Flamingobingo, I live in Irvine, in North Ayrshire. Throughout the whole of NAC there are less than 15 kids HEeing Known to the LA and 4 of them are mine. The nearest family that I have been able to locate through Schoolhouse and HE lists are in a village near Largs which is 2 buses and almost an hour's train journey away. Not only is the journey v. difficult, but the cost is prohibitive for us. THere really isn't anywhere in-between as it were that we could meet up, either. This is a poorly resourced area with a long history of poverty and lack of investment, so there aren't things like museums, galleries, parks or anything like that to go to for meet ups. The nearest park of any kind to where we live is either a 7 1/2 mile round walk or a trip taking 2 buses either way and costing about £25 for us. Even then this would leave the lady in Largs and her daughter with a journey involving a train and 2 buses.
There was a family in Crosshouse and a couple of families in South Ayrshire, but we have the same transport problems of everyone having to take multiple buses/trains or whatever to get to a central point and, with kids like mine, it's just not feasible for them, really.
The nearest meet ups are a couple of groups in Glasgow, but that requires us to travel for about 31/2 hours on the bus and train, costs a fortune and then requires a trip through the city which my kids find v. stressful. There is a group in the city which meets almost every week and has a subscription of, I think, £50 a child every couple of months. This pays for the facilities and things, but I don't have £200 and then the £40 a week train fare. There is also another group that meets up for things like museum visits, trips to the science centre etc. but same issues are there. So, sadly, I think we are doomed to remain isolated from other HEers. I have even asked on here and on other parenting sites if there is anyone near here, but there never is.
However, my experience is unusual in the HE world and I wouldn't let it put me off if I were someone investigating HE. The situation has much to do with the demographic here, the very poor performance of our schools over successive generations, the fact that there is no readily available info from the LA or anywhere else and a whole host of social problems. Most places are not like here.
Chops - Flamingo is right. It is much harder to deschool yourself that your children. I have been HEing for more than 5 years and I still get paranoid that my almost 7 year old can't read or that my 12 year old still hasn't learned to use full stops, although 5 years of school didn't teach him that either! It doesn't help that my family are constantly comparing them to their schooled cousins and chastising me over how "far behind" they are, except that my kids know far more about plenty stuff than any of my nieces or nephews. My view is that you just have to kind of relax about the whole thing and trust that your kids will learn under their own steam. That way they will actually remember what they learn.
The best thing that I do is read to the children and let them see me reading. My reluctant readers began to get less reluctant through reading comics (Beano and Dandy,) progressed to Mangas, moved to simple books and now read at an advanced level, without any pressure from me. When my 12 year old left school after P5 he had a reading age of 6, now he is ahead of his peers and reads things like Alex Ryder books, Enid Blyton (!), Chris RYan and other boyish stuff. The difference in the 3 years we have had him home is unbelievable, because he hasn't been forced into anything, although, for the past wee while, I have made it clear that I expect hime to read SOMETHING for a little while every day, but I don't tell him what.
Oh yes, and the best resource is the internet. You can find stuff about everything on there. From Handwriting sheets to maths science, French, history, nature, politics, environment everything. Organisations like the BRownies, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Christian Aid, Wild Scotland, all have free lesson plans and educational resources that you can print out. The Woodland Trust has a brilliant children's section full of fabulous activities that my DD, in particular, loves. And the BBC is a treasure trove of opportunities. Thats before we mention Fun Brain, Learning Wave, Math Games, Happy Child, Bob the Alien, Planet Science or any of the other million and one sites out there.
Hope this helps any in your decision. And as others have said, I wouldn't worry about the other kids becoming resentful. If they are happy in school then they will continue to be so and be glad that they are still there. But you might find that after a while, they become interested in HE. I find it so much easier now that I don't have to worry about doing all the school runs or the nightmare that used to be mornings in here and the kids are much happier now, as well. Taking them out of school was the best thing we have ever done, despite what my family like to say.