The Team
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.
Georg & Gayle Beinert
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.
We are parents of three children. Our children have finished home education and have pursued widely different educational choices and careers: attending university and working as a therapist at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital, attending trade school to become a red seal welder, and being self-taught and becoming the manager of a local retail store.
We have enjoyed the freedom that home education provided our multi-generational family (an infirm grandparent lived with us and required significant attention, with interruptions to planned schedules a common daily occurrence). This freedom included the ability to uncouple our school year from the establishment’s timelines and allowed us to schedule activities and trips at times of the year when facilities were less busy. Even without formal studies, the amount of learning our children did during these trips was amazing. In addition, during this period of home education, we actively participated in the home education community in the Edmonton area.
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.