The Team
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.