I'm sorry that you feel you're wasting your time with the schools. I definitely feel for you!
All kids and parents are different, so what works for one family may not work for another. The first year of homeschooling is usually a learning experience for the parent even more than for the child, since you have to figure out a system that works for you. We all make a lot of mistakes that first year--with schedule, with curriculum, with patience, with general approach to our kids, etc. It's normal, and it still turns out just fine. But know right now that perfectionism and homeschooling are uneasy bedfellows. Expect to learn and change as you go along. You don't have to finish everything you start.
I can tell you that most people find that with a GT child, curriculum is the easy part. One of the nice things about homeschooling a GT child is that a lot of what you have to do is just give them interesting material and get out of the way. It's a lot less work than it sounds like, especially for younger kids.
You might start by looking at E.D. Hirsch's "What Your Xth Grader Needs to Know" series and/or "Home Learning Year by Year" by Rebecca Rupp. They do a good job of laying out the sorts of things a child should know and the skills a child should have at each grade level. For me, they took a lot of the fear out of homeschooling because I realized that DS already knew a lot/most of the material for his grade level, so there probably wasn't much chance of his falling behind--my big worry! That freed us up to follow his interests a lot more faithfully. (I'm also a big fan of Lisa Rivero's book, BTW.)
For that reason, I'm not using specific packaged curricula much. We use the library a lot and workbooks and other learning aids that I buy for cheap whenever I find them. I have a teaching and curriculum design background, so I really prefer to make up my own path.
Of course, there's positively nothing wrong with using packaged curriculum. There's some good stuff out there! I just really like the freedom we have without it. For example(s): he's taking Arabic because he likes off-beat foreign languages. He studied robots and automotive engineering (very basic!) because he was interested in them. He read Dickens because he heard something about the plot of "Great Expectations" and he was interested. None of these things would be available to him in any packaged curriculum that I know of, but it was all there for my specific child. That flexibility works very well for us.
With that said, most homeschoolers love to talk about curriculum choices and what helped them get started. There are some great threads on this forum. Search by subject, and if you don't find them, I'll be happy to help if I can. Here's a good one for getting started:
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted.org/BB/ubbthreads.php/topics/40903/1.htmlI'd also STRONGLY recommend that you check out the homeschooling laws in your state. It's legal in all states, but some are much more HSing-friendly than others. Know what's required of you before you dive in.
Dealing with the younger sibling is a thornier issue, IMHO. For the past two years, DS8 and I did our schoolwork while DS5 was in preschool. We actually stayed in the church building and worked in one of the classrooms. This worked very well for us--no distractions! I am sure it would have been a lot more challenging for me without preschool for the younger one. I'd probably have had school for both kids at the same time if we hadn't had preschool for DS5. Babysitters are a possible help, too, if you can afford one. Could the Catholic school/day care give him some of the material you want to use?
Dazey, others with younger kids? Want to chime in here?
The young GT kids who homeschool typically only need 2-4 hours a day for school. As they get older, more time is usually needed. Remember that one-on-one learning is very intense. More time is not always better. We usually spent 2.5 hours a day, 4 days a week this past year (what offically would have been 2nd grade), plus he had a day at a "school for homeschoolers" where he took a math class and some other fun things and got social time.
I'm only including academics in that time. He also took an art class, a music class, and various sports for P.E. Those were all additional time--probably 3-4 additional hours per week.
The nice thing is that when you "do school" is flexible. If you're working, you can have school in the morning before you leave and/or after work, assuming that works for both of you. If you have a good sitter or if the Catholic school/daycare will work with you, you can assign "homework" for the child to do with the sitter. Use educational videos when they apply during that time. You could also do most of the teaching on the weekends if that's when you're free, and then use the weekdays for him to read and practice what he learned on the weekends, or whatever.
It's harder to homeschool while working, certainly, but lots of people do it. I think that breaking out of the notion that school is from 9-3 M-F is key.
Keep talking, keep asking questions. I'm happy to help, and there are lots of other helpful people here.
As I said, even if you decide not to homeschool, knowing you have alternatives is empowering when you deal with the school.
