We liked being with our kids too. Our son was in junior high and our daughter in 4th grade when the unschooling started. Our son had one too many times of getting in trouble for reading ahead (really!) of the assigned number of pages. The last straw was getting his grade lowered for reading more than one chapter at a time of "To Kill a Mockingbird" when he'd already read it twice before anyway. One of the many reasons we unschooled was so they could go at whatever pace they felt like. They were also free to travel anytime, both with us and on their own and learned a lot from that. And the socialization bit--NMY, do you get a lot of flack for that? We always laughed when we got hassled for it. Our kids had plenty of friends, of all ages and different backgrounds. That was one of the most amazing things about gatherings of unschoolers that we observed: they treated each other equally no matter what ages they were. We hosted groups ranging from 13 to 21. And, we watched groups with vastly different backgrounds, religions and political ideas talk, debate and question each other with a great deal of curiosity and respect. I'm not saying they were perfect, but I've done a lot of programs and playing for musicals in the local high schools and I've never seen anything like that there.
Washington state law allows parents to issue a homeschool diploma so that's what our kids have. Our son's is a plain piece of paper with the pertinent information on it so his college could have a copy. Our daughter wasn't satisfied with that--her's is on gold paper and bordered by mythologica dragons. That's what her college got a copy of.

Dream of the Circle of Women
by Dahti Blanchard
published May 2004 by Spilled Candy Books
visit: www.dahtiblanchard.com