How do you decide what school is right for your kids?

Not to long ago we did a show about school choices. It is a hard decision for parents to make. Especially when you move often and you have to learn a new school system and what things are available in the new areas.

I have been struggling with the school choices for years with my kids. We have done both public and private. Just recently I have started home schooling the boys. I felt sure that God was leading me to put the boys at a private school in the area. It is a nice school. Small class sizes. Music program. Expensive.

We decided that we would wait to buy a house until next year. That way the boys could go to private school and next year our cars would be paid off and we could afford a higher house payment and tuition.(and braces)

Now with buying a house a whole year sooner than we expected we really can't afford to put them in private school. We could if we go back to no fun things. We struggled for so long as a young couple with 4 small kids that I am enjoying being able to take the kids to the beach or D.C. for the weekend. We have never been able to do that before. The girls are big enough that they will remember those things. The boys will remember some of them.

So we have a choice to make. Do I continue to home school them? It is a hard job. I'm not sure I am meant to do it anymore. I think it was meant as a season. I think that season has finished.(I could be wrong there, I have been wrong before)

Do we put them back at the public school that we really weren't happy with? We haven't really been happy with that school since we moved here.

Do we enroll them in the year round school? If we enroll them at year round school the boys will start school on July 15th. That means that Tanner will miss out on scout stuff that is already planned. Ted said it's just scouts and he can help him with it.

Or do we bite the bullet and tighten the belt for a year and put them at the private school? I felt led to enroll them they day that I did. Maybe I wasn't hearing God. Maybe I was being led astray. I keep having this thought "why isn't public school good enough for the boys? The girls have had a less than perfect education and they are doing just fine. I am much more prepared to supplement their learning because of homeschooling them these past few months." Then I think to myself. Okay self, then if public education it is, which public school do I put them at? The one that we didn't really like that we pulled them from, but has great test scores or the one that has terrible test scores, goes year round but seems to have a more individual approach to learning? Which one.

How do you decide? I keep thinking I need to make a decision and soon. Am I just over thinking it? Am I just being over protective of the boys? I feel like a mama bear protecting her cubs.