[amateurpolymath]

I was homeschooled my entire life. I taught myself how to read as a toddler, so my parents decided that I needed to have a great education. However, they had no faith in public education and no money for private school. I'm currently finishing up a Ph.D. and have a healthy social life, so I consider homeschooling a success in my case. My thoughts, in case anyone is interested:

I imagine it is much easier to homeschool now that PCs and the internet are ubiquitous. My mom had to do a lot of work assembling curricula and sifting through textbooks that would be much easier today.

Homeschooling works better in groups. It ends up being like a regular school environment but with much smaller class sizes and heavier investment by the teachers. In my teens, my group met on Saturdays for a long intense literature class, Mondays for most other classes, and individually for math. Naturally we had lots of reading and homework to do the rest of the week. Some of the "classes" I took were more in-depth than my university courses.

Homeschooling taught me my most valuable skill: how to teach myself. I taught myself algebra because I didn't like the way it was explained to me (textbooks offered more rigor). I read lots of classic literature in my spare time, taught myself how to touch type, play guitar, etc.

The biggest downside was not having a guidance counselor. No one in my family had been to college, and that led to me making dumb mistakes in the college application process (like not applying to top schools because they were too expensive, not knowing they offered substantial need-based financial aid). I also struggled to learn to program on my own.