DH and I ahve always talked about HS, but due to certain life events, it was out of the question for the past two yrs.

DS is now in K, very bored and well, I will be back in the home starting in June and we think that we are ready to begin HS. My question is this: Where do we begin?

I would prefer a non-Christian based approach and something where I can let my sons interests guide both him and I down the path of learning, incorporating reading, writing, language arts, math, science, etc...

Ds is also very hands on and independant...sooo, where to begin?:)

You might want to start here:

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/findoutmore.php

I personally do a hodge podge of stuff. Even though I have a "curriculum" I usually stray and do my own thing. You might want to check out the thread "What curriculum are you using?" down below.

I'm finding Well Trained Mind very fun for my kids. We read some from the "Story of theWorld" book and if it interests them, then we read more. They wouldn't have a CLUE that this stuff is out there for them to even learn about if I didn't expose them to it.

We're also having really good luck with Living Learning Books science. We use those as our bases, then jump off. Our reading comes from those topics... my kids made me keep reading Beowulf stories to them because they loved them so much. We have been reading and learning about the Earth's layers... and they keep getting deeper and deeper. When they are ready to move on, we do. Story of the World and Living Learning Books has provixded us with books lists, activities, websites, etc. to delve into these topics deeper.

If you are looking for something that is relaxed and is cross curricullar, I would look into both of those.