My absolute favorite curriculum choice, so far, has been IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing).
http://writing-edu.com/ This is very adaptable to teaching children of varying ages. It is a writing program (NOT handwriting, but actual writing program) that has turned my 12 yo son from someone who would rather clean up after the dog than write ANYTHING, to someone who can write a mini report willingly, in very little time (comparatively) and with style! I'm also using it with my 9 yo and she is having a great time with it. I can't recommend it enough. Also, this works very well with other courses, as it's the "writing" portion you'd love to see in something like science and social studies.
How we're beginning to use it (we first went through the Student Writing Intensive program and he did his regular studies with science and social studies, which he finished, so now...):
Monday: watch a documentary (spend 10 minutes taking notes from memory)
Tuesday: go to the library and he either looks up information on the topic in an encyclopedia or journal or book, (read a bit, take notes)
Wednesday: he does research on the internet (read a bit, take notes)
Thursday: he puts all the notes from the three sources together in a rough draft, and
Friday: he polishes it and hands it in.
In all, for a five paragraph report, it takes about 1 hour a day for a week and he enjoys it! (He can do one paragraph very easily, which is totally amazing since when I first started hsing him in October, one paragraph was nearly impossible.)