Fill out the Illinois Homeschool Registration Form. This form is voluntary, but it is still a good idea to fill it out and mail it to the address at the top of the form. This notifies the Illinois State Board of Education that you plan to homeschool your child, and not enroll her in public school. School district officials in your area may notice that your child is not enrolled in a school, and contact you. You can tell them you are homeschooling, and you have registered with the state.
Contact a local public school to get a list of what is taught in your child's grade. The state of Illinois requires homeschooled children to be taught a curriculum that is comparable to the one taught in public school. In addition to your basic courses, you may be required to teach fine arts, physical development, and health. The particular school district you live in could check up on you to see what you are teaching.
Choose your curriculum based on the standards and courses mentioned above. You can examine various curriculum at a homeschool fair, or go through some online homeschooling catalogs. Illinois does not require you to use the textbooks your local public school is using. You are free to choose your own curriculum as long as it is comparable to the curriculum taught in the public school.
Keep a record of all of the days you homeschool your child. This is not required, but you want to be able to prove that you taught your child the normal 180 days that the public school is in session. You do not need to follow a regimented schedule each of those days. If you do special projects, or go on field trips, count that toward the time requirement.
Create a schedule that works for your child. In general, you can take your textbook and divide the number of pages by 180 days to know how many pages you need to do each day to complete the course. For example, if your math book was 360 pages, you would need to complete two pages each day to finish the math book by the end of the course. If your child is advanced, allow him to do more pages each day. If your child needs to move at a slower pace,, concentrate on one page at a time. You can set any schedule you want for each day's work. That is the freedom of homeschooling.
Keep records of the curriculum you use, the tests your child takes, and any other important school work that your child completes. Again, this is not required. If you are ever questioned, however, the burden of proof will be on you. It is best to keep records.