You might look into other homeschooling options first, just to see if this option looks better to you than others.
Your DS is young, right? Early primary grades? What can go "really wrong" at that age? Worst case scenario? Homeschooling is a dismal flop? Well, he can go back to public school. There's very little long-term risk involved in homeschooling because it is reversible. And early primary school truly is not rocket science. If you can do math, read directions, and write complete sentences, you can make it work for your child. Remember that you don't have to know all the answers. No second-grade teacher knows all the answers! If you can parent your child, you can homeschool him.
See
http://www.worldbook.com/wb/Students?curriculum/grade2 for a sample of acceptable curriculum standards. Other grade levels are listed on the left side so you can find the grade your son would be in. From there you just find books or programs to cover those topics. Done!
It's really not that hard to create/find a curriculum.
As for record-keeping, even in the most restrictive states, it usually isn't much more than keeping track of what hours you worked and on what subject. Every state is different, but many states don't even require that much record-keeping! For example, my state requires 1) annual standardized achievement testing (my choice of test) and the passing score is really low, or 2) portfolio review. I'm bad with keeping stuff and organizing, so we do the testing. It's nearly painless. But no records beyond the initial "intent to homeschool" letter are required. Easy!
Have you checked out
www.homeschooldiner.com ? I especially like the nuts-and-bolts approach to the various options that they have, and all in one place. Try this:
http://www.homeschooldiner.com/guide/intro/main.htmlI think the trade-off with any online public school is that you lose much of the freedom that homeschoolers usually gain. There are requirements for time spent online. For some people, that's fine. For others, it is a big hassle. It does tend to be a time sink, and I've heard that testing can be a nightmare--a least some kids in online public schools still have to take the state tests in person. I don't know if that's the rule everywhere, but I have read firsthand reports on homeschooling forums from people who used online public schools, and they weren't happy with it.
My take: I figure there's no harm in looking beyond this one option, so that would be what I'd recommend to you. If this K12 program still looks great to you after that, then you can always pursue it. But knowing what else is possible and what other options would require gives you a better idea about what you could do if you want to.
And I promise you that curriculum is not as hard as you think it is. In fact, I think that's the easiest part of the job! I'd be happy to tell you more about the parts that are actually hard sometime...
