Landy and others, Homschooling is NOT about isolation. At least proper, valued homeschooling is not. The parents seek out all sorts of varied people to provide input. The parents are the "school" and are able to trade out, or find experts in fields to take some classes from once a week.
There are homeschool groups organized in a school setting, but held only once a week. This gives the children a taste of the group settings, they do group projects.
It is NOT isolating! It is making the best use of the time in education, lots of away from the desk learning. Lots of field trips with educational subjects incorporated all around. Some subjects like math or grammar ( languages), must be rote memorization for a while to get a good foundation, then take off on different routes. Imagine your home schooled Spanish class with other homeschooled kids in an immersion Spanish class by a native speaker. A robotics class taught by a retired engineer who thoroughly loves the subject. These classes are common. To go to one location, learn from the same set of teachers every day, 9+ months out of the year with 30 or so other classmates is not helpful. Every person learns at different paces. Different ways. It creates stress for those not learning at the same pace of the teachers curriculum. This is not how to foster a love of learning.
Homeschooled kids are able to take advantage of taking acting classes at the local theater which are offered during regular school hours. Be in plays, during school hours. Take music lessons from local conservatories and even do concerts, which can be during school hours, or conflict with traditional school activities. There are homeschool sports teams. They are able to spend more family time together without the confines of a school system dictating the days off, which many times do not coordinate.
I could keep going, but will stop now.... /end soapbox
