So where am I on this issue?  I am still in the fog but perhaps it is lifting a little...

I have decided that we are certainly in the love of learning phase with my oldest occasionally toeing the line to scholar phase.  My son was entering the hate of learning zone but I think we have turned him around a bit.

Apparently, to do this phase we want to structure time and not content.  I have heard that this means tossing all curriculum out the window and using strictly  classics (classics = anything that you can learn from over and over again).  To keep yourself on track you use something like ED Hirsch's books or another such resource.  However, I did notice that DeMille lists the Saxon math series in his list of classics in the appendix of "Thomas Jefferson Education." 

I don't see myself getting rid of Math-U-See.  It  has proven (is proving) three times to teach my children basic math quite well.  I do see myself not requiring them to do so many worksheets per day or some such requirement.  I also don't see myself getting rid of Story of the World since we have thoroughly enjoyed this curriculum this year.  We do read real books with this curriculum so it seems like it fits and the activities suggested by the curriculum are key in the love part of our learning.

Now I am looking for a science curriculum that is literature based.  Since I haven't found anything remotely like that we will probably find a standard curriculum but do our studying from books, videos, etc. (classics) that address the topics in the lessons.

Science and history we do together in what some call "mom school" and this year we will also be doing a literature class together.  The literature class will coincide with a discussion group I hope to start among homeschoolers in our area.  Other than that the rest of school time will be sort of self-directed.  To be precise, we will have a starting time and an ending time for school work.  During that time, when we are not studying together, the students are to be engaged in an approved academic activity.  I plan to prepare a list that they can refer to.  Also, each student will have a contract lasting a month at a time that specifies what they are going to accomplish that month.  It will be something that we plan out together so that it is a sort of self-requirement the children make for themselves.

These are my plans.  Lord willing, we will be taking a new leap this coming schoolyear.