Nearly 3,000 more families choose to home-school in Manitoba this year

The ranks of Manitoba families choosing to home-school their children have climbedduring the pandemic.

Nearly one month into a school year markedby masks and orders to keep children apart, the province says around 6,600 students haveregistered for home-schooling, or are in the queue as of Sept. 25.

That's a substantial jump from the 3,689 home-school registrations counted last fall.

"We had a sense that it was going to be quite high," said Jennifer Gehman with theManitoba Association for Schooling at Home, a non-profit grouppromoting home-schooling in the province.

"The fact that it's almost doubled is a surprise," she said, "but it's[also] not a surprise."

That's because a spike in home-schooling has long been expected,attributed to fears ofCOVID-19 exposure. More than 20 Manitoba schoolshave recorded at least one case of the virus.

Instead,families are choosing to teach their children from the comfort of their home, Gehman said.

"It's very encouraging us to see how many parents are just excited by spending that time with their children and seeing their children really learn and get excited about engaging in their learning activities."

Balancing teaching and parenting

Cheryl Boehler, who is new to home-schooling,appreciates the extra timewith her two children, aged fiveand seven, butsaid it's tough to work atparenting and teaching simultaneously.

"There's lots of days that I wish that I could just send them to school, because there's the whole,'I'm their mom and kids never listen to their parents as well as they listen to a third party,'" she said.

"But it's the choice thatmy husband and I made, and the alternative is me being an anxious mess, worrying aboutwhat could potentially be going on at their school."

Boehlersaid her family was worried their children could pick upCOVID-19 at school and then spread it to more vulnerable family members.

She adds her family could viably choose home-schoolingbecause she's ineligible to work whilewaitingon her permanent residency. Her family moved to Winnipeg from the United States in March.

"I'm going to be home anyways, and so why not ease the burden off the community and take my kids out of the public school system and away from the teachers and the principals and other kids?"

Her family would have preferred full-time virtual learning within their schools, but the Manitoba government only offered it to students who themselves have compromised immune systems or other medical conditions putting them at increased risk ofCOVID-19.

Some school divisions, however,extended remote learning to students who live with an immunocompromised relative.

The Manitoba government announcedon Wednesday thatswellinghome-school numbers won't affect the individual funding to public schools. Annual provincial funding to schools is based in part onthe number of students enrolled.