If you wan’t legal advice on homeschooling in your state, go to http://www.hslda.com

http://www.hslda.org/Default.asp?bhcp=1

It looks like there is quite a bit of notice, record-keeping, and accountability for New York.

You can check out this website to compare curriculum:

http://www.cathyduffyreviews.com/index.html . Personally, l like some of the stuff offered by Singapore Math at this website:

http://www.singaporemath.com/Default.asp

This website will give you lots of information on homeschooling as well: http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/

However, you probably live in one of the most amazing places to homeschool. You literally have the whole world at your fingertips. I would make the most of all the opportunities and take lots of field trips. Remember that younger children need less formal instruction than older children, and most high schoolers don’t need more than four hours a day at best.

Good luck!

You have to give a letter of intent, and you have to submit an IHIP (Individualized Home Istruction Plan). This might sound scary, but it’s not really. Basically, it’s just a list for each of the required subject areas on what you plan to teach. You can get a textbook for your child’s grade level and just copy the chapter headings, or go to the library and check out books like What Every (#) Grader Should Know to get an idea of what you want to teach in each subject, and write your lists based on that. Add any resources you intend to use as well. It doesn’t have to be super-detailed, like you don’t have to plan out every lesson– just the general topics you plan to cover within a subject.

You also have to log hours– someone in the district might tell you that you need to be homeschooling 5 days per week from 9 to 2 p.m. on the same public school schedule (which is what they did to me), but in reality that’s just their interpretation of the law. The law specifies 900 hrs per year (I think it’s 990 for middle & high school), you can spread those hours out however you like– evenings, weekends, start early or work through vacations, etc. I used to just keep a day planner and log things like, “math, 40 mins, Language arts, 25 mins,” and add them up at the end of the quarter.

That’s another thing required in NY– quarterly reports. You have to submit either grades you give or a paragraph describing your child’s progress in each of the subject areas, as well as your hours logged. Keep a reading list and a list of resources as well.

I think since I moved from NY they started requiring standardized tests every 2 years instead of every year, but you can always check on that.