I have commented about home schooling in the past and was encouraged to write a separate post on this. So, here goes.

There is no one right way to homeschool and no single great curriculum. Realize that pulling your child out of traditional school means YOU are responsible for ensuring YOUR child gets educated. But how to get started?

Network.

Start by having conversations with other homeschool families in your area. See what they are doing. Ask about curriculum for starter/ice breaker conversation. What are they using? What do they like/don't like? Just because a curriculum is popular does not mean its going to be a fit for your family (even if it IS a Christian curriculum). Cathy Duffy's "Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum: Choosing the Right Curriculum and Approach for Your Child's Learning Style" can provide you with background info and is great resource to get a match between fit and curriculum.

Homeschool families in your area can also provide guidance on state legislation, testing requirements, and forms that need to be filed. You still need to do your own research on this. Some states have entities that help as well. MACHE is one in my state.

Networking with other homeschool families will help you find out about the co-ops in your area. Co-ops will typically share the workload of educating among the parents.

Join one or several co-ops to cover the subjects you cannot.

If your area is large enough, someone may have started a consortium of homeschooling teachers. You can join this and find a teacher who is contract teaching the subject(s) you cannot. Joining the consortium gives you access to a variety of teachers/subjects from K through PSEO.

Networking will quickly reveal if one exists in your area.

Also, look to retired teachers or former homeschool teachers to see if one would be willing to tutor in a particular subject. Again, more networking.

Another idea is to approach a neighbor that specilizes in car repair, gardening, cabinetry, etc. to broaden your child's knowledge base if you cannot provide this knowledge.

Change your mindset from traditional schooling to one that is subject based. This is similar to contracting with some one to provide your child with piano lessons. The piano teacher is not going to be teaching chemistry.

Ask yourself, if there were no "rules" what would you want your child to know and why?

Homeschooling works well when viewed as a family effort. We have been doing this since the birth of our son. He is now a sophomore. Vacations would also include some kind of enrichment stop or component (Heart Mountain Japanese Interment camp, national park programs, etc).

When it comes to specific subjects, my family uses a different approach for each subject.

Video based instructions for high school math (adv algebra, precalc, and calc). mathwithoutborders.com

Tutoring for science, trumpet, and Spanish.

Community ed for art.

I teach history, latin, greek, writing, and literature.

Great Courses for music appreciation. Entire family enjoys.

Family reads (think book club) and discussion on Saturday mornings where we read x chapters of a book throughout the week and discuss on Saturday. Finished Levin's "Liberty and Tyranny", working on Beck's "Miracles and Massacres", Orwell's "1984" is on deck.

We also incorporate family entertainment with education. For example, Hollow Crown series covered War of the Roses and Shakespeare and was entertaining. When we are covering WWII - Band of Brothers.

And yes, somehow I was talked into Assassin's Creed - as being educational with all of the historical references.