I agree that learning to read and then reading for enjoyment and learning is the most essential component to an education.
Now that my daughter is in kindergarten, the thing I miss most is the hours we used to sit and read together.
On a different topic, I wish there was some research on homeschoolers that was NOT done by Brian Ray. I feel like it is not totally impartial when a big homeschool proponent seems to provide 90% of the research on the topic.
Try the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) at http://www.eric.ed.gov/. This is a prestigious and a very user-friendly site. I typed "homeschooling" into the search box and retrieved nearly 200 hits.