I try really hard to be a thrifty homeschooler. We have a room full of books, but I like to use textbooks as a guide. Our goal has always been that if something happens and our kids have to go back to public school, they will be right where they need to be. I have no doubt that they are well-rounded and could perform well in school. But I stil like to know that I'm meeting their needs. I tried letting them choose subjects to study in science, but we kept studying animals. We learned A LOT about animals, but not much about other topics. :)
Starting in late spring, any time I'm in Half Price Books I'll cruise through their homeschooling section. It's really hit or miss, but after a few trips I usually find what I need to cover science and social studies. Last spring I found a science book for Belle, it's on her level and is full of great information. It is also full of great little investigations (hands-on, one for each lesson) and we have had great fun filling her science journal with data and observations.
It is a "retired" public school book, so a few things are out of date. But, since it's general life science, it's not too far off base. The one thing we did find was the Food Guide Pyramid. However, even current adoptions are out of date since the government's plate concept is very new. No worries! We modified the book with a little help from some internet-found graphics and voila!
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