Weekly Wrap-up: Week 5 - Curriculum

This week for our Weekly Wrap-Up, Kris at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers has asked for us to share our Curriculum ideas. I love this idea! I love to see what curricula other parents have chosen for their homeschools. I also love to hear experiences that parents have had, both the good, bad and down right ugly, about each.
When I was researching homeschooling and still "on the fence," I traveled the blogosphere searching high and low for any information that I could find on what was "the best." What else would do? Of course I had to find "the best" for my child. Why else would I even consider homeschooling.
The more I read, the more I studied, I discovered there is not one "best" out there. It really depends on you and your child. Now, there are some very good highs and there are some very bad lows. Here is how I narrowed my selections:
1. Visited with veteran homeschoolers in my community whom I respect and value their opinion.
2.Read everything that I could get my hands on about homeschooling approaches, curricula, and models.
3. Requested samples from curricula sources. Many vendors provide good samples online that you can download or view on their websites. However, some, you just have to contact and request for them to email or mail you a few sample pages or even a sample book in some instances.
4. Attended fairs and conferences to not only learn from the excellent speakers on what curricula they utilize, but to network within the homeschooling community.
I will say that through my long and in-depth study, I was impressed with the classical education approach (Trivium). Reading The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise-Bauer and Jessie Wise helped me to bring it all together into one nicely bound package.
The curricula that we follow at Our Homeschool Home is posted on our blog here.
We love to get your comments on what we have selected. Especially if you are or have used these materials. I will say that we are progressing pretty rapidly through our studies and I will be adding items the first of 2010 for our next studies.