Here's where I'm at right now:
I am split on my thoughts about Classical and Charlotte Mason approaches. I do realize that Charlotte was a type of classical educator.
I do think that mastery in math is a good way to go, however I am seeing that boredom is easy and quick to set in. I also dont want a 100% spiral approach because the student never masters the subject. I have been using MUS and my ds is bored. He liked the math blocks at first but now he wants to try to do the math in his head without them. I'm looking at the R&S because it has black and white pictures on the math page but it doesn't look too distracting. I've looked at Horizons and Mathematical Reasoning but they seem like they'd just confuse him because of all the colors and different pictures on a single page.
I'm undecided on language arts. Like I mentioned, we have been using the Pathway Readers and they really seem to keep his attention. The problem I'm having is finding something to go along with them. I ordered the workbooks along with "Climbing to Good English" from Milestonebooks.com and just received them in the mail yesterday. The problem I'm already finding is that as I am reading the teaching information in the front, I guess I'm supposed to be using another workbook to go along with the other workbooks. "You have got to be kidding me" was my response. How many workbooks for one subject does a child need to work on at one sitting?!? I'm ready to send them back now. I'd really like to find something that doesn't require so much time working out of multiple workbooks. I already own (and ds has completed part) Queen's Language Lessons for Little Ones 3 which is supposed to go through a full phonics course by the end of the book. They take on the CM approach for LA. The lessons are short (almost too short) and it's easy for me to teach/help him. So I may just continue with that series. Like I stated, I am split on the philosophies so I dont believe that phonics needs to be pressed so hard, but I also dont think that sight reading should be the only way to learn reading either. Also, ds just started trying to write cursive ON HIS OWN this last week! So, I really need to find a cursive book for him. We have been loosely using A Reason for Handwriting "A", but the next book doesnt move in to cursive yet. Maybe its time to move to a different curriculum. I've been looking at Memoria Press and see that they suggest "American Cursive". Looks interesting. I dont want to rely on the Pathway Readers for his only literature, just for learning reading. I do plan on using a book list for literature from someone - maybe MP, AO, IEW, or SL. They all have great book lists. Choices, choices. We can do narration from those books, etc.
I think I am going to try the "Young Explorer Series" for him this next school year. "Exploring creation with Astronomy" looks fun. Nature studies is great, but I can't necessarily go out and walk through the woods easily with ds because I am in a wheelchair. I do what I can, but it definitely cant be the only science for him because of this. We need something we can use on a more regular basis that does not depend on me trekking through the mud or off the beaten path unfortunately. DH works all the time so he isn't available to help with that much. But sometimes he can.
History with SOW is working great. I love how the book is narrative and chronological. I plan on moving on to MOH once we are done with the series. We use the correlating workbook that gives lit suggestions, mapping, coloring pages, etc. I plan on fully implementing this resource. I did not like SOW at first. But, I found that MOH is way over his head at 1st grade (we tried using it because of my older son). I tried SL but we just dont care for the Usborne books they extensively use (I prefer the Kingfisher books instead). Their curriculum jumped all over the place too which was really hard for me being more of a type-A personality needing a more systematic, organized approach. So, I returned the SL. I bought SOW, returned it, then picked it up again after finding how easy it really is for early elementary grades and it also keeps his attention. We are sticking with it this time.
I hope this explains enough so that if you have suggestions, you can help.
Thanks!