I have to pick a STYLE?

I don't have a style...'eclectic' would best fit.  But I also use parts of Charlotte Mason (read her book set, even) and a little classical...just a little, and I even used Montessori when my kids were little (read all her books and visited a Montessori school to observe).  I'm all over the place..and unfortunately I've tried a lot of different curricula....

This is all so new and overwhelming to me.  I keep hoping I'll settle into a style, but then I learn about something new!  I am new to Charlotte Mason and still reading.  I don't understand how I can limit the time of their math lesson, so I'm not sure about that.  It seems to me it takes as long as it takes.  Read aloud is also long, so I guess I'm not sticking to that aspect of Charlotte Mason, but I love for my kids to get outside.  They go to the ranch on the weekends with my folks.  I love the "living" books part of it, too.  I'm reading a couple of books on Charlotte Mason, so I'm still learning.  I'm very excited to start narration and dictation for Language Arts.  I hate trying to fit that subject in and it's so boring to me.  Right now our LA consists of Grammar Ace when I think about it, which is not often, and School House Rock!  I know that's terrible, but teaching Grammar is like torture to me. 

We used Robinson Curriculum last year and for my son only in previous years.  I love the simplicity of it.  I really believe knowledge is in books and that if you help your kids develop and love of learning and reading they will be doing better than most.  We take math seriously at our house and I like them to be a year or two ahead so they can have Algebra before Chemistry and Calculus before Physics.  This is the only way it makes sense to me.  I hated trying to teach kids in college that hadn't taken the pre-reqs yet. 

I recently read Heart of Wisdom by Robin Samson and thought it quite interesting.  We study the Bible first and many of our other books this year (Ancient History) give us the opportunity to discuss further our Bible reading.  We also include Scripture memorization in our day.  I also like the idea of combining our Sonlight with some unit studies.  My kids are always wanting things to trace or crafts to work on while we read, so it makes sense to try to synchronize unit studies with our reading.   

I'm starting out Montessori and moving into more structured curriculum one step at a time (1-2 subject/year starting between K/1st grade), math will be the last to transition.  Handwriting was first...because well, i have boys!

We don't use testing or grades though and will refrain from doing so until we have to create a high school transcript.  Our focus is for understanding of concepts over memorization of facts (exception being math and bible/religion because there are just facts you have to know ).

I like unit studies for multiple ages. 

We use a little Charlotte Mason along with our KONOS unit studies.  We are definitely eclectic except for incorporating classical.  For the last 12 years I have had high schoolers all the way down to babies and we try to keep everyone on the same topic.  We are changing things a little bit as our sons are now the older ones and are/will be working with dad on The Homeschool Channel.    Dad is now giving everyone daily essay topics and we have a presentation in the evenings.   Our children will be in the public eye more than they have been and we discovered quickly that we needed to work on some areas.    We don't use textbooks, except for math, so don't use grades.

We are definitely eclectic.  There's so much to be learned from every philosophy, from Montessori to unschooling.  I could no more pick a HS style to commit to than I could pick one type of dish to cook every night.  :)

Last year I would have said eclectic but as I read more on the Charlotte Mason method we are leaning that way. I began to go a little bit that way in the spring. When we start up again (tomorrow!) I am going to try to be even more Mason-y.

My older two use BJU press hard drives. the younger two is whatever I pull together. We do alot of workbooks and games until fourth grade and then switch to BJU hard drives. I may switch my 7 year old next year