Homeschool?!?!?!?!

Many of you know that we started homeschooling the first of December. Gary and I had such a hard time coming to this decision. I have felt like doing it for years but never really made it a serious consideration, until now. First of all, our new house is in a different school's boundaries than the one we went to last year. However, the new school is twice as far from our house as the old one. Huh??? We seriously considered having the boys go to the old school but they really wanted to ride the bus to school. I have always been an anti-busite. I didn't like riding the bus when I was in school. There is the whole "cool kids" thing and the language, and especially the fact that they are on the bus for 45 minutes each way. That's an hour and a half bus trip for what takes me 20 minutes to drive. Well, we finally caved and let them take the bus. That only lasted a month before Spencer came home with some foul rhymes. So Gary started driving them to school every morning and I picked them up. It only took a few days for the boys to realize this was a much better arrangement. They could relax more in the morning and they got home a good 30 minutes before their friends. They could get their chores or other stuff done before anyone else got home. It was definitely an inconvenience but it was best for our kids.
Okay, so your thinking, "That is not a reason for home school." Here is the rest of our reasoning...Spencer would come home from school so grumpy. He was tired and he would complain that he was bored and not learning anything. But then, the bells really went off when I was talking to Benji's teacher. I would go and help her every Wednesday morning. The kids would go to computers or dance while I was there and we would talk a bit. She said that Benjamin and a few others in the class were ready to read but she couldn't go there yet because the rest of the class wasn't ready. I guess that's what did it for me. I'm not saying my kids are geniuses or anything but I think they should be challenged and given the opportunity to learn something new each day. So Gary and I listed the pros and cons and started investigating different programs. We talked to a number of families that home school and got their input. We asked their kids about what they do and don't like about being homeschooled and asked the Mom's about what was good and bad about it. We finally came to the decision to use the K12 program. It is a public school you teach at home. All of the curriculum is provided to you, along with any incidentals that are required for the course. We are assigned a teacher that helps answer any questions and keep us on schedule. Both boys were really excited when we presented the idea to them. They were so anxious to start and they loved the idea of being done with school by 2:00 everyday. So far, a month into it we are still working out the kinks. We have good and bad days. There has definitely been an adjustment and all of us are still learning how to work with each other. Right now it takes up all of my time. It is getting better. We are slowly figuring out the courses and how to best complete them. The boys still like it, Benjamin more than Spencer. We will finish out the year and then give each of them the choice next year. I think Benjamin will stick with it, but I think Spencer will want more social interaction. It is quite an adventure right now. One that is terribly inconvenient, but worth it in the long run. Wish us luck.