You don't really need a curriculum but many people use them. We got a math book when our daughter was 7 years old. We didn't use it much and didn't get another until she was 12. At that time we bought math and social studies. She used them and got another math book the next year.
Textbooks can be ordered on the web. Oak Meadow is one we have used.
The law requires 688 hours (4 hours per day for 172 days) of instructional hours a year. Some people count the hours.
The only records we have ever given to the school district are test results.
If your child scores poorly on a standardized test the school district may want more information.
The law says that homeschool students be evaluated/tested/checked for progress, etc. in grades 3,5,7,9, and 11. There are written tests where you fill in the ovals and have it graded by a computer. You can also use tests that are administered by a person. These can be written or oral.
Our children were tested with the Woodcock/Johnson test, and then the evaluator wrote a short letter to the school district saying she was fine. They don't even want to see the test.
If a child scores in the bottom 12th percentile, the bottom eighth of their age group, the school district may want a review to determine if homeshooling is right thing for the child.
As far as the law/"rules" go, and I am not an attorney, so this not a legal answer but rather my personal experience: every fall, about two weeks before school starts, but frequently I have forgotten and mailed it a month or so late, I return a one-page form to PSD for each child, stating name, adddress, age, phone, location of test or evaluation results, parent's name, and the annual number of instructional contact hours. Well, I just give them the facts, and say that they will have at least 688 hours (4 hours per day for 172 days)of instructional hours a year. That is all.
Ron Ayres used to administer the Homeschool program for PSD and he has come to meetings of NCHA to talk and told us he is not the least bit concerned with watching over the homeschool community because he and everyone else he knows isn't a bit worried about the education of homeschooled students.
Different states have differnt laws. I have a friend in Iowa who has to take her kids to the local school district once a week for activities, and it's not optional. I know other states that are also more stringent. Maybe in other districts in Colorado the homeschoolers are not treated well, but here in Fort Collins it couldn't be any better.
More official legal information can be found at:
Colorado Department of Education - Home Schooling in Colorado
Home School Legal Defense Association
Anyone. NCHA has no belief statment to sign or other barriers to membership.