I'm homeschooling my GT/LD DS, 14, and homeschooled my GT/LD niece (now 21) for a few years while we had custody of her as a teenager. We were very fortunate to live in university towns that have had very good libraries and museums that offered numerous science, art and literature programs aimed at homeschoolers and/or afterschool/between session PS students, so we have had lots of resources for the kids to meet others who had the same interests and were working at the same level but weren't necessarily the same age. My son loves one of the the local homeschooling groups where we live now, where he is active in the book club, drama club, and poetry club, and participates regularly in the quarterly craft fairs and academic fairs, as well as field trips. There are about 100 families who are actively participating in it, with a large group of teens. For curriculum, we have been extremely eclectic and child-directed, using teachable moments as they come up (when she first moved in, my niece said that living with us was like having school 24/7, because any random comment could launch a lesson), and allowing a great deal of freedom to explore topics in depth.
The internet has been our friend, as has the TIP program.
ALEKS (
http://www.aleks.com) is absolutely worth checking out for math and some science, as are the (FREE!) Khan Academy (
http://www.khanacademy.org) and HippoCampus (
http://www.hippocampus.org).
There is a great partial list of online resources at the link below (be sure to scroll down through the comments for even more links):
http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/dacek/i_am_surprised_that_in_this_day_and_age_of/The biggest thing to remember for us when homeschooling has been to let the kids follow their passions and intensity, including the need for down time to process things, gently introduce things you think they need, seek out opportunities that you think they will like or that will help them with their passions, and don't feel the need to replicate school at home. Someone watching us from the outside would probably have sworn that for long periods of time, my kids were bone idle and did nothing but lay around all day and play games on the computer, and sometimes that was true - but they were laying around in their rooms, they were reading, and the games they were playing were from places like the NOVA website or the BBC History website, so I wasn't too worried. Regular math work was the only *required* subject, but they voluntarily acquired/are acquiring broad and comprehensive educations anyway.
Your job as a parent is to give your child what he or she needs to make his or her dreams a reality. It is a grand adventure, and I am sure that you are up for the task!
