I've home-schooled for many years, only until high school. I agree with many of the posters. It can be good; it can be bad. It just depends. -- Motivation is important. I've seen people that are into the isolation thing, and it's very concerning, and doesn't work. -- If the mother is not a person that relishes study, reading, research, and education herself, it will become an incredible burden, and she will resent the huge outlay of time , energy, money ,etc. ANyone prone to anxiety or depression should NOT do it. -- It also takes a lot of energy to take them to sports, activities and music lessons, and everywhere so they can have many social experiences.
On the plus side: You can tailor subjects to the student individually. They may be advanced at one, and slow in another. No coming home after long day at school to face hours of homework, as some do ,even in grade school! They have more free / down time when they're very young to be active, play outside and get into hobbies/interests.
Here in Arizona some of the school districts are very large, and tend to be poor quality. There is a huge charter school movement here, though, which is cool!
cheers, auntbee, bridget, tucson