The Team
Socratic Dialogue Online Program Manager
nicole@wisdomhomeschooling.com
nicole.noster@gilbertineinstitute.com
780-549-4008
Nicole Noster was home educated for 10 years (Gr. 3 – 12) and upon graduating, obtained her Bachelor of Liberal Arts from Thomas Aquinas College, a classical liberal arts college in California. The College uses only primary sources, in particular the great books of Western civilization, to teach students to think logically and objectively across an array of subjects. Rather than lecture, professors guide students using Socratic dialogue, a process that Nicole realized as ideal for prompting students to grapple with questions and come to the answers as conclusions rather than memorized information. After graduation, Nicole worked in program development and management, putting her skills to good use with programs she believed in. Nicole and her husband, Simon, home school their 4 children and strive to always create a culture of learning in their home. In some of her random free time, she likes to garden, help on the family farm, perform choral music, and read lots of everything.
Events Director
marlane@wisdomhomeschooling.com
marlane.noster@gilbertineinstitute.com
Marlane is a WISDOM founder and she takes the WISDOM ministry to heart. Home schooling has long been her way of life, and she draws from her personal life when assisting WISDOM families, organizing events, and writing her "Notes to Myself" column for the WISDOM Family Magazine.
High School Advisor
christian@wisdomhomeschooling.com
Christian Bekolay homeschooled with WISDOM through graduation. Spending his school years at home fostered a love for family life, and provided many opportunities to discover other little loves for things such as being with nature through hiking, foraging, and gardening, engaging in creative arts by sculpting, carving, and painting, musical pursuits in piano and guitar, a developing passion for cooking and baking, and finally, a very enthusiastic interest in the board game hobby, from collecting to designing games. Christian considers himself a dilettante and aesthete; there is so much beauty in the world that he finds it difficult to focus on any particular aspect, rather, he lives by the motto: "I choose all."
Home School Consultant
terry@wisdomhomeschooling.com
terry.yaceyko@gilbertineinstitute.com
Terry is happily married to Richard and spent 26 years home educating their four daughters: Natasha, Rachel, Mikayla and Julia. She loves the Charlotte Mason Philosophy, Unit Studies and really enjoyed eclectic learning with lots of hands on learning and books when home schooling the girls.
Home School Consultant
janice@wisdomhomeschooling.com
janice.laurence@gilbertineinstitute.com
As a home schooling mama of 10 for over 22 years, with seven graduated now, Janice has a wealth of perspective on what works (and what doesn't) in a very busy home schooling environment. She can happily answer your questions and be an empathetic ear, whether you're calling about elementary, high school, or keeping little ones engaged while home schooling older children. With a strong passion for home schooling as the primary means of rescuing our culture, coupled with past office experience, Janice is a perfect addition to the WISDOM team! She joins us part-time in mid-May, and we look forward to working with her.
Home School Consultant
peter@wisdomhomeschooling.com
peter.weidman@gilbertineinstitute.com
Peter grew up in Spruce Grove, Alberta, where he was schooled through the institutional model of K-12. He went on to the University of Alberta where he completed a Bachelor of Secondary Education, majoring in Physics with a minor in Mathematics. Upon completion of his first degree, he was called to the Seminary, where he attended the Seminary of Christ the King in Mission, BC, which is conducted by the Benedictines of Westminster Abbey. Peter describes this as, “one of the most fulfilling and most valuable experiences of faith and community formation one could ever ask for.” Peter completed his Pre-Theology degree majoring in Philosophy and he says that he doesn’t know his minor as he had to take equal amounts of minor classes in Ecclesial Latin, Koine Greek, and Catholic Religious History. While in Mission, his passion for hockey seemed to be contagious as he also managed to help get a new outdoor asphalt hockey rink built for intramural street hockey, of which he found himself the Commissioner and ran the league. He is proud to have taught Fr. Matthew, the seminary vice-rector, how to enjoy playing roller hockey.
Administrative Assistant
jennifer@wisdomhomeschooling.com
jennifer.laszlo@gilbertineinstitute.com
Home schooled for part of her own school years, Jennifer and her husband made the decision to homeschool their own 7 children. Their eldest graduated in 2021, and Jennifer still has lots of years ahead as a home school mom! With her past work as an office manager and bookkeeper for a large window covering company, she is an ideal addition to our team. She recently joined our office as a part time administrative assistant, moving seamlessly from data work to proctoring exams and answering your calls.
Administrative Assistant
amy@wisdomhomeschooling.com
amy.burkey@gilbertineinstitute.com
The oldest of her immediate family and the middle of a large extended family, homeschooling K-12 was a privileged space for Amy to grow in relationship and self-discovery. When her nose wasn't in a schoolbook (or any other book), she was out roaming the forests and fields, mothering her many farmcats, or creatively employing the costume box.
Family Funding Team Lead
taylor@wisdomhomeschooling.com
taylor.laurence@gilbertineinstitute.com
Taylor grew up in a large homeschooling family. As the second oldest of 10 kids, he enjoyed his homeschooling experience through WISDOM from early childhood through graduation.
Taylor has enjoyed working at WISDOM since September 2020, and he loves the office environment. He finds joy in serving the families of WISDOM and working with his fellow employees.
Development Assistant
joshua@wisdomhomeschooling.com
joshua.bruce@gilbertineinstitute.com
Joshua embarked on his homeschooling journey on August 3rd, 2022, coinciding with the joyous arrival of his daughter, Elodie, into the world. He has been loving the labour of love that is fatherhood and is honoured to help his daughter experience life. Joshua and his wife, Haley dream of settling their family into a piece of land where they can plant a garden and care for some animals, while steeping their children in faith, nature and good literature. The knowledge that many other parents are striving toward similar dreams is what drives Joshua in his work for The Gilbertine Institute.
Development Director
saul@wisdomhomeschooling.com
saul.noster@gilbertineinstitute.com
Saul's experience in homeschooling goes back to his early childhood, going through K-12 with WISDOM Home Schooling and eventually starting work full time for the administration in 2014. He took a couple years off to pursue other ventures, gaining much knowledge and experience working in sales and development.
Family Funding Associate & Systems Maintenance
dylan@wisdomhomeschooling.com
dylan.kwasnycia@gilbertineinstitute.com
Dylan, along with his wife Katelyn, love the homeschooling lifestyle. Katelyn was homeschooled with WISDOM for her entire education. The Kwasnycias are excited to homeschool their three young children, Henry, Emma, and George.
Dylan began his work as a WISDOM Family Funding Associate in October 2020. Since then, he has enjoyed working for families and with coworkers, and finds it very fulfilling to help WISDOM parents to achieve the same kind of aspirations that he has for his own family.
Finance Assistant, Accounts Receivable
jim@wisdomhomeschooling.com
jim.burgess@gilbertineinstitute.com
Jim Burgess is a home schooling father to 5 children. As a young adult, Jim had the chance to witness the benefits of home schooling in his brother's family. When he met and married a home schooled graduate, it was with the definite intent to home school their future children.
IT Systems Administrator
levi@wisdomhomeschooling.com
levi.breederland@gilbertineinstitute.com
Levi was home schooled from kindergarten through grade seven near Vancouver BC. He grew up at a commercial bell pepper farm where he quickly became the on-site IT guy, helping his dad with everything from printer troubleshooting to the greenhouse climate-control systems. After high school, Levi went to school in England to study live sound engineering, then came back to Canada to study web development.
While at school in England, Levi started writing letters to an Alberta girl, who later became his wife. She convinced him to switch provinces, and they now live in the town of Legal with their four kids.
Levi helps the team by maintaining the website and email systems, providing tech support for tutors running online courses, and troubleshooting issues around the office.
In his spare time not in front of a computer, Levi dabbles in strange liquids, brewing kombucha and other fermented drinks and developing film shot on the family's growing collection of analog cameras.
Graphic Designer
desktop@wisdomhomeschooling.com
naomi.doyle@gilbertineinstitute.com
Naomi started working with WISDOM in 2005. Over the years of formally working for WISDOM her work evolved from odd jobs, stuffing magazines and cleaning the office to filing and print management. After a while her role developed into Editorial Assistant and Art Design Technician. She loves to make things beautiful to look at and attractive to read.
Mediated Learning Advisor & Educational Therapist
lora@wisdomhomeschooling.com
lora.cardinal@gilbertineinstitute.com
Lora is a Certified Educational Therapist with an emphasis on cognitive modification therapy. She is the mother of three handsome adult sons who she taught to love learning through WISDOM Home Schooling. Lora participated in many WISDOM events with her children, including taking in the Mediated Learning workshops when her boys were young. This inspired her to choose educational therapy as a profession. It has always been Lora's dream to be a therapist, and to assist those who are in need. WISDOM Home Schooling was a part of her family for a long time, and she looks forward to serving other WISDOM families in this new role. Lora dreams of one day living in the mountains, and she loves hiking, kayaking, biking, long walks, music, playing piano, baking, and most of all her family.
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).
Our homeschooling adventure began 11 years ago when our oldest was in kindergarten. Since then, we have added four more children to the journey of learning, loving, and growing in faith together. WISDOM has been our choice from the beginning, and we have always so appreciated the freedom and support we’ve received as primary educators of our children.
We do life together as a family on a hobby farm south of Calgary, which offers many learning opportunities and daily drama. Book lessons may be interrupted by the sudden realization that the goats have gotten out – again – or the need to simply stop and laugh in amusement at the goose chasing the dog. We cherish the memories and time we have with our children, and can hardly believe how quickly the years fly by!
We have been married for twenty-seven years, and the Lord has truly blessed us with thirteen children in sixteen years. When we were first married, a man at church loaned us a vhs tape with Scott Hahn's conversion testimony on it, and that message contained a very earnest desire to not only give one's life unreservedly to Jesus, but to also to consider surrendering our fertility as well. As a result, the Lord was so good to us, and we soon became parents to a little boy, and then a little girl. We wanted the very best for our son and daughter and when looking through a stack of clearance books at a bookstore we happened upon a book called The How and Why of Home Schooling by Ray E. Ballman. Rebecca recalls reading that book and then following Greg around the house reading the book out loud to him! We agreed that we felt this was the best for our children, and Rebecca quickly checked out books by Raymond and Dorothy Moore from the public library to learn more and to read aloud to Greg; we felt in our hearts a definite call! To us, even though we knew no other homeschoolers, it was once again another part of surrendering to the Lord.
Our journey into home schooling our five children began over 19 years ago. We are nearing the end of that journey with only one child (now age 16) working toward completing high school studies. We have found this to be the most rewarding journey we have ever embarked on. Walking with, and seeing the development of each of our children – in their character, their faith, their education, and their life pursuits, has been a great joy. We have met the challenges that are unique to each child's development and we have worked past those hurdles – some being more challenging than others.
Among our children, we have a Certified Automotive Technician, a Registered Nurse, a documentation and inventory assistant for an aviation (helicopter) company, an Interior Design Technology student, and a budding carpenter who is working toward apprenticeship and trade certification. Each of our children participate regularly in Christian ministry and outreach opportunities. Each has a unique hobby or interest that he or she approaches with dedicated or vibrant enthusiasm.
WISDOM has been there to help us on this journey, and we have appreciated the directions and options that were and are available to us. In turn, we are very pleased to volunteer on this council and thereby make ourselves available to WISDOM and its home school community so that you might be able to contact us if you have any questions about your homeschooling journey. We are here to help and to share what we have learned along the way.
Along our journey we have discovered what works and also what does not work, given the unique needs of each child. God blessed us first with 'normal' learners, and then with increasingly more challenging learners into the spectrum of the very dyslexic (clinically diagnosed as 'severe'). The home school atmosphere made it possible for each one to truly flourish. Although it took significant work, along with plenty of trial-and-error, especially with two of our children, the hard work has paid off and all are of good character and they are thriving! Again, we are thankful to the staff and facilitators at WISDOM Home Schooling that have helped us to help our children.
Please feel free to contact us.
Fairview - (780) 835-8722
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.
Hello! We’re Michael and Victoria Hutchinson. We are a homeschool family and are new this year to serving on the Parent Advisory Council. We will be celebrating our 20th anniversary this coming January 2025 and feel so grateful for the adventure we’ve had together so far, especially the experience of home educating our four children for the past 11 years, who range in age from 7 to 16.
We recently moved from Edmonton about 45 minutes south to Central Alberta and are working on rebuilding and renovating a 1955 two story home that we relocated (in 3 pieces) from its original location in Calgary to our rural land. Along with working on our own home, we own a renovations company, some rental property, and try to stay active in sports and get out into nature as much as possible.
Michael was homeschooled from early elementary through high school, while Victoria had only attended public or private school. Together, we bring a blend of backgrounds and perspectives that when combined, fuel our commitment to homeschooling and recognise the value in providing our kids with a unique and individualized approach to helping them learn, live, and reach their goals for life.
We are Menno and Margaret Knelsen, and we're from La Crete, way up in northern Alberta. We have been a homeschooling family since 2001, and registered with WISDOM since 2008. It has been a challenging journey for us, but also incredibly rewarding. When we first started out, our two oldest girls came out of public school after completing grades three and one. We appreciated the school where they were attending at the time, and clearly communicated that our reason for pulling them out was to bring them home. We had discussed the possibility for a couple of years before, and the time felt right.
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 schools. 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 Advisory 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.
We have been married for 16 years and God has blessed us with two children, grades 9 and 5. Our oldest led us into our homeschooling adventure when he was a toddler, and we have not looked back except to wish for more time together. We love WISDOM and hope to continue our journey to the end with WISDOM.
Currently we call Ponoka home. Sheldon is a Master Electrician in the oil and gas industry and volunteers at our local parish. Presently, Kim is a homeschool teacher, mom and chauffeur for our children.
Although both of us were homeschooled until high school (one attending a small private Christian high school and the other a public high school with the population of a small town), sometime in our marriage we had wanted our children to attend private Christian school. However, our oldest had not even finished Grade 1 during the pandemic in 2021 before it was evident that we would be switching to homeschooling.
The first year of homeschooling was the biggest hurdle for us, as we were working full-time as an electrician and paramedic while simultaneously teaching three small children. We learned quickly that our facilitator was our most valuable resource.
Now we are in our third year of homeschooling, expecting our 5th child, and are so grateful for the transformation homeschooling has done for our family. The best part of serving on the Parent Advisory Council has been meeting the entire organization; without a doubt, the staff put their entire heart into WISDOM Home Schooling.
Our journey with homeschooling began during the pandemic. Kris was reluctant at first but only a few months in, we were all hooked! We have three children, two in high-school and our son is just at the beginning of his schooling. Now we are all engaged and very well connected with homeschooling in our small town community of Carstairs. Kris works away so when he's home this gives us more family time together. He enjoys all the discussions regarding what we are learning and joining us when he can. Amanda's outgoing personality has been an asset in getting people involved in the different homeschool activities. These activities include: sewing, kindergarten groups, art classes, fun get togethers, teen activities, and more. She also is on the Soccer Association Board and the Friends of the Carstairs Library board, and has organized a local homeschool conference this past spring, that she hopes will continue each year.
Our relationship started in the Rockies in western Alberta and that place seems to keep drawing us back. It feels like it has become considerably more work for us to get out there in the last few years, but we can’t seem to figure out why. (Our family increasing in size from 2 to 7 might have something to do with it!) We also love to spend time with our extended family, play music, sing, and watch our young children grow and experience life.
As children, we both transitioned into homeschooling around the years 1999-2000 from public schools; this set us on the path towards homeschooling our own children, as we saw firsthand the great power and flexibility that homeschooling offers to a family. As the parents of 5 beautiful young children, we are starting down the path of home education with a sense of gratitude that God has helped us to find this path in life and faith that he will help us to walk it well. Even though we are new to the journey of home educating our children, we are no strangers to homeschooling personally, and when we meet others who are along this homeschooling and parenting path, we can get pretty excited about it.