The Role of the Parent

The role of the parents varies according to the age of the child. The first role is to be a loving and supportive parent, as you would with a child attending school. It is important that the learning is child-directed rather than parent-directed and we encourage parents to allow the child be as autonomous as possible. That said, the parent will take a very active role in the child's education. We provide many independent learning activities. For younger children these come with instructions in the form of drawings and for older children the instructions are in simple text. However, even for these activities, parents will need to be accessible to help with explanation or guidance when needed. And for younger children, many activities will need to be read and explained by parents. For some activities, parents may need to play a more active facilitating role, and in some cases (such as field trips and library trips) the parent will be directly facilitating the activity. The parent is also responsible for weekly communication with the teacher in the form of completing an online record-of learning (a weekly log of daily activities) and checking in with the teacher over the phone.

Parent Responsibilities

• send in the necessary enrollment information, birth certificate, etc.
• provide support, love and encouragement to the child
• provide a learning environment that enables the child to focus and choose activities
• create some daily routine that works for your child's learning style
• provide normal school supplies, paper, booklets, pencils, scissors, etc., as well as shelf space, bins, table space, bookshelves, etc.
• cut out, prepare, arrange and make accessible the Oak and Orca curriculum materials
• make regualar trips to the local library and help your child find specific information
• arrange local outings to places of cultural and natural interest
• keep records of all learning activities attempted, worked on and completed by the child
• submit daily activity logs at least weekly, ideally using the web
• download new activities, newsletters, information, etc. from the web and print
• communicate with the Oak and Orca teacher (telephone or email) at least weekly
• copy and send work samples chosen by the child monthly for the portfolio
• complete non-threatening assessment tasks as requested by the teacher

The Role Of The Child

The child's role is to commit to the learning process by actively engaging in learning activities. The child needs to choose which activities they will do from the activities provided and other ones that may have been created in consultation with the teacher. The child does not need to complete all of the activities and they do not need to be completed in a certain manner, as long as the child is demonstrating a commitment to learning.

The Role Of The Oak and Orca Teacher

The teacher will be helping to guide the learning. She will suggest learning activities for the child to do, give parents ideas for increasing learning experiences at home, and keep up to date on which experiences the child is having and activities s/he is participating in as well as what they are learning from each. She will communicate on a weekly basis with the parents and child over the phone or through email to suggest learning activities and track progress. When she has received the weekly record-of learning form, she will send out activity packets for the child to do based on their current interests and abilities. The teacher is also responsible for assessing the child's ongoing progress, keeping track of ministry learning outcomes completed and providing positive non-threatening reports of the learning to date.

Teacher Responsibilities

• enroll the child, retreive records from provious schools, etc.
• provide support and encouragement over the telephone where needed
• determine the interests and goals of the child
• suggest a daily routine and learning environment that may work for the child
• provide curriculum bundles to be offered for the child to choose from
• provide guidance to allow the child to reach her/his goals and objectives
• help the parent assist in the child's learning
• suggest local outings to places of cultural and natural interest
• communicate with the parent and/or child weekly with telephone or email
• collect and assess records of learning activities chosen
• connect activities completed with Ministry learning outcomes
• use check-list forms to assess the progress through the learning outcomes and identify gaps
• suggest activities to further the progress through the learning outcomes as well as personal goals
• collect and assess work samples chosen by the child and create the portfolio
• assess the child's progress and provide useful anecdotal reports three times per year

In summary the roles of the parent, teacher and child are as follows:

• the parent takes a facilitation role, provides love and encouragement, and helps the child find excitement in learning
• the parent provides the learning environment, establishes routines and lays out activities for the child to choose
• the parent organizes outings to places of cultural and natural interest, suggests learning activities, and attempts to find natural learning opportunities
• the parent organizes regular trips to the library
• the parent keeps track of all learning activities the child has worked on, completes the daily activity reports and submits them at least once a week
• the teacher supports the parent, makes suggestions and clears up questions
• the teacher makes suggestions for activities thay may suit the child, prepares new materials and sends out currriculum bundles to support the home-learning
• the teacher assesses the activity reports, collects samples and asks non-threatening questions to determine progress and suggest activities to take the next step
• weekly communication (email or phone) with the teacher will support both the parent and child directly
• the child needs to get excited about learning, try new things and become interested in a variety of areas
• the child chooses learning activities and works on them at her/his own pace
• the child chooses some work to be sent to the school monthly
• the child asks for help from the parent and teacher as needed