Thoughts I shared with new homeschooler

Ohio sounds like a dream from this side of the fence. In NY, there is no such thing as state-funded gifted education. NONE. As for telling Connor about our final decision; I put it off until his very last week of school. That is only because I didn't want him to tell his teachers or friends and create problems for us. Homeschoolers are often resented or treated as enemies to education. We had been talking about the possibility of homeschooling for nearly a year before we took the plunge, so I just said one day, "Now that I'm not working, would you like to try homeschooling for a bit?" He jumped on it. I framed it as a temporary experiment, and said if we weren't happy with homeschooling then we'd just re-enroll him in his public school. At the end of this year, I found out my Reading program at Monroe Community College was re-funded, and I could have my job back. After talking to Connor, we decided that homeschooling was more important to us than my career right now. He is, after all, working 4 grade levels ahead of his peers, so we are going to continue for at least one more year.After that, he'll be old enough (though on the young side still) for McQuaid Jesuit.
To answer your other questions, in the beginning, we tried to be loose and casual with the curriculum for a month, as recommended by most homeschoolers (google "deschooling") and then created our curriculum as we went along. I did not want to duplicate school, afterall it wasn't meeting his needs, so I stayed away from all boxed curriculums. Last week, when I wrote his IHIP (Individualized Home Instruction Plan) for next year, I simply shouted down the hall, "Connor, what about Science? What do you want to study next year?" He shouted back, "I want to dissect animals." I wrote on the form, in the Science box: Life Science/Biology. Under the slot for textbooks, I wrote, Microscope and web resources. "Connor, what about Geography?" "I'm supposed to learn the capitols of the states. " Me, "OK." Geography: State capitols. Textbook: The Globe and Maps. What a difference from last year!! In the fall I spent hundreds of hours trying to decide on curriculum, writing up syllabi, and agonizing over materials. Now that I know he is learning, all on his own, we just follow Connor's lead. I'm not going to teach cursive writing at all, since he can read it already and will never need to write it other than his signature, and he hates handwriting. We type 99.9% of the time anyway, and I know that I can't even remember how to write in cursive anymore. I teach grammar in context concurrently with his writing. I edit his writing for grammar at the end of the writing process, using the book The 6+1 Traits of writing as a model. A typing course is on the list for next year. Connor types fast, I'd guess 35 WPM, but does not use "home row" and I think he should know the proper format. He disagrees with me on that one. Connor taught himself to type just because he enjoys writing stories and he hates handwriting. I postponed the John Hopkins course (in Web Design) until the fall, so he'll also begin that in Sep. I don't think Connor will be able to concentrate over the summer, with all the kids here, and summer is busy enough without a 2 hour a day commitment on the computer. Swimming lessons start next week, and Connor meets his Chinese and math tutor an hour every day in the summer. If it works out, I'll have his tutor teach him math and Chinese all year next year. I listed Algebra under the math slot of the IHIP, though he's learning geometry and trigonometry too, and for textbooks I wrote down the text we used last year, even though the tutor doesn't use a text very much. She is from Taiwan, and she teaches him math using logic problems and manipulatives (including the abacus). I think the important thing to remember is that you can't screw up a child's education, really. If you do nothing at all, and just let a child explore his world in his own way, he will learn more than he learned in school. Children like to learn--especially highly gifted children like Connor--we just need to get out of their way most of the time. Like Mark Twain said, "Do not let school get in the way of education."