Dear AHEA Supporter,

Today, May 5th, has been designated a special day by some, where people can show their support in their local communities, food banks, churches, non-profits, and businesses, who will be suffering due to the effects of Covid-19 on our lives.

AHEA is a non-profit organization and would love to have your support! 2020 is sure to be a challenging year for us as we have faced the loss of our annual convention, which has been a yearly event for over 35 years. Losing this will affect our ability to function over the next year, and we will be relying on donations as never before.

The work of your AHEA volunteer Board in defending and promoting home education interests to government and educating the public is a year-round job, and we work hard for you throughout. We depend on a small group of contractors to provide services that are irreplaceable, as well as the costs involved in running a society.

Would you please consider making a donation at https://www.aheaonline.com/donate? We exist to serve the needs of our members and the home education community, and cannot do it without your support. However, we know that this situation has left many with the loss of income, and other uncertainties, and only wish you to do what you can, if you can. Thank you, in advance, for considering AHEA in your giving this year.

Your AHEA Board

I'm probably one of the least likely ones to be writing about this topic, but when my husband said someone was asking if I'd be interested in doing so, I thought that maybe it might be something God would have me do.

Ironically, just when I started writing, the program I was using decided I'd done enough, and shut down on me. Maybe I'm not supposed to be doing it, but at the same time, I didn't want to give up that easily.

I'd first like to give some background as to why I lack confidence as to whether I'm able to give my children what they need. I was home educated myself, but never felt that what I received was very thorough. And, yes, partly that was my own fault, in that I was pretty "scatter-brained", and had a hard time focusing on my lessons…. I'd far rather be outside building a treehouse, or something like that. Nonetheless, beyond getting the basics of reading, writing (could I even do that?), and arithmetic, I always said my science consisted of my dad pointing out the north star and the big dipper; and my "social studies" was lived out in that we traveled all over the place. I knew very little history, and, well, just always felt I was lacking in many ways.

Fast forward 30+ years, I'm now the mother of 11 children, half of whom are adults, and all of whom we've homeschooled from the start. I've believed from the first child on, that God gave me these children, knowing my weaknesses and shortcomings, yet He still chose to give them to me, along with the responsibility to raise and educate them.

Over my fifteen years as a home educating father I've come to see how home education is a great method for achieving key education goals. This list of goals comes from Colorado Home Education leader, Kevin Swanson in his book Upgrade: The 10 Secrets to the Best Education of Your Child. I will briefly list them and share quick personal examples of how home education has helped my family work towards achieving these goals. You will see how my wife and I, having been educated in public and private school respectively, strongly believe home education method is superior to the school model in achieving these goals.

Welcome to AHEA, the Alberta Home Education Association. We are here to help those of you who are new to teaching your children at home on account of the restrictions our province has made related to the COVID-19 virus. We've been around since 1986 promoting home education, defending freedoms to do so, and providing various resources, such as an annual convention, a website, a Facebook page and a magazine called Home Matters.

I realize many of you are newly experiencing a full time endeavor of teaching your children at home. Most of you in this situation are in the unenvious position of bringing school home. Hopefully you will see from this article, as well as various helpful links on our site, that there is another excellent option, if not for the remainder of this school year, than for the upcoming fall: home education.

Back in the fall of 2009 I shared an article with AHEA members. I've included the start of it below. It should give you an initial feel for what we mean by the distinction between home education and bringing school home.

"Summer has come and gone, and now it's time for most of use to get into the groove of more formal education. Mind you if your family is like ours, learning did not stop during the summer, whether it was history and geology discovered on a family vacation, some math or music studies that continued part way into the summer months, or skills learned gardening and running lemonade stands. I recall from a couple of years ago at this time where our local public school had its large sign announcing: 'Welcome back to learning.' My eldest daughter, 8 at the time, remarked on that being a silly message. She figures that learning takes place whether or not formal school is in session. I concur."

Fast forward eleven years, and that daughter and my second have graduated and we are still home educating our five other kids ages 7 to 17. What is it about home education, teaching our kids at home, that draws my family and a growing number of other families to persist in this practice year after year? And why is it that a number of families who try to bring school home, rather than try out home educating, tend to send their kids back to school? In short, home education, although really tough at times, is a joy, while trying to replicate school at home is too tall an order for most folks to do over the long haul. Rather than further tackle these questions in this article, I will point you to several pages on our site that will get you to strongly question that the school model is the only or preferred method of providing learning to our children when they are at home.

Here is the key landing page to start with About Home Education.

From there I'd head to the New to Home Education section.

If you wish to dig deeper into what I mean by home education, head here: Defining Home Education.

To find out more how home education differs from simply bringing school home, read the information on the Home Education in Alberta Compared to Home-Based School Programs page.

Does home education get tougher in the high school years? Sure, but those of us who do it really think it's worth it. Check out our High School page. And if your children are approaching graduation, check out our Post Secondary and Apprentice and Mentoring pages.

If the above information convinces you to move from bringing school home to home education you will need to notify of your intent to home educate. For more freedom and a best fit for your family we suggest doing it with a private school. Check out this page for more details.

In closing, yes, learning doesn't just happen from September to June in a public school building. It can also happen at home and be a joyful family endeavor. Please join me and thousands of other Alberta families by embarking on home education. As well, feel free to reach out to us with particular questions.

Ted Tederoff

AHEA President

In light of the March 12, 2020 recommendations made by the Chief Medical Officer of Health for the Government of Alberta, AHEA has no choice but to follow caution and cancel our March 26-28, 2020 Convention at the Westerner in Red Deer, Alberta. We applaud the willingness of so many to encourage the Convention's continuation, but we care deeply about the well-being of our attendees and are following Provincial guidelines in order to make their safety our first priority. We are currently considering options to provide value to those who have already purchased admission to our Convention and will update everyone within the coming days. Those involved with putting on the Convention will be contacted directly by a Convention team member.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we all navigate this unexpected and unfortunate situation.

The AHEA Board