Today the online application was completed and posted. You can now go to the "Sign up" page to both register to visit, and to apply to join. Also on that page you will find a web version of our hand book that you can download. This will much more clearly outline how our co-op will work and what we stand for. We look forward to hearing from you. Remember you may email us anytime for more information.

Also, for co-ops in other towns. A couple of co-ops in other areas gave us the ideas to build our new plan this semester. They let us us their documents and schedules as a starting point to write ours. They talked with us on the phone and advised us on how to get started. If you want to start a co-op in your town or maybe you have one that needs to be re-structured, we would be happy to talk to you about how we got started, and let you know how this next semester goes.

As of last night our final drafts of the new and greatly improved sign-up documents are finished! We have already seen a huge amount of interest in the Helena homes school community. This affirms our belief that God has raised us up and blessed this effort because our community needs something like this. We are very excited for the start of this new semester!
So, some extra information many of you have asked for:
The Semester will begin on Friday September 6th and finish on the December 13th. The last two weeks will not be our regular classes but instead the second week we plan on visiting the veterans home, and the week prior to that we will be preparing songs and gifts for that. We will also take November 29th off for the week of Thanksgiving.
The cost of joining is $5 per child or $20 per family, per semester, whichever is less. We will soon have a co-op bank account available, so you can make checks to HHEC instead of Chris...because that's just awkward. This cost will cover the website fees, teaching materials, and any other expenses. After we build up a reasonable reserve for supplies, we plan to give the remainder to our facility hosts, as they so generously allow us the use of the building for free.
To sign up you will need to fill out a one time application, then read through the Co-op Handbook, and then submit a Semester commitment form. If none of us know you, we may also ask to chat with you a little just to get to know you. The application preference deadline is set for August 26th (two weeks prior to the semester start. Late applications may be turned away depending on how the current enrollment looks.
We hope you consider joining us. If we all do our part this should be a really great year!
If we are slow to respond to contacts in the next two weeks, that is because the co-op head will be celebrating her sister's wedding and her ten year anniversary. We promise to have your requests processed as fast as we can. :)

Today we are getting the first edition of the Helena Homeschool Enrichment Co-op. I also have finalized the sign up schedule. I will be having our core families sign up first so that we can make sure that each class has at least one experienced member in it. Then I will start looking for additional sign ups. The more people who join, the more we can offer and the lighter the work load for everyone can be. To see an example of what we hope to become, go to the resources page. Let's make this next year the best Co-op year Helena has ever seen.

Today I am making a website. Now the Co-op is truly LEGIT. I hope you are all excited as I am!