The Montreal Homelearners and Centre Communidée aim to help homeschoolers network and help each other in a variety of ways.  At this time we are looking to compile a collection of educational plans which have been approved by a school board in the Montreal area.  We will anonymize and share these with homeschoolers who want some guidance in creating their own educational plan, whether for their school board or for themselves.  Please include the name of your school board and the year submitted, and send them to Sonya.  I promise to keep all of your personal information private.

The Dollard Centre for the Arts offers great courses for home learners. The full list can be found at www.dollardartcentre.com.
Spring  Session 2013 – Courses start April 10.
Let’s Be Artists                5 to 12 years                   Wednesday 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Computer Animation      11 to 15 years                  Wednesday 4:30 to 6 p.m.
Creating with Clay      5  to 12 years                  Thursday 4:30 to 6 p.m.
Drawing for Animation  12 to 17 years                   Saturday 1:30 to 3 p.m.
Film Animation          8 yrs. and up                   Saturday 9:30 and 11:30 a.m.
Fashion Design          12 to 17 years                  Saturday 10:15 to 11:45 a.m.
Also piano, guitar and singing.

McGill’s School of Continuing Education is hosting a workshop about homeschooling, Teaching Outside the School: Solutions on How to Homeschool Your Child…

Dear members of the Montreal Homelearners,

I am seeking participants to take part in a short interview regarding your experiences as parents who homeschool. I am currently finishing my BA in psychology at Concordia and am enrolled in a qualitative research course. As part of this course, four of us are conducting research on the experience of being a parent who homeschools. We feel that there is limited understanding among the general public about the environment of homeschooling as well as parent’s motivation to be a part of that environment. Although the information collected will go no further than our class presentation, we feel it is an important subject about which to gain knowledge.

We will stop by Centre Communidée with some flyers on Friday March 22. If you are interested in taking part in a twenty minute interview at a place and time of your convenience, please contact me at

miamacsween@gmail.com

Thank you very much for your interest.

Sincerely,

Mia MacSween

Hello everyone,

I am a university student who has been involved at Centre Communidée since September volunteering and leading the Social Issues class.  I am doing a project for one of my courses on homeschooling in Montreal and am looking for parents who are willing to be interviewed for the project.

It would involve me interviewing you for about one hour about your decision to home-school, your philosophy of education, your involvement in Centre Communidée, and your child(ren)’s participation in the centre, as well as collecting some basic demographic information about you and your family.  The interview would be semi-structured, with me asking a series of questions and you responding, if you feel comfortable, to the extent you desire.  It will be conducted in English.

We can set up an interview at Centre Communidée or in another place that you feel comfortable.  The information from the interview will be used in my coursework as well as potentially presented for conferences or workshops.  You will remain anonymous in any written or presented information.  I also hope that the information I collect can be of use to Centre Communidée in seeing how it fits into the broader homeschooling movement, which I will also be looking at in my research.

If you are interested in participating, please get in touch with me in person (at the Social Issues class on Thursdays from 11-12), by email (allisonlouisejones@gmail.com), or by phone (438-838-3166).  You can also contact my supervisor, Dr. Peter Rudiak-Gould, at
peter.rudiak-gould@mcgill.ca with any questions or concerns.

I really appreciate your help with this project and hope to talk to you soon!

Thank you,
Allison

Two years ago on March 1st  we opened the centre in its full time location!  Thanks to everyone who has helped make the centre possible so far : )

Since we opened on St-Ferdinand, over 180 homeschooling families have visited our space.  Here are some of the things we have done together in the past year: (quite impressive when listed all together!)

Activities: music, arts & crafts, French, Spanish, language games, science, singing, Scratch, origami, maker projects, engineering challenges, yoga, kung fu, nutrition & cooking, nature studies, karate, aikido, chess, radio & hebdo, history of Montreal, first aid for kids, hand sewing, LARP-ing, social issues, public speaking and debating.

Visitors: Chief Topleaf, Assault Prevention, Sportball Quebec, Dazibao, Brain Awareness Week, First Aid for Adults, and a few Let’s Talk Science presentations.

Projects: claymation films, t-shirts, biscotti, garage sale, gardening, wool project, Make a Country, Getting Along, butterflies, snow forts, Alphabet of Emotions book, and summer camps.

Field trips: Verdun Circus School, Sucrerie de la montagne, Geordie: Pinocchio, Armand-Frappier, Centre d’histoire de Montreal, St-Leonard caves, about the Turcot, sports day at UdeM, canoeing on the Lachine Canal, strawberry picking, horseback riding, Fort Lennox, St-Sauveur water park, samurai at PAC, apple picking, the Electrium, OSM: Beethoven Lives Upstairs, the Cosmodome, Geordie: Robin Hood, downhill skiing, skating, tobogganing, cross-country skiing, laser tag, OSM: Tales from Mother Goose, and the history of Montreal at PAC.

Events: holiday parties, a variety show, Wii days, Kids’ Day, weekend in Laurentians, and the Not-Back-To-School picnic.

Fundraising: we raised $2309 in grassroots fundraising projects -> biscotti, t-shirts, garage sale, NBTS picnic raffle, book sale, Thanksgiving dinner, Halloween raffle, Christmas carolling, and the spaghetti dinner.

Group deals: Scholastic books, legal services with Geeta Narang, and Breault & Bouthillier.

Looking to the future:

Summer Camps: Two volunteer homeschool parents and two paid teenagers organizing activities around a theme for a group of only 12 kids aged 5-12.  A different theme each week: radio (en français), arts & crafts, survival skills, theatre, sewing, music & dance, and sports & games!  Sign up for the weeks that work for you.  $125 per child per week, in support of Centre Communidée.

Next year: We are feeling optimistic and are exploring the possibility of expanding and building a workshop!  We would love to have a space for building with wood, tinkering with electronics, doing pottery and other art projects.  We will be looking to rent out the space on evenings and weekends.  Feel free to get in touch if you want to get involved, or if you have any tools or materials to donate.

If you want to support the centre through a donation you can use PayPal  – or you can mail a cheque to: Centre Communidée, 137 St-Ferdinand #153, Montreal, QC H4C 2S6.

Here’s to another great year!