I found it!

The best homeschooling curriculum for my family! After much research and prayer I finally decided to try Sonlight, a literature based Christian homeschooling curriculum. It is known most for its high cost, but with great searching and a little saving, I found a used set for a great deal! We returned from vacation last Sunday early in the morning (drove all night) and rested all day. The next day, without much thought I decided to jump right into our routine and try out this new program. I loved it...and am still loving it! We accomplished our first week of school with many "can we do more"...it was great! Here is a run down of our day/week.
*I will go through most of our day just because it is fun to look back and remember my routine at different stages of life.
Morning:
My children wake up and do their chore packs - make beds, put away laundry from individual buckets, and empty dishwasher.
Breakfast - we eat oatmeal most mornings because my children love it and it is filling and easy!
They usually go play outside for a little bit because it gets too hot later on in the day. I usually do laundry and clean up from breakfast at this time. Hallie naps in the morning. On Mondays, I clean house in the mornings intermittent with school.
When I finish up the children come in and I start school with Katelyn. Makenna and Brenden play together inside or outside, or Brenden likes to play Starfall on the computer (excellent reading website).
School:
We start with Bible (Sonlight). For Bible we are reading a book called "Leading Little Ones to God", reading through Mark (we are actually listening to it on CD just to add variety), and working on memorizing Psalms 1.
Next we do phonics/language. This year we are using Abeka for this part because I already had the workbooks. Next year I will probably use Sonlight. For phonics/language I give her the lesson, and then she independently works on her seatwork, practices cursive, and reads.
After phonics we move to history and read alouds from Sonlight. We are reading: a book about people and cultures around the world, a missionary book with various short stories, and a book about the Bibleless countries around the world (we then pray for the country we read about). Each day we only read a short amount and some books we only read once a week. For read alouds we are reading a poem book and Charlotte's Web. During this book I have all of the children sit and listen and I hand out a Skittle each time I turn the page to those sitting quietly...it works great with Makenna! We usually read this book after lunch.
In the afternoons, Makenna, Hallie, and usually Brenden all nap. During this time Katelyn and I work on math and science.
For math we are using Abeka. I give her the lesson and then she works on her seatwork independently.
For science (Sonlight) we have been reading through a Magic School Bus book called Water Works. Brenden and Katelyn really enjoyed this book. There is also a student sheet that goes with the lessons...more or less a worksheet (fun one) that we only did part of each day. On Friday we watched a video on how to do our experiments and then we did some experiments with water. Katelyn, Brenden, and Makenna all enjoyed this. We started late this day and so everyone was awake from naps.
I love the way this curriculum is set up. It is so easy to follow and easy to put into action. We are able to take lots of little breaks throughout the day. Katelyn loves to look at all the books and all of my kids love when I read aloud to them. I feel that we can be very flexible and creative with our reading. Sometimes I read the read alouds during lunch or at bedtime. If we have a busy day we can read a little extra the next day. There is no prep work for me and so more time to enjoy the lessons...and get stuff done around the house!
***Funny story:
Several years ago I purchased another curriculum. It sounded so great and wonderful and I was excited about it. Well, I would spend a bunch of time planning and prepping and then when the day would come for us to start a unit I would realize that I was missing several needed items. I am not kidding...it never failed, I always forgot something. So, I would get frustrated because I didn't have everything and then I would get unmotivated and throw out the unit. Yep, started several units...never finished them...okay, so I hardly started them. Well, a few months ago this happened. This program was so great and I was so determined to be that great homeschooling mom and make learning FUN! We were going to start a unit on trapping (and other things). Well, the first week we were supposed to make a coons hat...well, what do you know, I forgot to go out and kill my raccoon for my coon's hat (or run to Michael's and grab some fake fur and sew one together!) AHH! Why can I not be super-homeschooling mom??? So, I admitted that I was done and I needed to find another program that fit my families needs. So, I came upon Sonlight and ordered their catalog. In their catalog had a section of 27 reasons to and NOT to use Sonlight. Reason # 2 of Not to buy Sonlight...(quoted from catalog) "We don't schedule time-consuming activities like making raccoon-skin caps..." The moment I read that, I first laughed and then decided this must be the program for me...and it is! God knew what I needed...I just had to be patient to find it! Just to add, that other curriculum that I still have is a great program and those that are successful with it are truly supermoms. I will just strive to be supermom with a program that fits my needs...and strengths!