You are not alone Shadowrider - I think a lot of people start homeschooling around grade 4 or 5 - when the pre-adolescence starts to kick in and you start really seeing some of the flawed social dynamic and agenda-driven curricula in public school. The author of the curricula I use for science and history - his original focus was "Connect The Thoughts" which starts in 3rd or 4th grade - he added his lower elementary "First Step" later and by his own admission he did not go back and look at the early levels of Saxon math that went along with his recommendations.
On a similar note the "First Step" curriculum I use is very flawed in terms of just basic copy editing etc. It is just not as thoroughly developed and edited as the material he has for higher grades which has had more use and time to have had the kinks worked out. I have had to edit First Step materials myself before using them. But I use it because it is a valuable organization of what kids should be taught at younger ages, and that is SO hard to find - especially if, like me, you are trying to stay away from a Christian-based curriculum.
I've found that the people I resonate with have the philosophy that REAL education, in the way we think of "formal education" does not really begin until about age 9 or 10 anyways. Prior to that it is mostly abound providing a foundation and context for what will be learned once the child is more mature. Reading fluency, writing proficiency, a mastery of math basics, basic life skills, and a basic understanding of the way the world works are the best things to teach your children prior to age 9 or 10. Historically, students at this early age did most of their learning by doing functional things in their environment. A lot of curricula confuse the matter and make it needlessly complicated. Trying to teach a child of 6 about ecosystems and how to protect them - common in public school these days - is a waste of time when a lot of children that age cannot yet identify their local flora and fauna.
My child in 1st grade public school spent all of "Black History Month" talking about black Americans. I am all for studying the contributions of African Americans, but what does the emphasis on "black Americans" in February teach 1st graders? It teaches them "Huh, for some reason, we must segregate historical figures due to their skin color when we study them." First graders did not walk into the classrooom with a preconceived notion that history is all about white men, but by feeding 1st graders "Black History" we are teaching them that blacks are in a separate category that must be studied independently from the rest of history. How about we teach first graders WHAT history is, WHY we study it, and then teach the geography, culture, religion - truth, opinion, lies, justice and injustice - and then when we get to the 5 W's we can incorporate people of all backgrounds and their contributions.
Anyways, a lot of these erroneous early-elementary approaches to all subjects are replicated in homeschool curricula as well. I think by upper elementary, most people figure out that kids can more or less learn the same way adults do - by reading real books and through independent study - albeit with some additional adult guidance. Lower elementary, they really can't, so a lot of the curricula falls back on the public school model and all its problems.
