One of the books that everyone who chooses to home school (or even contemplates doing it) should read is Home Educating with Confidence: How Ordinary Parents Can Produce Extraordinary Children by Rick and Marilyn Boyer. If any couple would be experts on the subject, it would have to be the Boyers, who have 12 children, all home schooled.
In the chapter on curriculum, they include this thought provoking gem. Pay special attention to the last sentence:
The same principles that make one successful in any arena, work in learning: diligence, motivation, planning, resourcefulness and good judgement. I’m not saying that there is no value whatever in any of the concepts represented by professional terminology. I’m just saying that people were learning, happily and productively, before education became the realm of the professional. Has it ever occurred to you that Abraham Lincoln made it from the log cabin to the White House without ever knowing that he had a left and right brain?
Imagine all the things we think are essential that the greatest minds in history didn’t know! At the risk of echoing the Boyers, I’m not saying your kids dont need to learn about the beautiful design of the natural world, I’m just saying that character counts for more than anything, and the most important learning is the kind that helps your kids become good people and helps them to make the world a better place when they grow up. The kids you teach today can have great character and know things Washington, Lincoln, Newton and Curie never dreamed of.
Accurate Impressions 