What to Include in Your Homeschool Education Program Plan
In some of our prospective worlds, registration for homeschooling is a choice.
Some States/Provinces are super hands off, don't provide funding, and leave you in total charge of getting them an education.
Some give you no option, and require you to notify them directly of your plan to homeschool, or register with a school, or a homeschool board. (Alberta fits this category.)
For those of us who live in those areas where the government requires proof of education in some way, an official document like an EPP is also required if you want to receive funding.
What is an EPP?
An EPP is just the shortened way of saying an "Education Program Plan". And it is perhaps your most important legal document, when you homeschool your child.
Why are they necessary?
Most school boards will not accept students who don’t have a completed, and IN DEPTH, Education Program Plan for their school year.
While EPP’s are flexible and can be changed throughout the year, it is important to include as many details as possible, when sending them in, otherwise, you will hear back from your board, asking for more information from you and what you plan to do that school year.
The concept and ideas you read here will be fairy consistent with what the kind of information you will need to share with any state or province that requires registration for homeschooling.
So even if you don't live in Alberta like we do, you will likely still get some value out of this post.
As always, do your own research to be clear on what is required of you. Some may require it. Some may not. And for those that do, they may not call it an "EPP" but have another name.
Ok moving on to the next step that you are probably wondering about the most!
How to create your EPP!
I look at my EPP as a way to let my schoolboard know, what my plans are for the year, and what I want my child learning by the end of the year.
Some important topics to include on your Education Program Plan would be:
Your four core sujects
Language Arts, Social Studies, Math, and Science, and any others you will be pursuing with your child.
Your goals for the year
Keep your goals achievable! And mention how you will want to fulfil them.
Your ideas for instructional methods
How do you plan to teach your children? Books? Hands on Experience? Nature? Games? Online?
Resources you will use
What will you be using to help your child learn? Online Classes? Libraries? A tutor?
Your preferred method of evaluation
It does not have to be just one. But how will you be recording your child’s progress as they go through the school year?
This is an important step, to prove that your child has been learning the strategy you have created in your Education Program Plan.
Guidelines to follow
It is vital to ensure that your plan for the school year, fulfills the Basic Schedule For Learning Outcomes in your province or state. I am located in Alberta, Canada, so I have included the Alberta reference link, but a quick google search should bring up your own state or provinces requirements for home education.
I will also include a link to the Alberta Home Education Handbook for further details on what is expected in your child’s education.
There are multiple instructional options in the homeschooling world and it is important that you are open and honest about which plan you will be using, when it comes to your child. A tutor? Unschooling? Traditional Homeschool? Online Subscriptions?
Whatever your choice, don’t hesitate to include this in your Education Program Plan.
As long as your student is following the basic schedule of learning outcomes, how you personally choose to teach your child, will not matter.
(I will add, that in Alberta, there is always the option to choose NOT to be supervised by a school board at all. This option is non-funded, but some parents prefer this option. There will be some states or provinces where registration is not required / required for funding /or required period.)
Ok so how do you take all this information, and put together a cohesive document that will pass in the eyes of your province/state's government?
My son will be going into grade two this year, and below I have included my own personal EPP, that I created for him. This should give you a solid template when it comes to putting together one for your child! Feel free to copy and paste and change out the details to fit your own goals and outcomes!
To begin you will want to fill in your own information. I left my personal information empty for obvious reasons.
My EPP
The above link is a sample of my Education Program Plan for my son, who is going into grade two. Obviously, for your child’s homeschool plan, some of these ideas and notes may need to be changed.
I recommend ordering whatever curriculum you will be going with and taking a peek inside before you fill out your EPP. Most curriculums will have a directory of the student’s goals for the year. You can take ideas from these goals and weave them into your own homeschool outcomes. If your curriculum does not have one of these directories, simply looking through your new homeschool books should give you an idea of what your child will need to know by the years end.
An EPP is a living document that can change throughout the year. My recommendation would be, regardless of your teaching style, to be honest in your EPP and reasonable. If you think your child might not be able to reach your goals, maybe lessen them or get rid of them entirely.
Conclusion
While it all sound confusing and can be very overwhelming, I find a simple way to look at it is this:
What do I want my child to know by the end of this school year?
Take the time to look through his curriculum, pray, talk with your spouse, and come up with your statement, and an EPP that reflects those things.
Remember, there is really no right or wrong way to do these. Every parent will have their own goals for their child.
And at the end of the day, even though this document is required by the school board and government, I think you will find that it will also help you as parents clearly define a goal in front of you for your child each school year.
The emotional health of you and your child is the most important consideration when it comes to homeschooling.
You want a plan, that makes you both happy. When creating your goals for the year, keep your child in mind. Don’t force them to learn concepts they just aren’t ready for, just so you can stay on pace, or not fall behind.
The ability to homeschool is a gift, and to spend time with your child as their teacher, is a blessing. Never take this for granted and ruin your parent/child relationship by being a dictator when it comes to schooling!
Since I have chosen to go with WISDOM Homeschooling, I will include a link to their EPP.
If you are in Canada, specifically Alberta, which Homeschool board are you choosing and why? I know there are so many good ones, but so many I haven’t heard about or researched either! I’d love to hear feedback on this, as I’m open to trying out other boards as well.
Plus I’d love to hear what you other homeschool moms include in your Education Program Plans. I’m a new homeschool parent myself and this is actually my first-year homeschooling through a school board, so I’m sure I have lots to learn as well! I would appreciate any tips you pro’s out there may have!
Let’s support each other in our homeschool goals. Let me know what works and doesn’t work for you in the comments!
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