M.C.
We are also going to start homeschooling, or rather unschooling, our kids after this school year. I am so excited about it. There is a ton of information out on the web (and it can be too much).
When we first thought about this I think I checked out about 15 books from the library. I got through a few and then stumbled upon unschooling (or natural learning) and I was completely hooked.
There are schools that you can enroll in that are "umbrella" schools for home schoolers, and as far as the state is concerned your kids would be considered to be enrolled in a private school (so none of the worries about providing evaluations or portfolios). You do have to provide attendance records I understand.
I think that is the route we're going to take (especially since unschooling requires no set curriculum).
I am no expert as we are just starting out too. I'll be watching the posts to see what others say.