The freedom of learning at her own pace was the best part of being homeschooled for Hannah Stevenson, but by her teenage years she wanted something more.
As she made more friends through activities like soccer, music and volunteering, the 17-year-old Okotokian became more curious about the public school system.
“I had been thinking about it for a few years,” she said. “I really wanted to be with my friends and graduate with them and be in the fine arts program. I wanted to know what school was really like.”
It’s a smooth transition for students like Stevenson making the move from home schooling to traditional classrooms.
Stevenson’s parents Rosemary and Tim told Hannah she could go to public school at any time, but making the decision wasn’t easy.
“I was a bit worried about what other kids would think of me,” she said, adding she had developed stereotypes of what the public school system was like.
Three days before school started last fall, Stevenson decided she was ready to make the transition. On the first day at the Alberta High School of Fine Arts Stevenson felt overwhelmed surrounded by hundreds of students in the hallways, but the minute she walked into her first class her friends were already saving her a seat.
“I adjusted to the classroom atmosphere pretty quickly even though I was used to being in a room with my laptop,” she said, adding her biggest struggle was getting her locker open. “I like being involved with other students and being able to interact with them and the teachers.”
Stevenson quickly learned she wasn’t the only one guilty of stereotyping.
“When people find out I had been homeschooled they are like, ‘Oh really? You are doing so well,’” she said. “I don’t really know how to respond to it.”
As the months progressed, Stevenson knew she made the right choice and was even selected as a lead in the school musical.
Tim said he isn’t surprised his daughter adjusted so well to the public school system.
“When it came to high school she just fit right in,” he said. “I had no concerns about making the transition.”
Rosemary and Tim decided to homeschool their children when it was time for their eldest daughter to go to Kindergarten. She was born prematurely and in Ontario, where they lived, children were four when they started kindergarten. They felt she wasn’t ready.
“I felt very comfortable with the benefits it had,” Tim said of homeschooling. “You have 24-hour opportunities to teach your children. You can take them on a field trip any time you want. You have so much access to everything.”
Okotoks mom Carol Thompson, a former junior high school teacher, had a different reason or choosing to homeschool her children.
She pulled her gifted son Kase out of Grade 2 after watching his self-esteem plummet.
“He wasn’t having a great experience in the classroom,” she said. “He didn’t fit into the main stream.”
Thompson was hesitant about homeschooling due to her experience with homeschooled children while teaching junior high.
“Many students who were homeschooled were immature and had no concept of being around people,” she said.
After looking into it further, Thompson learned many parents homeschooling their children were professionals and that the children were involved in numerous community activities.
“I didn’t realize how much home school evolved,” she said.
Thompson joined the Okotoks and Calgary homeschool groups and began teaching her children at the kitchen table.
“Typically if you break it down there is 90 minutes of full instruction every day,” she said. “The rest is getting your work done and evaluating kids. Everybody thinks it’s crazy involved but it isn’t.”
Kase, 10, and Anna, 8, work on Grade 6 math
