How we approach the academic aspect of our children’s learning has an impact on their development and well-being in other dimensions of their being as well: physical, social, psychological, mental, emotional and spiritual. A number of homeschooling approaches are described on the OFTP’s webpage about teaching methods and learning philosophies. But when you’re first starting your homeschooling journey, how do you decide which of these approaches to take? Start by questioning any assumptions or preconceptions you might have about childhood education, and redefine it according to your own beliefs and in the context of your own overall parenting goals. Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help you explore the issues: What is the purpose of education? Is education about preparing children to enter the job market as adults? Giving them a foundation of culture (helping them become “educated” persons)? Developing their intelligence? Developing their talents? Overcoming their weaknesses? Drawing out their full potential? Ask yourself: What do I believe the purpose of education is? Therefore, what do my children need to learn? Is it important to conform to the predetermined set of knowledge and skills delineated by the standard school curriculum? Are there things I want my children to learn that the school curriculum doesn’t cover, or doesn’t cover to my liking? Which topics of learning are useless and which ones involve processes that help children’s development even if they don’t retain the knowledge or skill itself? What are the minimum skills and knowledge children should have acquired by the time they are adult? What’s the best way for my children to learn those things? How can I best help my children acquire that set of skills and knowledge? What is their learning style? What approach will they respond to with the most positive results in terms of overall learning (i.e. not just academic learning, but what they learn about themselves, life and relationships, through interacting with me as I parent them through my chosen approach to the academic)? Which of the described approaches aligns with all of the above? Having explored some of these questions, you can more clearly see what approaches are aligned with your own beliefs and overall parenting philosophy and goals. Choose the homeschooling approach that’s the best match for your current hopes and expectations, but remember: nothing needs to be set in stone, course corrections are a natural and normal part of the journey. Always remain open to re-evaluating as you go along, staying responsive to your child’s actual, changing needs. Last but not least… Relax. Have fun. Keep in mind that your children are learning whether or not you’re doing anything deliberate about their education. As long as you’re parenting in an engaged, loving way, even the so-called academic learning happens naturally. You can rely on that explicitly if you take an unschooling approach, or you can be more directive if that suits your parenting style better. Either way, don’t worry — you got this! © Marian Buchanan, 2010 – 2020 Marian joined the Ontario Federation of Teaching Parents a couple of decades ago, around the time PPM131 was being negotiated. Her unschooled son is all grown up now, but she remains involved in the homeschooling community through her volunteer work with the OFTP as well as running several homeschool-related websites, including the Canadian Home Based Learning Resource Page, University Admissions in Canada, and the Homeschool Media Network. She also offers a few downloadable activities for children through her Kids and Caboodles site.

When parents start considering homeschooling a child who is already in middle school or high school after years of school attendance, it’s usually because of difficulties the teen is experiencing in school. There could be any number of issues: struggling to keep up academically experiencing bullying or discrimination experiencing stress, anxiety, or depression or a medical issue that leads to frequent absenteeism. Sometimes it’s not an issue of struggling but rather a need for greater accommodation of talents: greater flexibility as they pursue a career in the arts or athletics less boredom for a bright or gifted student What families often don’t realize is that there are a number of home-based learning options besides homeschooling. Homeschooling is the only option that does not lead to an Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD). This is not necessarily a problem, as we’ll explain below. However, the OSSD factor can be an important part of deciding whether or not homeschooling would be the family’s preferred choice among their home-based learning options. This is why we’ve made it Step 1 in the process of deciding which home-based educational path to take in the teen years. Step 1: Determine if an OSSD is necessary You can, of course, decide to get an OSSD even if it’s not necessary for the teen’s plans for the future. But it can make a difference, both psychologically (stress and anxiety) and in terms of planning (flexibility to change plans), to know whether it’s a choice or a necessity. Whether the plan is to pursue post-secondary studies or go straight into the job market, often people have the misconception that a high school diploma is a necessary goal as a prerequisite step on the path to a teen’s studies, employment, or career goal. That’s not necessarily the case: There are plenty of universities and colleges that have alternative admissions policies for homeschoolers and anyone else who hasn’t obtained a high school diploma. (See https://universityadmissions.ca). Before you assume an OSSD is necessary, first find out what the policies are at the specific post-secondary institutions at which the teen would like to seek admission. Then you can prepare the prerequisites accordingly. If post-secondary academic studies are not part of the mandatory path for the chosen career, then whether or not an OSSD is necessary depends on what the career is and what its specific entry requirements are. For instance, a self-taught computer programmer will likely have no problem finding a job once they’ve reached a certain level of mastery, even if they have no diploma or formal education, not only because of the current high demand for programmers, but also because many employers in that field don’t care about official credentials, only about actual knowledge and skills, and the proof of that is in the applicant’s portfolio and job interview testing. If the chosen career is a trade, the post-secondary path to it may involve attending a trade school. Again, before you assume a high school diploma is necessary for gaining entry into the school, first find out what admissions policies the specific trade school has. Some might require an OSSD, but some might require only certain high school courses as prerequisites (for example, to prove proficiency in English) but not the whole OSSD. Some just have an admissions test and an interview. For trades, sometimes direct arrangements for apprenticing can be a way in. Entrepreneurs are subject to government rules about business and the industry they’ve chosen, but high school credentials are not part of that equation. The other thing to consider is that the immediate goal may not be about careers. Step 2: Determine what’s most important Even if an OSSD is necessary for the chosen career path, is it really necessary to obtain it by a certain date? Sometimes mental health, or the development of maturity, or some other life factor, is more important than staying on a conventional timeline for taking the path to the chosen career. Current needs and wellness As mentioned above, many families who haven’t thought of homeschooling during the elementary grades start considering home-based education during middle school or high school if their teen is suffering from an issue that’s either caused by a situation at school, exacerbated by school attendance, or prevents the teen from attending: bullying stress depression anxiety (social anxiety, performance anxiety, existential anxiety, free-floating anxiety) low self-esteem identity issues or a combination of the above. Even when the chosen home-based learning option involves getting the OSSD, it’s important to take into account any mental health needs that might make it appropriate to take it slower than the standardized pace. Life goals and readiness Another reason for re-thinking the conventional timeline for career preparation is that the career may not yet be chosen and more time may be needed to explore and discover what that choice might eventually be. Also, a teen is not just preparing for work, they’re preparing for life as an independent adult. From a practical point of view, adults need to know how to cook for themselves, budget their income, pay their bills, file their tax returns, register to vote, etc. Ideally, a newly independent adult should also have a certain degree of social and emotional maturity: knowing how to troubleshoot problems, negotiate agreements, resolve conflicts, navigate relationships in a healthy way, etc. So even if you’ve determined that the OSSD should be part of the plan, the focus of a teen’s education needs to be broader than just studying for a diploma. Paper credentials cannot replace resourcefulness, resilience, and know-how. The big picture The purpose of determining what’s important (step 2), is to guide the planning of what needs to be done (step 3). Before taking any practical steps towards a change in the teen’s educational path, take time to look at the whole person and the whole picture of where they are and where they want to go, as well as the very notion of education. The whole concept of dividing knowledge and skills into

Recently, we’ve been getting a lot of enquiries about how to homeschool a preschool child. It makes me wonder if there’s been a rise in social pressures that make parents think that their own natural parenting is somehow inadequate, that they have to ‘get down to business’ as soon as possible, and that what that looks like is formal academic education even if they’re opting out of school attendance. The truth is, preschoolers are already learning abundantly, including in proto-academic ways, as long as they’re not being grossly neglected. In other words, as long as they’re receiving reasonably attentive parenting or care, children, by their very nature, can’t help but learn just from living and growing. Switching from natural learning to academic instruction is not necessarily a good idea at this age. Especially when they’re as young as age 3 or 4, the best way for kids to learn is through playing, including play that’s self-initiated. It appears that formal instruction can be detrimental to the way a child’s brain develops, with any short-term gains being offset by long-term negative effects. So when parents ask, “How do I homeschool my 3 year old?” here’s what I tell them: Have you ever read any books to your child, or sung the alphabet song, or counted out loud for them? If so, you’ve already been homeschooling in age-appropriate ways all this time. If not, it’s time to be more engaged, responsive, and facilitative in your parenting – but that doesn’t necessarily mean following a curriculum. Curricula are designed on the basis of statistical averages of cognitive development. But your child is not a statistical data point, they’re a whole, multidimensional human being. And the range of what’s “normal” (let alone what’s inclusive) is very broad. Think of how differently children develop in terms of what age they are when they learn to walk. Some walk at 9 months, others not until they’re a year and a half. As a parent, you encourage your child’s attempts to take their first steps, but you don’t push it, or follow a lesson plan to make it happen. You just keep on parenting in your loving, encouraging way, and eventually – on their own timetable – each non-disabled child gets the hang of it and starts walking. So instead of following a curriculum, standardized for a non-existent, statistically-defined “average” child of that age, homeschooling in age-appropriate ways means treating your child like the unique individual that they are. It means being attentive to what your own unique child is interested in and eager to know and do, and interacting with them responsively in a way that answers their questions, feeds and builds on their curiosity, helps them discover fun and interesting things about the world, and helps them develop the skills they’re trying out. That doesn’t mean devoting all your time to interacting with your child. Just as important as connection and interaction, solitary play and exploration have a big role to play in a child’s healthy, natural development. If you need more guidance than just your own parenting instincts, here are a few preschool resources for you to peruse – some of them are more formal than I would recommend, but I’ve included them in case that’s the way you choose to go in spite of the cautionary information given. Blossom & Root Early Yearshttps://blossomandroot.com/curriculum/ No Time For Flash Cardshttps://www.notimeforflashcards.com/ Busy Toddlerhttps://busytoddler.com/ Chirp magazinehttps://shop.owlkids.com/products/chirp-magazine Ambleside Onlinehttp://amblesideonline.org/00.shtml Letter of the Weekhttp://www.letteroftheweek.com/ Confessions of a Homeschoolerhttp://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/tag/teeny-tiny-tot-school Joyful Learning (Christian)http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/joyful-learning CHALK Preschool Onlinehttps://chalkpreschoolonline.com/ PreKindershttps://www.prekinders.com/ Before Five in a Rowhttps://fiveinarow.com/before-five-in-a-row/ If you’re curious about the Ontario curriculum guidelines as well, you can find them here:http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/curricul/curricul.html (includes the Kindergarten curriculum)http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/childcare/pedagogy.html It’s natural and understandable that, as a parent, you don’t want to hold your child back, you want to give them every advantage, you want to go above and beyond. But the best way to do that is just to be there in your child’s life, as their loving, supportive parent, interacting responsively without being overly directive or controlling; enjoying their company when you’re doing things together, but without being overstimulating; showing them your affection freely without suffocating them with your attention. If you’re looking into homeschooling at this early stage of your child’s life, that usually means that you’re already a dedicated parent who is lovingly engaged with their child. Trust in that, in nature, and in your child’s innate instinct, urge, and ability to learn. You don’t have to push the river for it to flow. © Marian Buchanan, 2019 Marian joined the Ontario Federation of Teaching Parents a couple of decades ago, around the time PPM131 was being negotiated. Her unschooled son is all grown up now, but she remains involved in the homeschooling community through her volunteer work with the OFTP as well as running several homeschool-related websites, including the Canadian Home Based Learning Resource Page, University Admissions in Canada, and the Homeschool Media Network. She also offers a few downloadable activities for children through her Kids and Caboodles site.

Information valid for Ontario at the time of publication – October 2018 Short answer: no. Longer answer: there are good reasons to learn French (some to do with social advantages, others to do with brain development), and certain things to be aware of when a child or youth enters the school system after a time of homeschooling. In a recent email enquiry, a young teen who was about to homeschool grade 8 asked if French was a mandatory homeschool subject for getting accepted into high school when she returns to the school system for grade 9 and beyond. I told her homeschoolers don’t have to follow the Ontario curriculum, so many don’t study French, yet they still get accepted into high school if they decide to enter the system after homeschooling. The reason is that attending public school is a child’s right under the Education Act (the flip side of education being mandatory), so the school has to accept any student who is a Canadian citizen (or permanent resident) and who lives in the school’s assigned area. As far as I know, getting placed in the requested grade is not usually a problem for grade 9, when prior OSSD credits haven’t yet come into the picture, it’s usually only in grade 10 and above that the school might require more proof of grade level, and place a youth in whichever grade corresponds to their overall level of learning rather than their age. Also as far as I know, being behind in one subject doesn’t necessarily jeopardize being accepted at grade level for the rest of the courses. I didn’t go into those details with the teen who was asking about French requirements, but I did reassure her that the OSSD only requires one credit for French, and since she’d already taken it up to grade 7 and would presumably be taking it in grade 9 and beyond, she should be able to get that one credit fairly easily. In seeking confirmation about all this on the higheredforhomelearners yahoogroup, I was given the following additional information and thoughts: Know how to frame your eligibility: “It is always good to ask what the requirements would be [if, instead of a homeschooler, it was] a family moving in from another part of the world. Would they let the student in? I think that would answer your question. If there is push-back just ask them what they would do in [that] situation.” The French credit is not as mandatory for the OSSD as you think: “Cultural credits are an option [as an alternative to French]. French is not required to graduate (just a strongly pushed agenda). Native Studies is an option. When my boys were briefly in high school, French Canadian culture was also an option. We refused to enrol them in French and after a bit of push back the guidance office gave us alternatives.” Shortly after replying to this teen, I received another enquiry about teaching French as a homeschooler. This time it was about whether doing French immersion at home would qualify as meeting the minimum number of hours required for being accepted specifically into the Academic section of grade 9 French. The listed requirement is 600 hours of instruction by the end of grade 8. In helping this parent with this more specific question, I discovered the following, from page 16 of the French curriculum guidelines: (http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/secondary/fsl912curr2014.pdf) “Generally, the program a student selects at the secondary school level is determined by the total number of hours of French instruction accumulated by the end of Grade 8 (a minimum of 600 for Core French, a minimum of 1260 for Extended French, and a minimum of 3800 for French Immersion). The principal has the right to permit individual students to enrol in a course for which they may not have the entrance requirements if they have achieved the necessary language competence through other means.” [emphasis added] The table of prerequisites is on page 17, but the last sentence above (and the use of the phrase “or equivalent”) kind of makes them irrelevant. Also (as you can see if you look at the table in the document), there are no prerequisites for the Open courses, only the Academic and Applied. So unless you’re attached to the Academic or Applied option, you could always just opt for the Open courses. So… MUST you homeschool French? No – especially if you’re homeschooling throughout high school. Do you nevertheless have to homeschool French IF you want to go into the school system at the high school level? Not really – it depends on what you want. Open courses have no prerequisites. But should you anyway? Here are some thoughts on that: French is one of Canada’s official languages. If you want to work in certain sections of the Canadian government, you’ll need to be bilingual. Many non-governmental jobs may also require it. Here’s how one parent put it: “Growing up in rural Ontario, I saw no need for French so I didn’t take it in high school. I ended up getting a job with a large Company with manufacturing facilities across the eastern part of the country including Quebec. So I ended up going on business trips to Quebec and kicking myself for not having learned French! As a home schooler, I thoroughly support parental choice in the education of their children with lots of input from the children. However, sometimes a story to help influence those choices is in order to encourage studying things that may be useful in later life, unforeseen at the time.” Being bilingual is a good ability to have for social reasons, too: being able to communicate with a broader range of people, and exposure to another culture, are good ways to broaden one’s horizons. Just as importantly, the fact of living bilingually, and the language learning process itself, are also helpful for developing cognitive abilities more generally. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/10126883/Why-learn-a-foreign-language-Benefits-of-bilingualism.html So, in case you do want to help your child learn

Information valid for Ontario at the time of publication – August 2019 It’s not uncommon for Ontario parents who are considering homeschooling to ask us the question: “Can we homeschool part-time?” But in order to provide the relevant information, first we need to know whether it’s about homeschooling for a portion of the day (or for certain days of the week) or homeschooling for part of the year. These are two different scenarios with two separate answers. Homeschooling for part of the day or part of the week For some parents, what they’re wondering is whether their child can do just half-days at school instead of attending full-time. Maybe their child just gets too overwhelmed and worn out when they’re at school all day. The parents may be thinking in terms of school attendance as the default, but just want to reduce the strain of long hours, and use homeschooling as a supplement. Or maybe their child is struggling in school and they want to spend more time boosting their child’s learning than they could through just after-schooling or helping with homework. They may still be thinking in terms of school attendance as the default, with homeschooling as a supplement that’s more remedial. For other parents, the question is about whether their homelearning teen can take a few courses at the local high school without having to be enrolled full-time. For example, there might be a need for a specific course as a pre-requisite for applying to a specific university, even if the OSSD itself is not an admissions requirement at that institution. Families in this situation often consider themselves to be basically homeschooling, with the partial school attendance just a supplement to cover a specific need. From the school’s point of view, both of the above scenarios would be considered part-time attendance, which is allowed by the provincial government (and the school gets partial funding accordingly), BUT it’s at the discretion of the principal whether or not to allow it. We have more details on our page on Part-Time Enrolment in Ontario Schools. Now let’s look at the other scenario: Homeschooling for part of the year Sometimes, the question, “Can we homeschool part-time?” is asked by parents wondering how it would work if their school-attending child needs to be away from school for a big chunk of time (a few weeks or a few months) right in the middle of the school year. They figure they would have to homeschool during the absence from school, they’re just not sure if that’s allowed or whether they have to choose “all or nothing” – full-time school or full-time homeschooling – for the whole school year. For one family, who had recently immigrated to Canada from a very hot and dry climate, it was a matter of wanting to keep their 6-year-old daughter at home during the winter months, as her body had not yet adjusted and she was therefore finding it unbearably painful and stressful to be outside in the icy wind and sub-zero temperatures she had to brave to get to and from school every day. But for most families asking this version of the question, it’s about their plans to be away from their Ontario home for an extended period of time each year, either travelling or residing elsewhere for part of the year. They’re thinking in terms of school attendance as the default, and the homeschooling would just be “part of the time” – not as a supplement, but more as a temporary replacement – for when the children can’t go to their usual school. Putting aside, for the moment, the question, “What’s keeping you from just switching to full-time homeschooling?” let me answer the question about what’s legally and practically feasible. By law, your child has the right to attend the public school that is assigned to the neighbourhood where you and your child reside (https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90e02#BK41), so while you’re residing there, the school has to allow your child to attend (unless he/she is expelled for disciplinary reasons). When your permanent residence is in the school’s district but your child is temporarily not physically there (for instance, you’re travelling as a family, or living elsewhere for part of the year), obviously attendance is not possible, so you have to request the school’s permission for your child to be temporarily excused from attendance under Subsection 23(3) of Regulation 298 (Operation of Schools – General), which allows a principal to excuse a pupil from attendance, when parents request it, for reasons not explicitly covered by the Education Act or the rest of the regulations: “(3) A pupil may be excused by the principal from attendance at school temporarily at any time at the written request of a parent of the pupil” https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/900298#BK20 While it’s up to the principal to allow the absence or not, there are conditions outlined in the Enrolment Register Instructions that principals must follow, including requiring that the parent’s request be in writing and specify the exact time frame of the absence (i.e. it can’t be open-ended): “The parent or guardian of the pupil […] must submit a letter to the principal, requesting that the pupil be excused for a specified time (e.g., a vacation or family obligation) – that is the time frame must be explicitly stated and cannot be indefinite or until further notice 14. […] 14 The pupil can be absent for more than 15 consecutive school days if they provide the appropriate supporting documentation with the time frame of their absence explicitly stated.” Also, in order for the school to still get their funding for the absent pupil, they have to provide the program of study that the child should use during the absence, so as to keep pace with the rest of the class and be in sync with that when they return: “For the pupil to remain on the register the school must provide a program of study 15 for the pupil. Appropriate supporting documentation (i.e. the letter) and the