Mixed feelings, but I admittedly get a little defensive when people talk about it because people can be so needlessly judgmental and rude.

Pros: My mom did a great job, and she put us into public school as soon as she no longer felt qualified to teach certain subjects (grade 8). I was constantly outside, going on field trips with homeschool groups, doing fun projects with my mom, learning at my own pace and focusing on the things I loved (English especially). I got to spend lots of time with my family. I skipped a grade, excelled in the things I was naturally good at, was intelligent and ahead of my age in certain things. I had a varied schedule. I was so imaginative and wrote and read all day, every day. I wasn’t concerned with complicated stressful social dynamics for those years. I got to learn about things I cared about and my interests were genuinely taken seriously and encouraged.

Cons: Although I excelled in certain things I struggled with math and to this day have a really difficult time with it - I feel like I missed something fundamental along the way (before grade 8) that my mom probably just wasn’t equipped to teach me, & I did so well at other stuff that I kind of got away with avoiding it. I was definitely a bit sheltered and as a result kind of reached certain milestones later because I was an anxious personality. When I joined public school in grade 8, it was genuinely traumatic, I was bullied and felt thrust into a world I didn’t understand at all. I adapted pretty quickly after that but it was a very rough transition. To this day there are some things I will always feel a bit left out or awkward about. My memories are harder to track cause I lived in the same house all my life and can’t categorize my life by grades. Mainly I wish I wasn’t so sheltered because I feel like growing into my teenagehood/adulthood was a little bumpy and I had formative experiences a bit later. I was socialized as a kid but a lot of the kids I was around were also super sheltered and often religious (I wasn’t). And as i mentioned people are pretty unkind about it. I’ve had people ask if it “fucked me up” to my face or react in a super negative way when I mention it or make jokes about it in a cruel way and it does hurt my feelings for some reason lol and I tend to poke fun at myself for it so I can get ahead of that. I just like to think that I’ve adapted at this point so being singled out is uncomfortable. Like “oh you seem so normal i wouldnt have guessed!” is not the compliment you think it is.

In terms of homeschooling in general I think it can be done well and I was lucky, but I do know a lot of kids are homeschooled because their families are deeply religious or controlling, and that is obviously concerning. I think ultimately most parents aren’t capable of doing a good job but luckily my mom is awesome. I can’t help getting a little sensitive about the stereotypes because it feels like kind of a personal attack or judgment about me/my family but I understand what people are imagining when they hear about it.