We have been home schooling for 8 years now. We travel from coast to coast. We've been involved with hundred's of home school families. In all that we've encountered we've only come across one family who truly did NOT teach their children. The mom suffered from depression and just didn't want to deal with studies for her children and she did end up putting them in classes in CA. For you to have gotten 6 children from the same community is somewhat hard to believe. My son goes into a group of peers and instantly is the one everyone wants to sit by. They want him to lead the group, or be the one to do the talking for the group. He is not shy, but would rather be around older children. He is of course quiet politcal and other 11 year old don't really care if Janet Reno is elected governor of FL or if Barney Frank is re-elected . My son does.
We have our son in an all Catholic Curriculum. Math is Saxon.
Just an aside--we were surprised to learn that the math is Saxon in our local public high school. Not too common, is it?