I HAVE..........thus my obseervations are as valid as yours are.
I also know many "skinny" children who attend public and private schools who are athletically inclined, spend hours outdoors on a daily basis in loosely supervisored and team activities. In fact only one child on my duaghter's little league team does not attend a public school, and there is not an overweight child on the entire team.
I also suspect that institutionalized child is more likely to have a mom with a job outside of the home. Perhaps babysitters are more likely to use food and TV as pacifiers.
It is the rare child in my community that is not supervised by a stay-at-home parent, a close relative or a family friend. Of the moms that do work outside the home, the majority have positions which coincide with school hours. So while your observations may in fact be true for your community, they are the total opposite of my community and thus can not be extended to said community.
Homeschoolers are every where. Why do you think it is growing?
Perhaps, others will begin to notice, as I have, that there are very, very few homeschoolers out there who are obese. ( If they have been homeschooled from the beginning.) I, personally, have **never** met one.
So..Parents are choosing homeschooling because they see the superior academic achievement and socialization of homeschoolers. Perhaps they too, if it is pointed out to them, will see, as I have, that homeschoolers are not likely to be fat.
But,,,I bet,,,That parents deciding on institutionalizing their children, or choosing the more natural environment of the home, will begin to notice that the kids rolling off the big yellow prison buses ( oops! “school” buses) are more than likely to be fat. It’s hard to miss.