Waht are the options for homeschooling in B.C.?

[majazama]

I live in a small town and I know of a homeschooling group called homelinks and an online group called self-design, but are these the only ones available for kids in B.C. (that give some funding)?? I want to be signed up with something that will allow us to pay for lessons and classes. I really don't have the money to pay for those things out of my pocket. I am really drawn to unschooling, but the self-design which is really close to unschooling (I think), makes you do a weekly update on your learning. I don't know if I have the time for that. The homelinks is all filled up in my area as well, so that isn't going to happen.

How do you homeschool in B.C.??

[moominmamma]

Well, in BC you totally have the option to homeschool without enrolling anywhere, without any reporting or supervision or requirements of any sort. However, if you want financial support, you won't get it without strings attached. "Distributed Learning" is the term used to describe programs offered by either independent schools, public schools or public school districts which offer financial and other support to home-based learners in exchange for reporting and supervision.

We are SelfDesigners. For people who want to unschool and want robust and flexible financial support, SelfDesign seems to be the best program out there. For more school-at-home oriented folks, there are many others. HomeLinks and Traditional Learning Academy are a couple of the more popular ones on the mainland. On the Island NIDES and SIDES are popular. Some programs offer some bricks-and-mortar classroom experience, typically a half-day a week. SelfDesign is an entirely virtual DL program at the K-9 level.

It takes me about 45 minutes to write a weekly report for SelfDesign for each child. There are 34 reporting weeks. That's 25.5 hours. For that we get $1100, so it works out to a little over $40 an hour for my time. Which I figure isn't bad pay for time I squeeze out of my late evenings after the kids are in bed. By February and March each year I find the reporting a pain in its regularity and repetitiveness, but I get through that and overall I find it a worthwhile process -- not just for the money, but because it creates a lovely journal of my kids' natural learning and encourages me to be more aware of and thoughtful about what is engaging them. I finished reporting a week or so ago and feel quite satisfied with how it all went this year. My reports are just about what the kids enjoyed and felt proud of during the week. They don't have sections entitled "Math," "Science" and "Literacy." The sections of my reports have titles like "Our Outdoors Day," "Music practicing struggles," "Meeting a Wolf!" and "Ginger Crinkle Cookies."

Hope that helps.

Miranda

[moss]

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[moss]

oh, there's a list too: http://www.flora.org/homeschool-ca/bc/options.html

[majazama]

thank-you ladies for the info. I think selfdesign will be the route we will go. Oh, and BTW, Miranda, I think I know who you are.. not to sound too stalkerish. I was hoping you'd reply. I'm in Kaslo.