New resource for parents considering homeschooling

BARRHEAD – Ashley Hove knows there are many parents in the Barrhead area just like her — warry of sending her children back to school come September, which is why she decided to create the Barrhead and Area Homeschool Network.

The network is a Facebook page where parents can go to find information about homeschooling.

Two weeks ago Premier Jason Kenney and Education Minister Adriana LaGrange announced that schools will reopen as “close to normal” in-person education.

In mid-March, the province ordered that schools close their doors, to protect students from the coronavirus and prevent its spread. In the absence of traditional school, teachers led students and by default parents, through a revised online curriculum.

Since that time Hove, the mother of three young children, the oldest Logan, 6, will be entering Grade 1. Her other children are one and three years old.
“I started thinking about homeschooling because there are just so many unknowns and it started to freak me out a bit,” she said.

Hove added she wasn’t necessarily concerned about the virus itself but the quality of education, given the restrictions school division and schools will need to adhere to.

The problem, not being a professional educator, she didn’t know where to start so she began researching what resources were available to parents that choose to homeschool.

A process that sped-up, because she and Logan were having difficulties adhering to the teacher-directed learning program through Barrhead Elementary School.

“I was figuratively pulling out my hair every day trying to get [Logan] to do the work, so that is when I really started thinking that doing something on our own might be something we should consider as a family,” Hove said.

“I also realized that if I didn’t have those answers, there would be many others who are contemplating the same thing,” she said. “So that is when I decided to start a Facebook page. It is just a place where parents can go to and ask questions, share their experiences and hopefully information.”
Because Hove is relatively new to education and homeschooling she also has enlisted the help of the Alberta Homeschooling Association who is helping oversee the page.

So far the reception to the page has been nothing but positive, she said.

The page less than a week ago, (the Town and Country This Week, spoke to Hove July 18) and since that time, the network has garnered more than 100 members.

Hove noted close to half of those members joined within the first hour.

That being said, throughout the whole process she has tried to keep an open mind and if after a few weeks or months, what is happening in her son’s school, Barrhead Elementary, she will reevaluate what is best for him.

Until then Hove will continue her preparations for homeschooling, fueled in large part she suspects, by the information she learns from other members of the network.

“It is just nice to see that there are so many parents interested in taking an active part in their children’s education and whether or not they decide to homeschool, that there is this one platform where we can all come to and share information.”

For those interested, in homeschooling their children, regardless of their location, are invited to join, as it is a public group.

Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com

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