For parents who decide to home school their children, the experience can be both exhilarating and daunting. Ten years ago, finding good curriculum was difficult. Now people are trying to find a curriculum to fit their lifestyle.
Some families prefer to follow a packaged curriculum to the letter.
The U.S. Department of Education estimates that up to 50 percent of home-school families use materials from publishers and correspondence schools, especially when they're new to home schooling. Others construct their own study materials from start to finish. Experienced home-school families often pluck the best subject matter from a variety of curriculums, plus create some elements themselves. That's what Elise Mandel of Lexington does. For us, it's just very eclectic.