Frequently Asked Questions

Through this portal you can find qualified and experienced teachers and educators that may not have a teaching degree but have experience teaching in a subject area you would like your child to have instruction in. Just ‘search’ our database of posts or make a post stating what you are looking for.

Also, some homeschooling boards offer a shared responsibility between parents and educators, and a variety of online courses as well. See the post ‘How do I start homeschooling my child’ for more information about this.

Once you have made the decision to home educate and apply to/been accepted by a home education board, they will provide a “declaration to home educate” notification to be given to your child’s public school. Home education boards will act as the intermediary for you in this situation which can take a lot of pressure off of parents who may not feel comfortable calling to “pull their kids out of school” and likely prevent any conversations from school administration wanting to keep your child, and their funding, in their school budget.  What about if they are homeschooling right from kindergarten?

The best resource for finding a home education board is to do a search for ‘homeschooling board’ or ‘homeschooling program’ or ‘distance learning’ and your province or territory name.

The Alberta home schooling board website  is www.albertahomeschooling.ca. The website has a list of the available home education boards in Alberta. Most boards will accept families from all over the province, so you are not restricted to selecting a board within your geographic area.

A home education board essentially acts as the intermediary between you and the government. They file the legal documents on your behalf, such as your declaration and learning plans, which are required to access your funding. They also have a dedicated finance team to support you with your expense reimbursement or to issue purchase orders, for example. Each board has their own unique service offerings, some may offer courses, discounted membership and even curriculum materials.

Your board will also assign a facilitator to each family if you do not declare shared responsibility.

A home school facilitator is your family’s information and experience resource. A facilitator will provide two home visits per year and assist with any questions or concerns that arise during your learning experiences. Many boards exclusively hire facilitators who are home educating or who have home educated their own children so they offer a wide range of knowledge and support.

Many first time home schoolers are overwhelmed by the sheer amount of options available to choose from!

However, it can be difficult to discern what is ‘essential’ to teach your child in each grade level.

The Alberta government website lists all K-12 curriculum topics which is an excellent starting point to decide if your family will follow it, depart from it, or use it as an a la carte menu!

Search our portal for courses and classes categorized by grade level. The posts by teachers will reflect the grade level materials they have taught in public or private schools, so you can use that as a yardstick.

Or check our ‘links’ for links to resources that other homeschoolers, parents and educators recommend, many of which include grade level specific materials.

Again, every Province is different so it is best to do your own research.  For instance, in Ontario there is no funding nor tax credits available if you choose to homeschool. 

However, in BC, parents have the option to either register as homeschoolers or enroll as distributed learners (DL).  Registering as a homeschooler gives you little to no financial governmental support but does allow you complete freedom.  You may choose to teach whatever curriculum you like.  If you register through to Grade 12, your child will not receive a BC dogwood (or high school diploma). See the link below to see the possible ramifications with that. You can enroll as a DL through numerous online and distributed learning schools throughout the province, both public and independent (see below). You then have a DL teacher who oversees your child’s education, providing advice and support (if needed) and making sure your child is meeting BC educational standards. You will also receive some funding per student per year from the government, to use for curriculum, school supplies, and extracurricular activities.  You can do this through numerous online and distributed learning schools throughout the province, both public and independent (see below). You then have a DL teacher who oversees your child’s education, providing advice and support (if needed) and making sure your child is meeting BC educational standards. You will also receive some funding per student per year from the government, to use for curriculum, school supplies, and extracurricular activities.

The process is similar in Alberta, with the province allocating $850 per child for enrolled home education. This money is available ONLY IF home education is declared and you are accepted by a home education board PRIOT TO SEPTEMBER 30^th of that scholastic year.  Any family declaring home education after this point will not have access to this funding, but the materials their school has already purchased on their behalf, pro-rated for the remainder of the school year.    Additionally, if you choose to declare home education mid-year and depart from public education, you will be entitled to a pro-rated portion of the materials purchased by the school for your child.

Homeschool Diplomas – Fact vs. Fiction

We intend that this portal will act as a hub for parents looking for ways to find and learn from other homeschooling families and organizations that support learning outside the public school system. Check out our ‘links’ page for recommended websites, Facebook pages, social media channels, video and You Tube channels related to homeschooling your child and helping meet their body, mind, spiritual and emotional needs.

If you would like to find other families to team up with to co-create your own educational pod, or an online learning cohort of like minded families and kids at the same level or with the same interests as your child, simply search our database for posts made by other families seeking the same, or make your own post to advertise what you are looking for. Then you can work together to make a post for a teacher or group of teachers who will be willing to meet your collective needs.

Some home education boards offer social gatherings to bring their community together as well.

When you decide to home educate, know that you have a massive safety net. The public school system is required to accept you back at any time. However, always call your local school FIRST to ensure there are no capacity issues.

Some home schooling families choose to enrol their kids back into the public school system for high school, however, there are some boards in Alberta that have the capacity to administer high school credits. If you have a child in the upper grades, and would like to continue home schooling them during this time, this is an important area of inquiry when seeking a home education board.

Alternately, check the university you wish your child to enrol in for their entrance requirements and ways to challenge or complete tests and assessments to meet the application requirements.

Many first-time home schoolers are met with resistance from family, friends or members of their public school community.

First and foremost, no one knows your child better than you do so you will always make the right decision for your child. Trust yourself!

Secondly, resistance often comes from fearing the unknown.

The proof that homeschooling works is evident in your child. Children are ALWAYS learning, and learning looks different for each child. Home schooling allows you, as the parent, to curate the experiences that they need to be happy, curious, confident and engaged. This flexibility can not be found in a traditional education model. Sometimes, those who don’t agree with your decision to homeschool have been so entrenched in traditional learning systems that they can’t imagine an alternative path for school.

If your family is not supported by your immediate community, we encourage you to reach out to others using this portal and seek support through your local homeschooling community.

We fully support parents’ decisions to homeschool and seek alternative educational paths for their children. We believe that the current education system is in dire need of re-vamping and re-creating.

Sign up for our ‘news and announcements’ newsletter for news of opportunities to join our symposiums, discussion forums, and round table meetings that the Life Force Education Committee plans to host in the near future, to help us all re-imagine and co-create the future society we want to see.  Once we know where exactly we want our society to be, we can then backtrack to uncover the key learning competencies our youth- and all of us- will need to develop to bring this ideal into reality.

We have included ways to search our portal for posts relevant to a grade.

We are very interested in supporting education that uses a ‘mastery’ model of learning (e.g. a levels based system where a certain percentage is necessary in order to advance) which has been proven to suit both gifted students who work quickly through course materials and grades and those who are struggling in certain subject areas.

We encourage parents to consider supplemental and ‘out of the box’ thinking in terms of what it means to ‘graduate’ and take a holistic approach that extends beyond basic academic accomplishments to include non-traditional learning opportunities to apply what has been learned within innovative learning settings to round out the skills development of youth.

While some parents may wish to take the fast track to getting their children into university, others may find the time after early graduation as an opportune time in a young person’s life to learn life skills that will help to round out their emotional and personal development, fully explore their career options with internships or community building project, or learn financial skills, start a business, design and/or participate in community building programs and restoration projects, travel, or engage in community support programs such as housebuilding, wilderness skills.  We encourage youth and their parents to discuss the kinds of learning and living opportunities their teen children would enjoy and most benefit from, and use this portal create posts for these kinds of opportunities to become reality.

There are many YouTube videos where you will find parents who have engaged in both standard schooling and homeschooling and their experiences and opinions. In addition, you are welcome to try to connect with people using this portal who have experience with both, to help you make an informed decision and prepare for what lies ahead, regardless of which decision you make.

Many parents worry that their child will ‘fall behind’ if they homeschool, while others relish the opportunity to homeschool to provide a richer, more advanced and deeper learning experience for their children through homeschooling. Parents have many choices in terms of the educational paths they wish their children to take.

If you are concerned, you could make a post or search our database to find an experienced teacher to coach you, or review your homeschooling plan, or otherwise advise you about the amount of content and level of content, or even to co-create tests or assessment with you, and / or mark them. Or you could also contact a homeschooling board for professional guidance (see posts on this topic).

You can also look for advice from homeschoolers who have years of experience homeschooling and have taught your child’s grade level.

Each province sets out its own educational materials and levels, which are available to you through provincial websites.

One of the most common concerns voiced by parents who are considering homeschooling – or voiced by the family of those who choose to homeschool- is that the children will not be adequately socialized if schooled at home.

There are a variety of extracurricular activities available to homeschoolers and in fact, some families choose homeschooling because it allows them more time to pursue their extracurricular interests, including sports and music.  Many homeschool programs offer classes during school hours which many people prefer as it keeps evenings free for family time. There are many homeschool support groups available to you.  Search our posts to find groups that organize local activities and field trips. 

Of course, this varies across the nation. In Alberta, if you choose to work within the school system, you can apply for $860 per child per year. If you exit the system completely, you cannot apply for any funding. Please check our Resource page to find the government education websites for province and territory