Editor and Writer
7/9/2025|Updated: 7/9/2025
Locked out of their elementary school during COVID, Jenn Reid’s daughters struggled to adapt to the isolation of online classes, having been deprived of all peer-to-peer interaction as mandated by the lockdowns of 2020.
The mom of three described how mandates and the devastating impacts on the girls’ well-being made the family’s decision to homeschool an easy one. It also made their stake in a piece of land in Northern Alberta the logical next step to secure a natural barrier to shrinking freedoms.
“If 2020 taught me anything it’s not to think anything is impossible,” Reid, 36, told The Epoch Times, speaking of the erosion of freedoms the world experienced during the pandemic. “I think a lot of us didn’t realize it until it was—I don’t want to say ’too late,’ but it was.”
Raised in rural Newfoundland and Labrador, Reid and her husband, Winston, were steeped in small-town values that made the lockdowns seem excessive. “Everybody knew everybody,” she said. “That’s something we really missed when we were living in the city.”
The Reids moved out west decades ago in search of the “Alberta opportunity.” Winston found work as an electrician in Fort McMurray and they bought a home in the small city of Beaumont, south of Edmonton.
They raised three daughters: Ava, 15, Allie, 13, and Paisley, 11.
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Then COVID hit.
“Our girls did not handle being online well at all. It was very difficult,” Reid said. “We decided probably two weeks into online schooling that this was not working out for our family, and we started homeschooling right away.”
That transition was “very smooth,” she said—probably because moms at her church who also homeschool had already encouraged her before the pandemic. “Jenn, you should homeschool,” they said. “You’d be perfect for it, you have the heart for it.”
That proved true. Reid says no one wants what’s best for her daughters like she does. She approaches homeschooling by the Charlotte Mason method, instilling principles instead of mere memorization, teaching “hands on” instead of just theory. They’ve not only read about ancient cultures such as the Mayans, but also travelled to Mexico to see their ruins and had many other homeschooling adventures.
Not long into their homeschooling foray, the Reids started talking about finding their own land to further secure their freedoms and insulate them from government control. An off-grid homestead would be ideal as a long-term goal, they figured, but they needed a plot first. They wanted woodlands like the ones they remembered in Newfoundland and Labrador, which, unlike Alberta’s vast open prairies, would protect from the harsh winters.
After over a year of searching, their dream of a homestead manifested in 2023 due to a stroke of luck.
“Being a single-income family, we definitely needed to keep our budget in mind,” Reid said. “And there’s not a lot of places you can move within your financial means and still have the ability to completely renovate this home.”
One night, after scouting all day for properties with their realtor, Reid got online and scrolled further south than where they’d been looking. They saw a new listing and planned a visit only to discover it had been sold.
“Our real estate agent called us a very next morning and told us that everything had fallen through with the initial offer,” Reid said. “So I guess it was meant to be, after all.”
Though the Reids’ offer was accepted, the house was a real fixer-upper. They gutted and remodelled every room. “It was definitely not cookie-cutter, and that was also something that was important to us,” she said. “Being in the city, all the houses kind of looked the same.”
Today, they grow vegetables and raise goats and chickens for meat on four acres of woodland. Most days, Reid and the girls homeschool and hold down the farm while Winston works. They’ve been tackling projects step by step to achieve self-reliance while following a strict budget. This year, the girls sowed seeds in the garden without tilling equipment, using their bare feet to work the soil.
The Reids have made headway toward off-grid living by securing fresh water from a well and growing enough food to sustain themselves without needing groceries from the supermarket. Next on the to-do list, they plan to raise solar panels to power their homestead and get off public electricity. Last month, they had a man in to look into that, though Winston says he will be rigging up homemade solar panels using his electrician skills.
As for the girls, Ava just finished grade 10, Reid said, adding that she wants to be a radiologist. “She’s done phenomenal. She just surprises me every day with the things that she has learned.”
Allie, who has developed a passion for animal care after nursing one of their goats, though it didn’t survive, hopes to become a veterinarian. Paisley is still finding her path.
The Reid homestead saga has everything: a couple’s quest for freedom amid oppression, a new beginning on their own land, and a bright future for the next generation. The only question lingering in the minds of future would-be homesteaders might be this: Do they have any regrets?
“There’s always the catch-22, the what ifs,” Reid said. “What if we let them go to school. How would their lives be impacted? How would my life be impacted?”
But despite days when they come home tired and everyone is butting heads, she wouldn’t change a thing.
“I can safely say I am very content with where I am, and I’m very grateful that we’ve been given this opportunity. It’s something we don’t take for granted, because we’ve been the family that has longed to get here.”
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Michael Wing
Editor and Writer
Michael Wing is a writer and editor based in Calgary, Canada, where he was born and educated in the arts. He writes mainly on culture, human interest, and trending news.
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