I only know few from the research i have seen. Children that are home schooled have less of an understanding of the world, cultural diversity, differing opinions, and have a harder time socializing in college.

According to Barna, homeschoolers are almost twice as likely to be evangelical as the national average (15 percent vs 8 percent), and that 91 percent describe themselves as Christian, although only 49 percent can be classified as "born again Christians." It found they were five times more likely to describe themselves as "mostly conservative" on political matters than as "mostly liberal," although only about 37 percent chose "mostly conservative", and were "notably" more likely than the national average to have a high view of the Bible and hold orthodox Christian beliefs. wikipedia

I've known many people who were homeschooled, most had terrific grades, some entered college and did really well. None were social misfits or felt awkward with their peers, in fact, I'd say they were more comfortable being with people of all ages. If they did well, it was because they chose to find that motivation for themselves, something that many public school taught students never acquire and also learn how to study instead of just sitting there being taught by someone else. My brother, who is 17 years younger than I, was homeschooled and did real well, even when they were sailing around the world and just had a year's worth of curricula at a time. He loved going at his own pace. Later, he went to college, even being a part of the SeaMester, again going around the world. "Numerous studies have found that homeschooled students on average outperform their peers on standardized tests. Among the homeschooled students who took the tests, the average homeschooled student outperformed his public school peers by 30 to 37 percentile points across all subjects. The study also indicates that public school performance gaps between minorities and genders were virtually non-existent among the homeschooled students who took the tests. New evidence has been found that homeschooled children are getting higher scores on the ACT and SAT tests. A study at Wheaton College in Illinois showed that the freshmen that were homeschooled for high school scored fifty-eight points higher on their SAT scores than those students who attended public or private schools. Most colleges look at the ACT and SAT scores of homeschooled children when considering them for acceptance to a college. On average, homeschooled children scores eighty-one points higher than the national average on the SAT scores." from wiki

Ok, well, I was home schooled in kindergarten by my mom. All I can say to you is that I learned faster cuz I had 1 on 1 time with my mom, I developed better learning skills than my peers who were in ordinary kindergarten, and I was really prepared for three years of Polish public grade school education that awaited me after I spent the last two years of my life in America (which is a considerable amount of time for someone who has been speaking for three years and has only started to register memory at the age of 4 (so scientists say), since I was 6 at that time. Another thing I remember is that socializing was a little harder, because I didn't have any friends during the time that I was home schooled (10-11 months), and that I wasn't used to the Polish culture of youngsters my age (the last friends I had then was at daycare in Michigan), still remember some of that lol. Now outside of my experience I will tell you that I am totally against home schooling. I highly encourage you to teach your kid how to count, read and write, and whatever else you see that he's having trouble with, but the rest, just leave it to him and his teachers. I'm in university now and I'm doing Criminology and Criminal Justice as a single honors degree in England and I've been educated worldwide, and all I can tell you is that school only provided me with IT skills, reading skills/taking notes, and literally some history that are needed for my course (and my course is in the department of LAW & criminology). Even though i did really well in school, I really don't need skills like Polish or German (which I can speak/write), algebra, geography, chemistry, physics, astronomy, shoot, "everything" in uni (that I took beforehand). 95% of it is useless, and is only needed to get into the next grade in my opinion. All schooling really is is instilling conformity and obedience into younger people, so they grow up to be disciplined and law abiding individuals in a given country. < that's what I actually learned at uni to be honest and that's what I've noticed in my experience as well so that is a statement that I strongly agree with. I can go on and on on this topic but I'll keep this short by adding one last final statement: Social skills are detrimental. You want your kids to be street smart. I would encourage you to send them to exchange programs. I would encourage you to go traveling to different continents. That is the learning that takes place. I've learned more through traveling than through school. Please don't bother with home schooling. I read that home schooling doesn't provide young people the knowledge of how to exist in society and then they become social outcasts because of that. I felt that on my own skin, even at the age of 6! And I even remembered that! Sure I picked up on social skills really fast, but imagine what I would have been like had I been home schooled for 3 years and not just 1... Social skills are the things that are really important in the future. No matter how much physics you know, it's not gonna help you in your life once you get out of that cubicle you work in 5 days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. I don't know if that's the answer you're looking for, because your question is rather general but if you want to ask me anything about any schooling, I'm more than happy to go into a discussion with you xD (and I respect your opinion)

Myself and my 4 siblings were homeschooled and we had a large peer group that were homeschooled as well. All of us tested into college by age 17 (my sister entered college at 14) and I can tell you the benefits are VERY high. People worry about socialization and kids not fitting in with public schoolers their age but it just isn't a problem. There are thousands of support groups out there. We had 2 field trips per month with other home schoolers in our area and, as we were all educated alike, we were able to relate to each other easier than others our age that were public schooled. In fact, it was quite frustrating trying to carry on conversations with public schooled kids our age simply because we weren't on the same intellectual level. I think the best part of homeschooling is the relationship that is built between the children and the parents. School days aren't filled with busy work and only last 2 or 3 hours at the most, leaving a lot of precious time for the family to spend together. One little piece of trivia my mom loves to use: In 1910, a child entered school at about 10 years of age. Upon entering school, the average child's vocabulary was that of today's Harvard graduate. That means, today's Harvard graduate has the vocabulary of a 10 year old living in 1910! Homeschooling can be effective if you let it.

That is more than a book, and there isn't enough room here. I know that I have been a public school teacher, and that education isn't what it was when I was a kid and it sure as heck isn't what it was when my mother and grandmother were kids. My mother had more credits in more subjects at the end of high school than the kids she was teaching a couple of years ago had by the end of college. The protections offered by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) don't just protect kids with physical disabilities or low IQ, they also protect kids with mental illnesses who often come from homes that are so chaotic that it is hard to tell where the bipolar ends and the fetal alcohol syndrome begins and what part was played by the fact that daddy cooked up a batch of crystal meth in the kitchen last night. Our schools are filled with criminals. Our curriculum has been dumbed down until its a joke. We are wasting the youth of entire generations and calling that normal. I have been watching friends, neighbors and family members home schooling for several years now, and when the time came, my husband I and decided that we could not put our child in public school in all good conscience. We have homeschooled from the beginning. Our child is six and a half and in first grade. She writes fluently in cursive and manuscript. She has learned to spell enough words that she is starting to write quickly. She is nearly past the point of sounding out words and is beginning to just read stories. Her comprehension is excellent. She has memorized most of her addition and subtraction facts up to tens family. She knows how to tell time by the hour and half hour. She can use a calendar, a thermometer and a ruler by whole inches. She does art and music weekly and she is doing some rudimentary science and social studies. She is done in 3 to 4 hours each day and does not waste her day standing in line and riding the bus, waiting for her classmates to settle down and to finish. She does not face violence and bullying on a daily basis. She can go to the bathroom when she needs to and doesn't have to wait with her back teeth floating until its time to go to the bathroom. She can get a drink when she wants and doesn't have to wait with parched lips. I don't have to worry what older kids might do to her in the bathroom (I taught juvenile sex offenders who had molested younger kids in the bathroom and two of my students were caught having sex in the bathroom). I don't have to worry about the bus driver not putting her off at the right stop so that she rides the bus all afternoon through the middle school and high school runs like happened to my neighbors kid. The bottom line is that no matter what the naysayers say, homeschool kids do better than public school kids on average and across the board. It doesn't make any difference if the parents are accredited or not. Some states do require that and the research shows that it make no difference. It does not matter if the parent even finished high school. What matters is that parents have more at stake than the state does. What matters is that the parent loves the kid, and the state doesn't. What matters is that the kid does not belong to the state. This is not the USSR. This is not China. This is not East Germany. The state does not own our kids. And when we have a stake in educating our own kids, we do a better job. http://www.hslda.org/Default.asp?bhcp=1 http://www.hslda.org/docs/study/ray2009/2009_Ray_StudyFINAL.pdf