FAQs Home Education

Homeschooling is a defined as "the process of teaching one's child (ren) at home instead of sending them to school". It is a way for parents to adhere specifically to their family beliefs and values as well as their children's learning styles, strengths, and weaknesses. It is a way to tailor a specific education program that would be of the most benefit for their child (ren). Parents know their child(ren) best and they have been their child (ren)'s first teacher! 

There are three different types of schooling your child(ren) at home. Online education is a teacher directed program and is conducted using the Alberta Curriculum. If a child continues online schooling, they will be able to attain their Alberta Diploma. Online education is full funded by the Alberta government as long as the student is under the age of 20. As long as the student is 19 years old as of September 29th of the current school year, that student can be registered even if that student turns 20 within the school year.  Home education or Home Ed is a parent directed approach to schooling. Here the parent can either choose to educate under a School Authority and therefore receive funding from the Alberta government or the parent can choose to do a Home Ed program not supervised by a school authority and therefore not receiving funding from the government. In a Home Ed program, there parent chooses the curriculum and method of teaching while adhering to the Home Education Regulation. Here the parent retains the responsibility for educating their child(ren). A Shared responsibility education is when the parent shares the responsibility of education their child(ren) with the school authority. This is a combination of Online education and Home education (Home Ed). 

 Alberta Education recognizes Home Ed in Alberta and provides the choice of whether the parent decides to educate under a school authority and receive funding or educate not with a school authority and the parent will not receive funding. Proper documents must be filled out to register the student such as the 2024-2025 Home Education Registration Form. 

A parent has a marked advantage over any other teacher, a parent has known their child(ren) all their child (ren)'s life - knowing their needs better than anyone else could. That with also teaching your child how to walk, eat, talk - has already prepared you for educating them under a Home Ed program. Even if you are feeling a tad insecure, many curriculums have teacher guides that accompany the workbooks that your child(ren) would be working through. Teacher Guides help give tips and methods to help as well as answers to questions in the workbooks.  Our office is always willing to answer any questions you have as well.

The amount of time it takes to do a Home Ed program varies depending upon the curriculum that is chosen, what grade you are doing and how many children you are homeschooling at a time. A well rounded school day may consist of Language Arts, Math, Social and Science with some options added like Art, Physical Education, a second language, Home Economics or Bible. With one child you could be done in the morning, but with more children you might have to stagger subjects throughout the day. With a few children you can even group some subjects together like Bible or a Science curriculum. The younger grades usually need a little bit more of one-on-one time. The time you need can vary even with comprehension of a subject - if your child doesn't understand something, it might mean doing another subject in the interim (like going for a walk) and revisiting the problem later or another day. As you child(ren) get older, less one-on-one time may be needed and more independent work may be done. 

On the contrary, homeschooling will actually help socialization! There are multiple homeschooling support groups, and you can find one in your area through the Alberta Home Education Association or AHEA. Facebook is another vehicle to use to find other homeschoolers and socialization is enhanced when multiple ages are interacting with each other. Whether or not you have one child or many, interacting with different ages of children will teach grace, mercy, and humility. This also prepares children to meet the workplace with confidence, having had activities that allowed them to see the perspective of others outside of their family and age group. 

A child enrolled in Home Ed will not receive an Alberta Diploma. However, there are many options that can be pursued. Your child may enroll in Online education in grade 10 and then complete their credits and courses necessary for a diploma. Sometimes your child needs only to do a Shared Responsibility program and then graduate with those subjects that are required for admission into the university or college. It is important to know the admission requirements for any institution that your child wishes to enter. For some institutions, the SATs can be written as an admission requirement. For other institutions, a letter of intent or statement of faith is needed. A Certificate of Completion issued by our Home Ed department may also suffice for a college. Finally, writing the CAEC or the Canadian Adult Education Credential, which has now replaced the GED, can be used to qualify for post-secondary education program such as apprenticeships, college or other workplace training programs.  To find out more information please see our link CAEC in Alberta also the Home School Legal Defence Association (HSLDA) has a great link as well  and you can click on the name to have more information. You can also have a look at the information that Alberta Education has provided through the link Equivalency Diploma Options  and the link to the CAEC Overview.  You also have the option of emailing your inquiries regarding CAEC to EDC.CAEC@gov.ab.ca.  Our principal and vice principal are committed to seeing all Hope Christian School students succeed and a program can be tailored to a student's needs for graduation to enter a university or college.  

Your special needs child can be well-served by the choice of homeschooling. Here you can adjust your schedule, your curriculum, and your pace to what best suits your child. Hope Christian school's regional authority is Prairie Land School Division. At Prairie Land, our contact for help regarding a child with special needs is Ellen Vanderkolk, an excellent resource for information. We are more than eager to set up a conversation between Mrs. Vanderkolk, the principal and you. Be encouraged, as a parent of a special needs child, you already know your child better than anyone else. Also there is a special needs program supported by Alberta Education through a grant agreement with AISCA, who, in turn, has contacted Khan Communications to partner with AISCA to provide these services.  Pleaes see the link Special Needs Supports for more information.  Homeschooling is an excellent vehicle for your child's individual needs to be addressed.

How can I afford to homeschool? If you registered for Home Education before September 29th of the school year you wish to attend, you are eligible for $901.00 per child in funding from Alberta Education. This funding is available for you to use for any costs that you incur because you are homeschooling. This can include your curriculum you choose, school supplies, music lessons, internet costs used during the school year, to name a few. Please see our Funding Page for more information.  Kindergarten is also a funded program where parents have access to $450.50 in funding.

 The first decision to make is finding a school that offers Home Education. In this matter, we can assume that you choose Hope Christian School. The next step is to complete the Home Education Regulation Notification Form and email it to secretary@hopechristianschool.ca along with a valid form of Canadian identification - including a Canadian Birth Certificate, or a Permanent Resident Card or a current Canadian Passport, or a Citizenship Certificate/Card. After submitting this registration, you will be a assigned a Teacher Monitor (Facilitator) that you will have access to by text, phone or email for help with curriculum and any other questions you may have. Next, out of courtesy, please let the school that you are currently with know that you will not be returning the next school year. Finally, you can do a little research regarding curriculum by searching the links at the bottom of our Home Education page.  You can contact the office at anytime and we will be please to help you in any way we can.

Hope Christian School accepts registrations for those children who will be 5 years old by December 31st of the current school year into the kindergarten program.  To start grade 1, a child must be 6 years old by December 31st of the current school year.   A child can continue to be schooled and funded by the government until the age of 19 of the current school year.  Even if a student is turning 20 within the school year, so long as the student is only 19 at the registration date of September 29th of the current school year.

For the new school year starting in September 2024, Home Education families will have an opportunity to not only participate in field trips planned by our Home Ed staff, but each home education child will be eligible for a $25.00 reimbursement to be applied to "admission fees" for a field trip .  This reimbursement of $25.00 per child can be applied to a field trip either planned by the family or one that the school will organize.  Each family must keep in mind that Hope Christian school will not be responsible or accountable for any liability with these field trips and especially those trips that are not organized by our home ed staff.  

Please keep an eye on our page under the Home Education tab for new field trips coming up!