Getting Ready for 2009-2010

Tomorrow is the first day of school around here. The weather has turned colder and although the "first day of school" means nothing to a homeschooler who "schools" year-round, I can't help but get excited for it. I love to shop the back to school sales and see what new organizing equipment they've come out with. The first day of school for us, will be like a holiday--a special day where we liven up the atmosphere of our home with new butcher paper on the boys' cork boards and have all our new markers, glue, scissors, etc., re-organized, and clean out our desks. Lastly, I guess that school starting means, that I can reserve the morning and early afternoon for myself as a "school-teacher" and excuse myself from phone calls, appointments, etc. that take up any ol' time of the day during the summer. Time to buckle down!

A Fresh Beginning & How to Get Your Certificate of Exemption

As I officially begin my reign as a homeschool mom, I start my homeschool blog hereby christened "Hancock House of Learning". I want to use this blog to:

• become a resource to other parents,
• include links to helpful Internet sites,
• help me be organized,
• log the "stuff" that we do and become a sort of "scrapbook" that I can flip back at to see what we've done through the years,
• post activities and field trips,
• and I'm sure more ideas will come as we go along.

I have one 6-year-old, Travis, who would be a first-grader this year. This is the critical year to a homeschooler in that we must submit an affidavit to the school district for exemption from public school. Apparently Kindergarten isn't legally required. For information on how to do this in Utah I visited the Utah Home Education Association (UHEA) http://www.uhea.org/ . This site had the Utah exemption laws up and how to create our affidavit. We then got it notarized at our credit union, Utah Community Credit Union, (they do it free for members) and sent it off to the Alpine School District.

Attn: Student Services

Alpine School District

575 North 100 East

American Fork, UT 84003

I received the certified copy back within a week and now that is my certificate of exemption for the 2009-2010 school year. We have to repeat this process every year and include all the children that we are excusing from public school.