Couldn't help but notice that almost everybody commenting negatively on home schooling seems to have no actual experience with or knowledge of home schooling. The negative opinions expressed so far are mostly based on 'well it seems to me...' type arguments. Not that there isn't any research indicating potential issues with homeschooling. I just haven't seen much. I have seen lots of evidence (i.e. peer reviewed studies) supporting homeschooling as a viable or better option to most public schooling options.
Disclaimer: I was home schooled. I think I am reasonably well adjusted socially, and academically successful. I am currently pursuing a PhD in Atomic Physics.
A couple of points to consider. These are just my opinion:
1) Learning is much, much, much (can't stress this enough!) more dependent on individual desire and interest than on the resources available to them (at least now days, since resources are nearly unlimited to anyone who cares). I believe one of the biggest failures of public schooling is the tendency to teach students to be passive in their education, to dislike learning, reading, discovery and so on. I was mostly self taught in home school. It would have been great to have licensed, trained, etc., teachers to teach the subjects I was interested in, but I think I learned far more as a self motivated student without trained teachers than I would have as an unmotivated student with teachers.
2) Learning social skills IS NOT THE PURPOSE OF SCHOOL. That is what friends, sports, extracurricular activities and so on are for. This idea that the whole point of school is to learn social skills is ludicrous. Understand, though, that if you are going to home school a child, you need to make sure they have ample social opportunities, especially if they are particularly shy and don't seek that out on their own. That being said, unless they are very shy or you keep them in a cage (figuratively speaking), socialization with peers and others will happen quite naturally without your intervention anyway.
3) Myth: 'Professional', 'trained', 'educated' teachers are much better teachers than parents. Truth: a) Parents have much more capability to help their children want to learn. Now, see my first point. b) Public school teachers don't make much money. Teaching education degrees are significantly easier to obtain than hard STEM degrees (based reports from various friends who have done both). The result of these facts is that teachers are either those who aren't smart or ambitious enough to do something more rewarding, or those who really, really, really passionately care about teaching. I've seen both types in public school systems in the years I did attend school, but (depending on the school) I think the second is much less common. In a sense, then, the teachers and educational 'role models' for children early on are often basically the dregs of higher education. Most of those smart/talented/self-motivated enough to go into a more rewarding career did so.
4) Every child is different. Every parent is different. Every school is different. Every teacher is different. There isn't going to be a right answer every time. I think that most of the time homeschooling is a good or even better alternative. What research exists seems to corroborate that idea. The good news is you can do both. Home school for a couple years. Let your child go to school for a year. Monitor their maturity, their academic progress and social skills. Decide from there what to do. In some cases, you may even be able to do half and half (half day of public school, or just one class daily for older kids, etc.).
