Are Textbooks Where It's At?

Being the kind of homeschooler I am, and all that, I have generally avoided textbooks like the plague. But, I am finding them creeping insidiously into our homeschooling journey.



First, it was history. I bought the book on the left three times, and sold it twice before we actually tried it out. And when we tried it at long last, we loved it!

And then it was math... we tried to make a non-textbook approach work, but there were too many gaps...

 Now, science?


 

Well,I don't know... yet. I did order the four books above, which are older versions, but I heard they haven't changed much in the last ten years, so I don't mind older. And they were cheap that way.

I think what it comes down to is that I am tired of trying to piece things together. I know I don't want an all-in-one curriculum in a box, because I like to pick and choose what we will use, but using books like the above do make things more streamlined for me. And I know the basics are covered.

I'll admit, I'm looking into "all in one" language arts too...

I'm not positive yet if I will buy these... I do still love Brave Writer. Hmmmm.....

ETA: I'm going to go with my gut, and stick to Brave Writer, with a little extra thrown in.

How have you found your approach to homeschooling changing over the years?