Parent Advisory Council
The Parent Advisory Council (PAC) is a group of home schooling parents who helps advise WISDOM on ways to best serve the home schooling community. PAC members must be WISDOM parents who profess the Apostles’ Creed. They meet twice a year for an in-camera meeting of the PAC followed by an assembly with facilitators, office staff and administrators.
Members of the PAC:
- provide prayer and moral support to WISDOM and the governing school authority;
- are ambassadors for WISDOM by their lifestyle;
- are a resource for the families of WISDOM (this role is not administrative but supportive);
- welcome families new to WISDOM;
- make themselves available for contact by our WISDOM families (see the "Read More" section of each bio for contact information);
- advocate to WISDOM on behalf of WISDOM parents;
- assist facilitators with local WISDOM events;
- may gather or write articles for the WISDOM website or magazine;
- are politically informed, engaged and aware;
- update WISDOM families about current issues that impact home schooling (watch for inserts in the WISDOM magazine).
We feel especially blessed to have WISDOM as our homeschool administration! The support and encouragement we receive is priceless. We are still teaching four of our children at home, and next year one less. For many years we've had five students, and it seems the load is lifting somewhat, except now we're involved in our grandchildren's lives. We hope to play a supporting role as our adult kids have already begun to homeschool their children. What a beautiful legacy to pass on to the next generations!
We live on a farm near Fairview and we have 5 children, ages 14 and under: Joel, Rachel, Nicole, Monica and Luke.
We appreciate WISDOM’s position on traditional home schooling, their emphasis on character development and the social and academic activities that they make available to the WISDOM Families.
Oh how thankful I am that He has blessed us with the opportunity and privilege to have our family learn and grow together through home education! We have 6 children, ages 27 down to 8. Five boys, and one girl in the middle. We have been homeschooling with WISDOM since the beginning of our journey, 19 years ago. WISDOM's dedication to and philosophy of traditional homeschooling have been a vital source of inspiration, support and information. We actually started out with our oldest two in a Christian school and after asking God “how can we build relationship with our kids now and for the future?” His answer came back, “time.” And I thought, “Where do I get that time? There isn’t much time for getting to their hearts!” And God gently whispered "home school" and we haven't looked back. We've stumbled, cried, laughed and sighed, but not looked back. I was one of those moms who said, "I could never home school." I have learned since that I was right, I can't...on my own, but God has been more than sufficient to lead and empower and give His amazing grace on our journey, and let me trip when I stubbornly go my own way.
We first considered homeschooling our children when our oldest child was just a toddler. By the time kindergarten (and the yellow school bus) approached, we had surrendered to God’s leading by choosing to educate our children at home instead of in a school setting.
This journey that began with some foreboding soon evolved into a new lifestyle filled with fun, frustration, adventure…and a whole lot of fantastic books! Several bookshelves later, we find ourselves at the end of our 26-year-long homeschooling experience with our five children.
Time marches on and there have been many changes to the Kok family since our last bio on the WISDOM website. We have been married for almost 32 years. We still have 4 children but now they are all adults, ranging in age from 29 (our son) and down to 19 (3 daughters). The older 2 are living on their own in St. Albert and Edmonton. We still have 2 girls at home to keep us company, when they are around, plus a dog and 2 cats. We are still living in St. Albert.
WISDOM has supported us in our homeschooling journey for 20+ years. Our son was in school for Grades 1-3 before we took him home. The three girls started homeschooling in kindergarten. The youngest has just finished. It is the end of an era. Sometimes we wish we could start all over again.
Over the years we have seen the growth WISDOM has experienced. We have also witnessed the way WISDOM has dealt with some very difficult situations with integrity and a complete trust in God. We have enjoyed being part of the PAC and have met some of the most amazing people because of it. Feel free to contact us if you want to chat about homeschooling or WISDOM.
Diane and Joe met in high school and were married in 1981 in Calgary. Before their children were born, Diane taught English and French in senior and junior high school. Joe was formerly a Financial Analyst, then made a career change and became a high school Physics and Chemistry teacher. They were blessed to be offered a position with WISDOM in the fall of 1997, facilitating for 25 years before retiring and joining the Parent Support Council. Diane and Joe have also volunteered together in the marriage preparation ministry and have enjoyed years of scripture studies with their small church community. Living south of Calgary on a lovely acreage, Joe and Diane run a greenhouse in the spring.
The Harrison family is just a typical, quiet, reserved Alberta family.
Except they aren’t all that typical. Being blessed on a massive scale with 8 kids (3 girls and a handful of boys) is a bit atypical - maybe not among homeschoolers, but it is out of the ordinary. Also, they aren’t all that quiet - there are 10 of them after all. Okay, so they’re an atypical, loud, reserved Alberta family.