Moving from one country to another is never easy.
Though Kallen Bruwer and his parents left peaceful South Africa and came to Canada as immigrants, not fleeing from war-torn conditions as so many other newcomers to this country do, the move to Canada still wasn’t entirely problem free.
Now 11, Kallen found school to be difficult in earlier years.
“At school I couldn’t read or do the alphabet. Here it’s a bit different. I couldn’t understand it. They even gave me a special education teacher but she still couldn’t teach me how to read,” Kallen told SooToday.
To remedy that situation, Kallen’s mother Enelia started homeschooling him.
“It’s a good way to learn the things that you actually need in life. A few weeks after we transferred to homeschooling I started reading. It’s a lot easier,” Kallen said.
“In South Africa the way they teach kids to read is through phonics and the education department here does it in a completely different style (such as the whole word approach). That’s where the challenge came in. That was one of the stopping blocks,” said Kallen’s father Pieter.
“I have the same way of thinking as my dad,” said Kallen, who said he now enjoys reading and writing after learning to read through the phonics method.
“In homeschooling it’s a lot easier to pick up words and learn.”
“The result of homeschooling has been very beneficial for him,” Pieter said.
Though not in a classroom environment, Kallen said he has made friends through joining the Sault chapter of Scouts Canada.
“When I’m not homeschooling I like to play games and in the winter I love to go snowboarding,” Kallen said.
Pieter said he encourages Kallen to play outside when he can and not spend too much time with electronics.
The Bruwer family – Kallen, father Pieter and mother Enelia – moved to Canada in 2017, younger brother Keaton born in this country.
Their first Canadian home was in the Toronto area, the family then moving to Cambridge before settling in the Sault.
“It’s a more family friendly environment,” said Pieter, who works as a project manager, of living in the Sault.
