I was homeschooled up until grade 4. When I started going to an actual (albeit private) school, I had *no* idea how to interact with everybody else. So I didn't. I never talked to anyone, because I didn't know what to talk about - I was never allowed to watch their cartoons or play with their toys or have anything in common with them. And I'm sure high school is always an awkward time, but it was doubly awkward with me. (It didn't help that, going to a small private K-12 school, my classmates in high school were the same people who remembered all of my social blunders from fourth grade and, worse, all the good times they had before I showed up. It was like everyone in school being in one big clique except you.)
Even now, in college, I've just started to make close friends and become more confident. And my few close friends are also outsiders, raised by religious freaks, because at least we have that in common. But I wouldn't trade them for the world. :)
And I STILL turned out agnostic and liberal and gay. Funny that.
In my opinion, homeschooling is one of the worst things you can do to a child. It's isolation of the worst sort, and one that they may never get over. Looking back at my own life, though; I'm not sure if I would change it - I would be a completely different person, I think, if I hadn't been homeschooled, so accepting myself now would also mean accepting my upbringing. But I also accept that I will always lack a certain social grace that comes naturally to others - I will always try too hard, or be too eager, and there aren't very many social occaisions when I don't idly wonder who I would be if I had more contact with other children growing up.
So, um, don't homeschool.
