Homeschooling in Canada – Jonessa Brown

Hi there! My name is Jonessa, and I’m a homeschooling mom to a logical, fun-loving 7-year-old boy, and a fiery, artistic 4-year-old girl. We began this journey three years ago when it was time for my son to enter kindergarten. At the time, I just wasn’t ready to have him gone from me for so many hours of each day. We initially registered with the local Christian school, but after talking to some friends who homeschooled their children, I began researching homeschooling in earnest, and in the end, we decided to give it a try. After all, it was just kindergarten, right? Surely I couldn’t mess that up! And here we are, three years later, and we are loving it! The children are flourishing and learning so much, and we feel very confident now that this is the right choice for us.

Here in BC, there are two options for home education: you can register with either an online school or a brick-and-mortar school, or you can enroll with an online school. As a registered homeschooler, you are basically saying to the Ministry of Education, “I’m taking care of my child’s education,” and they give you the freedom to do so as you wish. The other option, enrolment with an online school, is a form of distance education. A support teacher helps you put together a learning plan for the year to ensure that you will be meeting the learning outcomes prescribed by the Ministry; you also check in with your support teacher on a regular basis throughout the year. You can still use any curriculum you wish as long as it ticks the right boxes. One of the big differences between registering and enrolling is funding! As a registered homeschooler, you can claim expenses up to $100-150 per year; enrolled students can claim approximately $1,000 per year.

Since we had already registered with the Christian school as part of the admission process, we stayed registered there and have been ever since! The Christian school has a homeschool coordinator who acts as a liaison between us and the school, and, as a homeschool mom of many years herself, she has been a wonderful resource as I have pieced together what our homeschool will look like. The school has a lending library with many curriculum resources, and we have access to several school functions such as sports, music, and school picture day. We are also members of a wonderful homeschool group which organizes group activities such as gymnastics, soccer, swimming lessons, field trips, and art classes, and also provides a support network for homeschooling families through monthly meetings.

During all my research in the beginning, I was continually drawn to Charlotte Mason’s philosophies toward education. Her tenets of viewing the child as a born person, using living books rather than dry textbooks, and spending quality time outside observing nature drew me in. She described just what I wanted to offer my children: a gentle, but rich, education. We spend about 2-3 hours per day doing lessons, which we do in the morning. Afternoons are reserved for play, and any errands or appointments. We study core subjects like math and language arts every day, and throughout the week I “spread the feast” of enrichment subjects. For example, this term we are studying Beethoven, Van Gogh, ancient Rome, and Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. And, of course, we read many fantastic books together! We try to spend time outside in unstructured play every day, and on Fridays we do a focused nature study and journal our findings. In addition to school lessons, my son does piano lessons and parkour, and my daughter is starting ballet.

As on all journeys, we have good days and hard days. Sometimes my son just doesn’t want to put the LEGOs down and do his lessons; other times he bursts into tears because he doesn’t want the lesson to end! Even on the hard days, though, I am grateful for this precious time that I have with my children, watching their eyes open to the world around them.

Jonessa lives in Kamloops with her husband and two young children. Although she maintains her credentials as a Veterinary Technologist, she is currently at home full-time enjoying a new career as homeschooling mom! Her love of animals is met through her dog, two cats, horse, and small flock of backyard chickens. She is a Jesus follower, nature lover, admitted bibliophile, and constant researcher.