THUNDER BAY - Parents who may be uncomfortable sending their child back to school in September might have other options, with one educator in the city looking to provide homeschooling to students.
Adora Wong, a violinist with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra and former music teacher in New Brunswick, is planning to develop a homeschooling model for five students this September.
“I’m not a parent but I do have an education background and something I would like to offer parents who do want to go back to work but are torn between sending their kids back to school full time or homeschooling them themselves,” she said. “So it’s kind of an in-between model.”
The model would see no more than five students receiving instruction five days a week between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., with the possibility of extending the day for additional music lessons.
The homeschooling would be for students between Kindergarten and Grade 3 and follow the current Ontario curriculum, but Wong added that she would like to include enriched learning experiences as well, such as cooking.
“I also recognize a school day with five kids is going to look a lot different than a school day for 25 kids,” Wong said.
“The time to complete the work necessary is usually a lot less, so I have a lot of other skills planned in. I would be teaching French, basic life skills like cooking and telling time. Even though we are doing a full day, it’s actually going to be a lot more enrichment than a regular school.”
The five students would remain the same and there would be a weekly fee charged.
“I am going to be charging slightly higher than day care fees around here,” Wong said.
“I took a look at what those numbers are and it looks like now it will be around $200 a week for parents. I am also really interested in making this more affordable and more accessible, but that being said, I still have to include the cost of what this is worth.”
Wong has a minor in education from McGill University and spent the last three years teaching music in New Brunswick.
She said she wants to be an educator and after seeing parents expressing concerns about the province’s return to school plan in September, which would see full classrooms in elementary schools, she wanted to do something to help.
“I saw parents were getting more stressed and as someone who doesn’t have kids yet, I wanted to know how I could help them,” she said.
“When I saw the school boards were opening again and the kind of attention it was getting, I wanted to step in. I want to be an educator someday but this seemed like a perfect opportunity to step in and offer services where I can, even if it’s only five kids.”
Wong said she has seen parents express interest in homeschooling since the pandemic began and she is hopeful other educators will step up and offer these services to parents who are not able to homeschool themselves.
Throughout the next month Wong will be working on developing her model and acquiring a space for the homeschool.
According to the province’s Child Care and Early Years Act of 2014, no licensing is required for groups of fewer than five kids, as long as the kids are all older than four-years-old.
