The problem we keep wrestling with is socialization. There are few children in our immediate neighborhood, and we have no nearby family members with small kids either. We would try to get involved with a homeschool group, but, frankly, some of the people who homeschool strike us as fanatical, to speak charitably. I think many of the responses to your very thoughtful post more than confirm our worst nightmares.
Take a deep breath, keep an open mind. My wife and I continue to successfully homeschool all our boys - ages 3, 6, and 9 - and the beauty of it is that it is truly a vocation. Unlike public schooling, the educational approach of other children really doesn't have to have an impact on you and yours. We've mingled some with other homeschoolers, but not much. Our boys play with each other, with us, with a couple of friends at Church, with a couple of decent kids they bump in to at the library. And they don't suffer for it. The socialization controversy is overblown. Really, how many close friends from your elementary school years do you still have? Raise them well, give them access to the whole world through literature, consider yourselves to be on a adventurous quest of growth and learning. Homeschooling is the natural outgrowth of a good marriage - and is very similar in its mutuality. And like the blessings of a good marriage, the rewards and sheer fun of homeschooling are impossible to convey to those who haven't experienced it.