Information

• Alberta Education
  Parent handbooks, Alberta curriculum, etc.
  
  Main site: www.alberta.ca/education
  
  This goes directly to the "Home Education" page: www.alberta.ca/home-education (get the "Home Education Handbook" near the bottom of the page, and you may want to check out some other things here). Note: The best place to get your questions answered is from a home schooling friendly school board, and often from other home schooling parents (with school boards and with other parents, be careful of biases - it's best to talk to at least a few different people).
  
  This goes directly to the "Programs of Study" (from here, you can go to a specific subject, then to the "Programs of Study" for that subject, to get detailed curriculum documents for each subject and grade): www.alberta.ca/programs-of-study
  
  Learn Alberta - For Resources
  This is the home page for Learn Alberta. This site lists various resources for teachers (which we can use, too). Check out the Canadian Encyclopedia, etc., in the "Online Reference Centre" tab.
  www.learnalberta.ca
  
  My Child's Learning: A Parent Resource (This Was the "Curriculum Handbooks for Parents"). This is for parents to find out what their children are learning in school. It has a brief summary of what is being taught in each subject, in each grade. It is not specifically for home schooling parents, but it is very useful for us home schooling parents to find out what is in the Alberta Curriculum. (This is what Alberta Education is now using instead of the "Curriculum Handbooks for Parents.")
  www.learnalberta.ca/​content/​mychildslearning.
  
  This link goes to Alberta Education's "Authorized Resources Database." These are resources that teachers can use, to meet the requirements of the Alberta Program of Studies (which is what guides schools in what they teach). As home schoolers, we don't "have" to use resources from this database, but this database has lots of ideas for materials you "might" want to use: www.learnalberta.ca/alrdb.aspx
  
  Guide to Education (Principal's Handbook)
  This webpage has links to the current (and past) Guide to Education. It is the book that guides schools and school boards on policies that they must follow (i.e. the rulebook for principals). It covers ECS (kindergarten) to grade 12. We found this book particularly useful in guiding us through some "exceptions" we needed to make in high school.
  open.alberta.ca/publications/1496-7359
  
  PAT's - Provincial Achievement Tests
  If you are going to have your child write the PAT's (in grades 3, 6, and 9), you should check out these pages from the government. Even if you are going to opt out of the PAT's, as many home schoolers do, the old tests are a useful teaching resource for us. This is the main Alberta government PAT webpage. It has "information about teacher participation in marking and other activities related to provincial tests and other provincial assessments":
  www.alberta.ca/provincial-achievement-tests
  Check out the Parent Guides at the bottom of the page. They have some sample questions.
  
  They did have the previous achievement tests and answer keys on their site, but I couldn't when I was updating this page. It is possible they have been added back on their site by the time you are reading this - if you find them, please let us know through through our Contact Us page.
  
  Also, ask your home schooling friendly school board if they can get the Canadian Test of Basic Skills, also called the CTBS. This is a much better test for you to see how your child is learning relative to other children. It is standardized across Canada, not just Alberta, and you can do it for each grade, not just grades 6 and 9. You can administer the test at home directly to your child, so it's not stressful and it's convenient.
  
  I recommend you do the CTBS each year. When your children are younger, it's pretty easy to see how they are progressing from year to year, but as they get to about grade 5 and up, it is much harder to see. If you do this test starting in grade 1 and every year after that, it will give you a good benchmark. It will give you a much better idea of how your child does on this test, so when they get older you can see their progress better. In grades 6 and up, as a parent, it is quite difficult to estimate their reading level, but the CTBS will give you an excellent evaluation (and compared to children in the schools, most home schoolers are reading at a much higher reading level, which is nice to know, because it will reassure you that you are teaching them well). This test also gives them some test writing skills (often in home schooling the younger grades, we don't need tests, because we are working one-on-one with them everyday, so we know how they doing). But they will probably need test writing skills in the real world, sooner or later. And if you ever need to defend you home schooling, especially at things like holiday family gatherings, it's great to be able to say my child in grade 4 is reading at a grade 8 reading level. Non-home schoolers usually have no idea about grade reading levels, but it really sounds great when you say this.
  
  
• Alberta Career Planning (ALIS)
  This the Alberta government's career planing area. It covers post-secondary studies and employment.
  alis.alberta.ca/plan-your-career
  
  
• The Growth of Home Schooling in Alberta
  Some graphs I made from data in an Alberta Government report. It is from 1995 to 2005. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to get updated information since then, but it still gives some idea of the number of children being home schooled.
  www.calgaryhomeschool.com/​hsgrowth
  
  
• Post Secondary Admission Requirements in Calgary
  
  University of Calgary:
  This webpage has the Admission Requirements for different programs at the U of C (including the "estimated competitive admission average".
  www.ucalgary.ca/future-students/undergraduate/requirements
  There is also Admission Requirements information in this table in the Calendar:
  www.ucalgary.ca/pubs/calendar/current/a-5-1-1.html
  
  Mount Royal University
  This web page has the Admission Requirements for Mount Royal University.
  www.mtroyal.ca/Admission/​AdmissionRequirements/​index.htm
  
  St. Mary's University
  This web page has the admission requirements for St. Mary's University College. Note there is a section for home schooled students.
  www.stmu.ca/admission-requirements
  
  Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT)
  This "Admission Requirements" webpage has the academic requirements of the different programs they offer.
  www.sait.ca/admissions/meeting-requirements/admission-requirements