Introductions first, My name is Elsa and I used to teach middle school in the ps before my last little one was born. I am married to a soldier as my user name indicates. God has us currently stationed in MS with our 3 children, my dd10, ds9, and dd5 soon to be six. We began hsing 2011-2012. My older two were pulled out of ps for 5 very specific reasons. My interest in the Classical approach initially had me considering TOG, but since I am a do everything or die trying kind of girl and it was my first year of hsing, my mission-minded friend suggested MFW. After careful consideration, I thought MFW Adventures would be the perfect fit. I could teach my 2nd and third grader together, select the math and language arts myself, and the lessons were all ready prepared. By the end, I was dreading library visits, science was becoming hit or miss, art was non-existant, and the lessons were not as open and go as I thought they would be and seemed a bit repetitive. When I thought how I could beef it up, it was time to move on. Last summer, my dd5 had her heart set on going to ps like her big sis and brother got to do, and only agreed to stay home if I agreed to teach her first and she had her own curriculum. She can drive a hard bargain
Thinking I could improve MFW with study on Charlotte Mason approach led me to HOD. While I wasn't completely happy with MFW our first year, I also was not happy with where my older two placed on the chart and how that would affect MY goal of having them complete at least one 4-year cycle of history by the 8th grade 
So I opted for MFW ECC for my older two and LHFHG for my dd5.While we have loved studying missionaries, animals of the different ecosystems, and reading Kingdom Tales by David and Karen Mains, the problems we had last year are still present and just as frustrating. While my ds has learned lots, my dd10 (who we plan to have tested for dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, and capd) has not retained much of what I wanted her to learn and the coloring and filling out of the "notebook" pages frustrates her. Currently, it has me teaching from 8am to suppertime and my house is in shambles. My current dissatisfaction had me looking into next year. I spent about week, checking the website, perusing the catalog, and reading about every post on PHFHG that I could find. Finally, last night, I said, "Why wait?" And the two reasons I came up with was it was very financially wise to spend money on a curriculum and not complete it...but what homeschooler hasn't done that
and we would be further behind on MY plans. In the end, The Lord showed me His plans are not my plans (duh) and the pros outweighed the con's. I am look forward to shorter days, balanced in learning styles and subjects taught daily, the truly open and go lesson planning, all the guess work being eliminated on whether I am doing too much or too little, transitioning my children gently from all me to independent learning, and just some hand holding as I learn to teach in Charlotte Mason kind of way. All the wonderful study of literature is bonus and has been dearly missed in this house. Very late last night, I ordered BHFHG Economy pkge along with the Science Add-on, Emerging Reader's Set, Cheerful Cursive, and everything of the Basic pkge except R&S 2 because I started it this year knowing we would eventually switch to HOD. And although the Book sets were very tempting, I figure I already spent enough on hsing this year and between our home library and public library we have at least one of the suggested books for each genre except Biograhies and so I ordered Ben and Me. I figured looking for one book will still go by much quicker then trying to find the 30 or more so recommended in MFW. And quick visits may respark the love of libraries in my children's heart.
Looking forwared to gaining much wisdom from y'all, and believe I already have as you have answered many post with the same questions I had.
Your Sister in Christ,
Elsa
Both of my kids are independent readers and I am having a difficult time choosing what hod manual would work best for us next year. The one I think fits best does American history again just like we did in mfw adventures last year. I wonder if my kids would be bored?