Variety is the Spice of School: Eclectism

All the walls in my house are eggshell white. It's boring. But I've never been confident with color. Plus, we got all the paint for our almost 2,000 square feet for about $5. Cheap AND boring.
This same trend of boring does not carry over into our homeschool, however. And good thing.
Again and again, I read comments from moms in total frustration: they are using a boxed or computer-based curriculum, and their child is uninterested, unmotivated, bored, underwhelmed and they don't know what to do about it.
My advice? Paint some rooms red and yellow.
There is a reason I use a different curriculum for each subject. It changes things up enough to keep things interesting. Notice I didn't say fun. I don't believe school will always be fun. In fact, often it's not fun at all. If I made school fun all the time, I'd be doing a disservice to my children. Learning is often hard work, and success in life depends much upon a person's ability to forge ahead in spite of being not fun.
But interesting is different. If my children were sitting in front of a computer all day, then filling out worksheets, I can see how the novelty would wear off fast (not to mention the protective layer over their cornea.) I hear it more often than not: "My child simply loved doing all their work on the computer at the beginning of the year... now it's like pulling teeth!"
The "all-in-one-place" method of homeschooling is very attractive to parents. It takes a huge burden off of them. They don't have to lesson plan or teach. These are time-consuming endeavors, to be sure. But I'm flummoxed as to how a 10 year old boy can be expected to sit in front of a computer for hours a day and not go out of his cotton-picking mind.
To avoid this, we do a little of everything. To homeschooler, it's known as eclectic style: a different curriculum for every subject. We use DVDs, workbooks, textbooks, lap books, teacher read-alouds, audio Cd's, memory songs, documentaries, instruction, online drills.... To put it simply, we use it all.
I can see why 'simple for mommy' is so tempting. I have four children. All this variety is not easy. It requires planning ahead, scheduling and perseverance. These are not things that come naturally to me. But my children's education is more important to me than just about anything, so I put on my big girl panties and forge ahead. Oh, there it is again: things that are not fun but necessary....
My children use Math-U-See with which they view a DVD every Monday morning, then complete five pages of math during the week reinforcing the new concept and reviewing former ones.
Language Arts for my three younger children is Phonics Road, which is very teacher intensive. I spend about a half hour a morning with each child on this subject. This year my older son is reading classics and completing Jump In - a workbook based writing program.
Science is also teacher intensive with my three younger children. Twice a week for one hour, I read to them and the children complete lap books based on the new information. There is much discussion during this time, during which I can easily determine not only mastery, but also where further explanation is needed. We often end our time watching online videos of the animals which reinforces the lesson in a fun, visual way. My older son is working through Apologia's General Science textbook independently.
History is also taught by me, three times a week for an hour. All my children are together during this time. Teaching to multiple levels at once is not as hard as it would seem and I believe it benefits both the younger and older children. We use a variety of tools from independent reading to watching documentaries, with lots of discussion in between.
Using a different learning method for every subject may not always be fun, bit it serves to change things up enough that I'm not wrestling with my sons every day over every subject.
Now if only I could convince myself to paint the living room blue...