FAQ

Technical

Once you have enrolled you will be assigned LOG IN information that will give you access. The LOG IN is in the top right corner of our homepage. Look for the person icon. 

First try using our Forgot your username or password. If you haven't changed your original password, try copying and pasting it from the original email. 
As a last resort you can contact our Records deparment (Phone extension 5 or records@estreams.ca).

Resource Central – Coming soon. This page will soon feature specific information regarding CHeS resource recommendations. 

Student Planner - This very important place is where your student learning plans are stored and all learning information will be inserted.  Reporting also happens in the planner.

School Calendar  - Go here to see important dates you may need to be aware of

Yearly Schedule – Coming soon - Outlines a summary of a typical school year at CHeS

Purchasing/Vendor Page – Go here to see vendors we approve and here for more detailed instructions about purchasing.

Staff Directory – This page helps you learn about teachers and other staff you may be working with. If the teacher’s status is “accepting students” you know you can contact them to see if you would like to work together.  

About CHeS

CHeS recognizes the challenges of the many directions you can take with home-based learning, and invites you to consider our innovative, collaborative approach. The eStreams approach is designed to help you identify your own unique goals and ideals before you begin your journey, then to present you with a selection of streams capable of enhancing and supporting the experience you are aiming for. This vibrant program provides a fully accredited, Scripture-based, learning experience to families in a variety of settings throughout BC. Whatever your needs, whatever your setting, CHeS aims to provide personalized, sensitive support that will enable your homelearning family to flourish.

As we grow, we are continuously improving our website to answer the questions that most commonly come up. If you can’t find your answers there, our staff would love to help you get the answers you’re looking for. We also have staff who are veteran home educators and would love to chat with you about your home learning journey. Never hesitate to reach out to us for help!

Christian Homelearners eStreams is an Independent, Christian faith-based community of learners and educators.  We are dedicated to providing personalized and educational support, sensitive and appropriate to the needs of learners in BC. Our staff are trained to create unique personalized learning plans that incorporate a variety of resources; literature, books, videos, activities, projects, special third party instructors, and more. CHeS is a place to enjoy discovering what really works and fits each family's values and each student's unique set of needs.  Our goal is to appreciate the family, and honor all involved while meeting the educational expectations of the province of BC.  

At this time, we don’t charge a tuition fee.  We have recently experienced a huge funding cut and have to be more careful with resource spending for our families than in previous years.  Families need to be prepared to pay for some of their own resources if our resource funding isn’t enough to cover all the books, lessons, etc. needed for the student’s program.

Note: The Ministry recently redefined Dsitributed Leanring as Online Learning. However even if your program is "not" online at all times, our communication about student progress is, and therefore CHeS is an independent ONLINE LEARNING school. 

While online learning can be a form of home-based learning, there are some essential aspects to OL that you should know.

  • OL students are accountable to a BC certified teacher, who formulates a learning plan that will meet the requirements for each grade level's expectations.  If they stay enrolled, by grade 12, students can graduate with a BC Dogwood Diploma. The teacher will also report on students’ learning, which will be submitted to the Ministry of Education.
  • Because they are accountable to a teacher, OL students are allowed more program funding from the Ministry of Education than typical homeschooled students.

CHeS offers Online Learning (enrollment) as well as independent Homeschooling (registration).

 

Absolutely! As an Online Learner, you will be given credits for all Ministry or BAA courses you take towards graduation.  Go here to read more on the Ministry’s website about what’s required to graduate in BC.  High School students need 80 course credits to graduate: 52 required course credits and 28 elective credits.  Usually, a course is worth 4 credits, so a student typically needs a minimum of 20 (grade 10, 11, and 12) courses to graduate with a Dogwood Diploma.

As a parent of a CHeS student, you will be the primary "in-person" supervisor of your child's education, whether they are enrolled with us as an Online Learner or registered as a Homeschooler. In our OL program, our wonderful teachers are there to plan and deliver your child’s program and provide accountability so your child will meet the learning objectives set out by the Ministry of Education.  But we always encourage you to participate and be a huge part of the process.  Because your teacher will not be present with your child daily, you and your children will be working together to complete the educational plan formulated at the begnning of the school year. Your involvement will depend on the level of independence of your child/teen. The basic tasks involved in being a CHeS OL family include:

  • Together with the teacher researching resources that may be a fit for your student(s)
  • Asking your teacher to approve desired resources that you research and feel are a fit for your learner(s)
  • Ordering curriculum once approved by your teacher – use our vendor page to help
  • Organizing a student or family work schedule – teachers will assist as needed
  • Following the learning plan in your CHeS planner and communicating regularly with your teacher and SE Coordinator (Special Ed students) 
  • Collecting work samples and reporting to your teacher at least once a week.  Parents typically are very involved with younger learners but the older your child becomes the more they will communicate directly with the teacher and share their own learning experiences. 
  • Submitting studnet work to your teacher for assessment

Yes! As long as you first follow our activation guidelines, see HERE, you are able to determine how many courses you want to work on at one time, and when you would like to do them. This, of course, means that you are responsible for managing your courses and getting them done in the time frame you set for yourself. Keep in mind that there’s only a one-year window of time allowed to complete a course. As well, our teachers take summers off. They can, however, give assignments before summer starts, and then students can report on their learning at the end of the summer. *Note that for full funding, activation has certain requirements that involve “dates” and thus if you haven’t started enough courses in time, you may not qualify for full funding.  Sept. 29th is an important deadline to qualify for “full funding”.

We do! For K-9 students & high school special needs students, we have a non-graded option where students are assessed using comments, not grades. If you want to obtain a “graded” report card, just ask your teacher for this option during your initial informal assessment at the beginning of the school year.  Go here to read more about our assessment options.  Note: High School students are graded with % and letter grades, and only modified HS students may be granted non-graded reporting. 

*In the 23-24 school year the Ministry is implementing a new reporting framework that CHeS will be cooperating with.  For K-9 reporting a proficiency scale using the four points Emerging, Developing, Proficient, and Extending will be implemented for all reporting.  High School reporting will continue to use % and letter grade assessment.  

CHeS has fantastic staff who support students with special needs. The Ministry provides Special Education funding for students with certain diagnosis, and we cater to these families by placing them in a supportive team setting with an SE Coordinator, an SE Teacher, and any other support services they need. The amount of support available is directly linked to their diagnosis (designation) and thus we will formulate an IEP and fund resources and services aimed at addressing the NEEDs of the student. There are funding limits but we budget as generously as we can towards accomodating the needs of our special learners.  For more info read our Special Needs Policy. However, it is a tad long!

Registering or Enrolling with CHeS

Anyone living in British Columbia who is 5 or older by December 31, can enroll or register with us as a student. We also accept adult students and students with IEP’s. 

If you are choosing the path of “Registered Homeschooler”, you can register at any time during the year. If you are wanting to “enroll”, our enrollment typically opens in the spring, near the end of March or beginning of April, and is first-come first-serve. You can enroll any time after that, but enrolling earlier will help to ensure that you get a placement. Also be aware that enrolling after September 29 may affect the amount of funding available for the school year. 

There are two choices and CHeS offers both.

Enrolled Students:

  • Receive OL funding
  • Are assigned to a specific teacher to whom they will report weekly
  • Have their work assessed by a BC teacher
  • Must have their learning plan and curricular purchases approved by a teacher before Sept. 29th for full funding.
  • Receive progress reports

To Enroll – Click Here

Registered Students:

  • Receive minimal funding
  • Are independent and in control of their learning plan and its delivery
  • Do not have a teacher and do not send in reports

To Register – Click Here

We want you to find the teacher that will fit best with you and your family’s needs! We have many teachers on our staff who can facilitate a wide range of grades, and it’s likely that you will be able to have one teacher for all of your children. You can read our teacher profiles in our Staff Directory to get to know them better before choosing one. If you want to request a specific teacher, email or call that teacher and ask them if they have room for you on their student list. While we cannot guarantee that you will be placed with the teacher you request (due to teacher availability), we do our best to make it happen.

Yes, if you’re in High School. This option is called being “Cross Enrolled” and allows students to be enrolled in more than one school at a time. CHeS doesn’t take grade 8-9 cross-enrollment but we will accept grade 10 -12 cross-enrollment.  You will have to decide who you want to be your “main” school, or your ‘School of Record.’  Go to Cross Enroll Now if you want to cross enroll with CHeS. 

If you are choosing the path of “Registered Homeschooler” there’s always room for you (register before Sept. 30).  If you want to enroll and have teacher support than we do typically fill up before September, therefore the earlier you enroll the better. 

Essentially, we do our best to facilitate any course your student wants to take that’s on the Ministry Curriculum website. Elementary/K-9 students are required to take all subjects, plus a second language in grades 5-8. At the High School level, we also offer BAA courses (locally developed Board Authority Courses). CHeS will also give credit for courses outside of our school's offerings by setting up individual templates for courses locally developed elsewhere.  If we're your "school of record" we must submit all your course information (marks, etc...) to the Ministry. Therefore we will set up a template for anything you may take outside of our school. 

Note: CHeS does support Work Experience at the Grade 12 level, Youth Work in Trades (apprenticeship in a Trade) and Youth Train In Trades. 
We work with the ITA (Industry Train in Authority)

Visit more information about CHeS courses here

Funding and Curriculum Purchasing

The Ministry of Education offers different types and amounts of funding for different learning situations. Here are the different categories of learning and how they are funded:

Gr. K-9 Online Learning: A set amount will be granted for the year by the Ministry and CHeS uses the funds to pay for your program.  Sometimes the family will need to purchase some of their own resources if the needs of the student are great. 

Presently $600

Gr. 10-12 Online Learning: Funded per course similar to K-9 with a grant from the MInistry of Education. CHeS purchases any resources needed directly but if the needs of the student exceed our funding, families may need to pay for resources or services. 

Presently $75/course

Gr. K-12 BC Registered Homeschool: A minimal amount of funding, with a set amount for the year.  

Total of $135

Gr. K-12 Special Education Funded Students: SE supplemental funding is determined by the Ministry.  This funding must cover all the costs of the SE program at our school. Therefore funding is granted per student but the whole department shares the funds so that administration costs as well as non-funded SE student needs can be covered.

Adult Students: Curriculum isn’t funded – students must purchase their own resources, but administration costs are covered by the Ministry if the adult completes courses.  If an adult starts a course and doesn’t complete it, then we are not funded. We therefore will only work with adults who are very serious about completing what they start.

Follow the instructions listed on our eStreams Guidelines and vendor pages.

Anything you would like to purchase with the funding must be approved and paid for by our school. We cannot reimburse for purchases you have already paid for. For more information on purchasing, you can visit our purchasing and vendor page HERE.

For Enrolled Students:

All purchases being made with funding must first be approved by your teacher and by the Accounts person in our office.

Items that are typically approved:

  • Educational resources (books, DVD's/cd’s)
  • Educational activities (sports, lessons)

Items that are not typically approved, but sometimes can be with special permission from Admin.:

  • Equipment (iPads, computers)

Things that are not approved:

  • Resources including content that do not reflect the Christian values of our school 
    • While you are free to use these, we are unable to purchase them for your family
  • Educational supplies (such as educational games, educational toys, educational toy kits, etc.) that could also be considered household items
  • School Supplies (paper, pens, stickers, erasers, glue, etc.)
  • Resources that do not contribute to the educational plan for the student
  • Educational activities or services which do not reflect the values of our school

We are open to discussing your ideas for purchases and may at times, deem something acceptable for purchase that we don’t typically purchase, based on the individual needs of the family.

For Registered Homeschool Students:

You do not need approval for your purchases, and you may purchase anything you deem needed for your child’s education with the $135 funding we allow. 

Once you are assigned a teacher and starting to work on a learning plan resources may be ordered once they are approved and in the planner for your student. 

We allow you to begin purchasing your resources for the upcoming school year in late April once the new planner is up for the next school year. Please be aware that this year may be delayed because we are turning over the system. Thank you for your patience. Please confirm with your teacher and the office before you begin purchasing for the upcoming year. Also, be aware that whatever is spent for next year’s resources, will be deducted from next year’s funding, not leftovers from the current school year. As a rule, you cannot purchase resources for next year with this year’s funding.