Schooling

So of all of the things I worried about when I had a baby(money, nursing, poo) it never even crossed my mind that school would be an issue. Lately I have been overwhelmingly obsessing about what schooling situation would be best for our family. Kaden just turned four and has only two years left at his wonderful montessori school. If we had a primary montessori school in town then this would not even be an issue but since the closest one is one hour away (and believe me I have heavily weighed the benefits of actually going that far for good schooling)in the end it is just not practical or feasible to go that route. So back to square one. I really would love some input on this topic from anyone willing to give an opinion.

So yes, I have thought about putting them in the public school, but here are my problems with this. 1. (And by far the biggest problem) Our drop out rate is over 35% (yes apparently this is possible) 2. I want my children to not only learn the facts that they need to know but I want them taught in a way that gives them the positive experience of learning something new, and not just learn how to regurgitate information. I want a philosophy that teaches them the joy of learning new things, and something that will give them the independence to research the things that interest them. 3. I want the arts to be an integrated and important part of their learning, be it music, art, language, movement, etc. I want them to learn the importance of these traits. 4. I want them to feel safe and not judged in their learning environment. 5. I want them to have an adequate amount of challenge yet not be overwhelmed with the 'tasks' they are made to do.
I am sure this list could go on but let me get to our options:
1. The obvious first option is public school. I loved my public school and did not feel I got the short end of the stick when it came to learning. We had many extracurricular activities, many electives to choose from, and I had great friends. I do feel, however, that public school has changed even since I have been out of school, with budget cuts, hardcore bullying, and just living in a smaller southern town in general, I don't feel my boys will receive the type of education that would be best for our family and our values. This said, public school would allow us to have more outside experiences such as traveling because we would save a lot of money not having to worry about paying tuition.

2. I have heard a lot of really great things about Happy Hills Farm, a private school on acres and acres of land. This school is also a boarding school which is interesting. I have not visited the inside of this school yet but have heard that once I do visit I will not want my children anywhere else. They receive a substantial amount of funding from the Dallas Cowboys and so they have a lot of extras that a public school does not. The older children raise livestock on the land, they also have horses which the children learn to ride. The curriculum is basically the same format as the public school but there is only an average of 10-15 children per class as opposed to 30. The down side to this is that it is very expensive and I would definitely have to work full time to afford, which I do not really want to do because I want to have a more active role in their schooling and lives in general.

3. The third option we have is a home school coop called the SHAPE academy. This is so far what I am leaning towards. It really has the best of both worlds in that the children attend school for 3 days a week and are home schooled for 2 days a week. The curriculum includes electives such as gymnastics, art, pottery, photography, Latin, Spanish, piano, guitar and others, and we could have more time to teach them the subjects that we feel are important for them to learn. Because the price of this program is substantially lower than the private school I listed, we would possibly have more money to experience other things such as traveling and more time for field learning.

I would love to hear everyone's opinions (and may even sleep better at night). This is a tough decision that will affect the rest of their lives so any input would be much appreciated. I will let everyone know what we decide in further postings. Thanks for reading this long, drawn out post :)