Re:Extracurricular activites (Score 1)

Family members homeschool. They also have their kids involved in sports teams. The area where they live has an incredible homeschooling network, so one can find many activities (options available every day) even for sub-groups of home schoolers (e.g., Protestant, Catholic, ...) Visiting a friend in CA where homeschoolers have to be a bit more ecumenical (e.g., hippy neo-pagans and traditional Christians going on the same field trips), the nature field trip I joined them on was pretty impressive.

Much of school is a waste of time for both the slow students (who can't keep up) and the gifted students (who are bored). Being able to tailor to the interest and ability of a child seems to me to be a pretty strong argument for home schooling. The socialization issue can be worked outside the classroom and on fieldtrips/sporting activities.