Last year at this time, homeschooling was the furthest thing from my mind. I had never even seriously entertained the idea.

Baby Smurf was born the August that Painter started kindergarten and Jokey started grade 1. Sending them off to school was the only thing I thought I sanely could do.

I never was happy with the public school. Despite the fact that we lived by the best, most award-decorated elementary school in the city, Jokey was miserable there almost from day one. Painter was little better.

The teachers and other staff was as helpful as they could be, but the problem was systemically ingrained in the modern paradigm of institutionalized learning and there was nothing they were going to be able to do to fix it. Let’s just say that public school is not a good fit for some kids.

Two weeks before school was to start last year, I called the school to make an appointment to meet the boys’ new teachers on the day before the first day of school, as all the parents are encouraged to do. That night, I was sick with anxiety over dealing with another year of school. Desperate for an answer (and some sleep), I prayed and asked God what I should do.

When I awoke the next morning, I had my answer. Homeschool. (Wait, are you sure God? Isn’t that where I stay home with my kids all day every day and fight with them to do school work? Can you give me a different solution?)

I mentioned it to my husband - who is a huge critic of public schools - and it turns out he is a big advocate of homeschool. He even e-mailed me articles that very day about the benefits of homeschooling.

I asked the kids if they would ever want to be homeschooled and they ran around the neighborhood yelling, “We get to be homeschooled!”

“Okay,” I thought, “I guess we’re homeschooling!”

I spent the next two days on-line trying to figure out how one goes about homeschooling.

In Vermont, we have to submit a curriculum to the state Home Study Office for approval (which they say is not really an “approval,” yet they have to say it is complete or else you are truant). I scoured the internet for guidelines, textbooks, standards, and anything else I could get my hands on to write my curriculum.

I submitted my paperwork to the state and then went in and told the school principal, who was surprisingly very supportive, that we would be homeschooling.

It was almost official. We were going to be homeschoolers.

Almost a year later, I can’t imagine not homeschooling. It has been stressful and difficult, even maddening at times. There were times I questioned my sanity.

There were also great times; in fact most of the times are great. My kids and I are much closer. I am constantly learning more about them and from them. They are less stressed out. They enjoy learning. They are experiencing life. They are growing their gifts. They are following their interests. They have no desire to go back to school and I have no desire to send them there.

It is official. We are homeschoolers!