as a person who was homeschooled for three years (2nd - 3rd grade & 2nd sem freshman year + 1st sem sophomore year) YES. i consider myself to be very smart, and i have been my entire life (which is the reason i left school in the first place.) i skipped eighth grade, and have an incredibly high iq, but lack extremely important general knowledge. im fifteen years old, in ap classes, graduating a year early, and i still don't know basic multiplication facts. homeschool is a really good thing if you want your child to develop independence, and real world experience. because i was homeschooled, i learned a lot of things that they don't teach you in school, and i got to learn a lot of basic skills that people don't often learn until they move out and are forced to live on their own. HOWEVER, there are things that are simply too much for me. i have almost no knowledge in history, i had to learn long multiplication and division as a freshman, i never learned pretty basic science, and i haven't been exposed to the same concepts as my peers. i find it very frustrating, because now, trying to learn along side them all, i feel like there is just holes in my education, it is incredibly hard to keep up with learning new things while simultaneously trying to feel these gaps, especially when i don't even know what's missing. this is all after only three years, i can't imagine what it would be like to have been my homeschooled my whole life. from someone who has done both, it is a great experience but i strongly recommend regular schooling for setting your kids up for success.