not dry, it’s not boring, and it’s fun. It’s not meant to be any kind of a pressure stress day for anybody.

Question 5: Are home visits with our facilitator compulsory?

Yes, they are required by regulation. This isn’t just something that THEE came up with, it is right out of the regulation. So all home ed programs are required to do it. Once per semester is the minimum. So are they compulsory? Yes. Or are there other, well, okay, the second part says “or are there other places where we could meet?” So that question kind of throws a curveball on the second half because it’s talking about location. The first part of the question is, “Are they compulsory?” Yes. Perhaps the word “home visit” means “do they have to be in the home?” No, they don’t have to be in the home. I’ve met with families at Tim Hortons, at a local restaurant, you know. If you’re not comfortable meeting in the home, or perhaps sometimes the home is off the beaten path, off gravel roads, it’s just easier to meet in town. Of course, we can certainly do that. The second half, “are there other places we could meet?” Definitely. You can even meet in our office building if you’d like. It’s kind of cold and impersonal in an office, but if that’s what you’d like to do, that’s fine. We prefer to meet in the house because the the parent obviously is more comfortable in the house. The children are more comfortable in the house. It’s a more secure, it’s a safe environment, a comfortable environment for the children, you know, when they see a stranger come in for that first time, the stranger being the facilitator, that first time, sometimes they’re they’re a little hesitant, especially the younger ones. So we definitely want to meet in an area where the children feel comfortable meeting. So oftentimes it’s in the house, and it’s mostly out of convenience, too, for the family. So we typically will come to you unless you tell us otherwise, and if you want to make other plans, by all means, we’ll definitely do that.

Question 6: What are the expectations of the facilitator at these meetings? What do they expect to see in a home education program and portfolio?

I’m going to ask you to look at the videos we have in the section in this webpage that talk up, that the section that talks specifically about evaluations because there’s a lot of information there, and I I just don’t want to repeat it here. Lots of the other video goes into depth on that.

Question 7: What is your perspective regarding the role of the school board or private school in evaluating a student’s progress? For example, testing and assessments.

We don’t require tests, formal standardized testing. Most home education programs that are really good don’t require that. So we can suggest some standardized testing if that’s what the parent is looking for, like the Canadian Achievement Test. They’re up to version five now. It’s all web-based, but we don’t require that for our evaluation purposes. Again, looking at progress and achievement as I mentioned before, that can be as informal as certificates. Let’s say from 4-H, you know, ribbons, certificates from athletics could be trophies, awards, one for music or public speaking, you know, you name it, it can be real-life type evaluations. Those also include, you know, Royal Conservatory, that’s music, thinking of programming, there’s robotics, you know, the hands-on, project-based learning that goes on, that’s part of the evaluation. We’re not just looking for copies of tests and quizzes and workbooks. That’s that’s not what we’re about. If that’s what you have, great. Sometimes it’s a book report. You know, all kinds of things that are involved in this evaluation. Again, it’s not meant to be a stressful time. If it’s stressful, then we’re not, we at THEE haven’t done our job to communicate to you what the evaluation is about.

Okay, num, well, keep going with that.

Question 8: Will my children have to write the Alberta Student Learning Assessments, or the P.A.T.s, the Provincial Achievement Tests? What happens if they don’t?

To my knowledge, home ed students, especially at THEE, but across the province, home ed students do not have to write the P.A.T.s nor the S.L.A.s, the student learning assessments. So the second question there, the follow-on, “what happens if they don’t?” Nothing with THEE, and I don’t think with any home ed program. So I don’t believe THEE is unique in that situation. Now, that’s not the same. You know, some people confuse the term home education, homeschooling. They use “homeschooling” interchangeably with the term “home education.” So if we want to be technically correct here, “homeschooling,” which involves teacher-directed programming, like online learning, going forward, Alberta Ed from the recent regulations and some memos I’ve read are being more more insistent that online students and distance ed students at home write P.A.T.s. So, but that’s for teacher-directed, okay? But for home education, which is parent-directed, your home ed students don’t have to write P.A.T.s.

Question 9: Are your facilitators able to recognize special needs in students and suggest resources and methods to assist parents in teaching such students?

So, let me read that one more time: “Are your facilitators able to recognize special needs in students?” I’m not, our facilitators are not necessarily, you know, special needs qualified, right? They’re not specialists in in any special needs type category. I’m not going to say that, but I’m going to say facilitators don’t necessarily have to recognize it because you, the parent, recognize the special needs. We don’t need to recognize it, you’ve already recognized it in your student, in your children. You will tell us what those special needs are. If you’re suspecting that your child might have a certain learning challenge, by all means, we will talk about it, and we will give you our opinion, our suggestions, the resources for assessment, for formal diagnostic type assessment. But I’m going to say we don’t, we don’t have to recognize it because you the parent have, you’re the expert at home, you know your child. Again, if you suspect something, well, that’s different. We can certainly talk about that and help you find the assessment support that that you need. Second part: “and suggest resources and methods to assist parents in teaching.” For sure, definitely. We actually are working with a retired education psychologist, and her name is Jeannie Lungard, and she’s definitely one of our go-to people for situations like this. So the answer to number nine, question number nine, is yes.

Question 10: What is my recourse if, during the year, my facilitator and I don’t agree?

So, congratulations for making it this far into this video. Number 10: “What is my recourse if, during the year, my facilitator and I don’t agree?” You can always switch, well, I shouldn’t say you can always switch facilitators. I say you can’t always because if you’re living in an area where we only have one facilitator, we can’t switch facilitators if you require an on-site visit. If you don’t require an on-site visit, then we can certainly switch facilitators, and then you can conduct all future communication and all future evaluations with your new facilitator through a video conferencing setup. But if you have a disagreement with the facilitator, to be honest, we don’t really have too many disagreements because you’re in charge. There’s, I’m not going to say there’s nothing that would ever come up that we would disagree with, but you’re in charge of your home ed program and all that you’re doing. I can’t think of a legitimate learning-based reason why we would ever enter into a disagreement with you. That’s not our place. You’ve chosen the resources, you’ve identified the goals for the year for your child, we’re there to support your all of that. So the only disagreement that I can think of that would come up is if we think you’re not doing anything, and it’s just something where we would want to encourage you to do, like, “Well, wow, nothing’s really changed. Maybe year after year we’re just seeing some problems with progress and achievement, like we’re not seeing progress, we’re not seeing achievement,” and we’re we’re saying, “not really seeing this,” and then you’re saying, “Oh, yes.” And maybe there’s a disagreement there. But in total, I’m not, but in terms of your learning plan, that’s really not our place to even disagree with. So, so yeah, it’s a it’s a question or it’s an issue that very rarely rarely comes up.

And at the bottom of this page in bold, there’s a statement: “If you are uncomfortable with the answers, shop around.” If you are uncomfortable with anything that I’ve said, you have, well, please ask me. Maybe I’ve said something that that you or they came across that you understood in a way that I didn’t mean. So please let me know if I’ve said something that is confusing or, you know, didn’t sound right. But at the end of the day, it’s always your choice. You have the choice here in Alberta of so many different education programs, different home ed programs. So by all means, if THEE’s not the good fit for you, then I can even suggest programs to you. There are several of us home ed programs that all work together, and we will oftentimes recommend one another to the family because we know it’s a better fit. You know, for if THEE’s not a fit, we can help you find a good fit for you.

The last statement, “it is important, it is important that you know you have specific rights within the Alberta regulations on home education, et cetera,” and I wanted to read that last statement because I totally agree with that, and I wanted to repeat something here that I stated in the one of the opening videos and that is, these rights that we’re talking about, you will find in the very form that you’re going to use for registration. You’re not registering, you’re not enrolling your son or daughter into a home ed program. You are notifying the government that you are creating your own school, and that’s why the form is called a “notification form,” and it’s not called a “registration form” or the “enrollment form.” We use the term “registration” and other programs use the term “registration” because that’s what that’s the term that most people are familiar with. But getting back to what the statement says, you do have specific rights as homeschooling parents, and we at THEE want to honor that and really highlight those rights and let you know of those rights by making every or taking every opportunity possible to point out those rights, right in the registration form, right the notification form. You are establishing your own school. You have the right to choose what you do, when you do it, why you do it, how you do it, and everything in between. So you have those rights, and we are honored here at THEE to be part of all those decisions if you bring us into it. If that’s the support we can provide, we would love to do that.

So, I’ll stop there and thank you again for watching the video. If you have questions about how we as a board will support you, please get in touch with me. You can contact me directly. The phone number is 780-467-5551, and my email address is [email protected]. So hopefully, I’ll be hearing from you soon.