[augie]

Wow I will refrain from the comments as to why we homeschool and resist the urge to comment on my kids knowing the real world outside the box of their own little home because I want to see the thread stay open.

But here is how we approach it. We don't use a set program. We use a little bit of this a little bit of that and adjust as needed. That's one of the beauties of homeschooling, if something doesn't work for someone or fails to inspire, or is just simply written poorly we don't have to cram it down our kids throats just becasue it is what we have to work with. We can go out and find a different set of workbooks study aids method of instruction that works better for our kids. We belong to a home school group which is basically a loose affiliation of parents that organize various events for the kids to participate in. We have parents who have been through programs before who can give their honest opinion about certain programs/workbooks that they found successful and why they worked for them. We can borrow said materials from others and share our own to create a cirriculum that works. We order boxes of materials from Scholastic every month and a former neighbor actually owns a home school bookstore. We have found for the $ we'd rather not be stuck in a "program" and have more freedom to put together from various sources to cater to what our kids like and excel at.

There are lots of different agendas out there as to WHY people homeschool and lots of people create their program to support their own agenda. I think one must weigh into what you are trying to accomplish by homeschooling and what is the best way to get there.