In a way, another mindset misconception is that the success of homeschooling really depends on the educational know-how of the parents or their ability to create all these socializing opportunities for their kids. While this is ideal (and I recognise the benefits of being blessed with such prepared and skilled parents), it is hardly the case in many real-life stories I've seen of my homeschooling peers, siblings, and myself.

In a big way, homeschoolers create their own education for themselves. How much success they derive depend on their individual character/personality and the force of support that parents and circumstances bestow upon them. The freedom to make their own decisions regarding schedule, further learning, activities, etc. is also crucial.

Ideally, the parents or the circumstances should encourage and instil a mentality in the kids of being able and actively solving problems on their own and seeking to build and utilise their own networks and community offerings. Many times, that is not the case.

I was homeschooled from nursery age to the end of high school. My parents only had an 'O Levels' cert (equivalent to Grade 10). They didn't even complete formal high school! Their relationship was also rocky many times, and the family was in a situation of disappointment and dejection from being excommunicated from a cult-like church that my parents attended since their teen days. In addition, the government was not supportive of us homeschoolers because it's difficult to maintain control over us when we bypass most of the state exams. hurhur Homeschoolers were unable to enter the public universities of Singapore for a time. As far as we know, my second sister was the first to enter the National University of Singapore. And I was the first to enter the Singapore Management University. Since then, our homeschooling juniors have been able to enter both universities as well as the third remaining popular university in SG - Nanyang Technological University.

Given all these suboptimal conditions, my five siblings and I all did pretty well, if not thrived, under homeschooling. My sister went on to attend law school at the best university in the country. My brothers went on to become a self-made broker and a businessman. I believe it the circumstances we were in and our great imagination worked hand in hand to push us towards 'success' as defined by the general society. That being said, 'success' is a very loose term and fluctuates according to what each individual values.

There were various reasons for us being homeschooled, many of them listed by @doitvoluntarily in this article. While I wasn't always satisfied with being a homeschooler growing up, I wouldn't trade that part of me for anything now. Nice to know that even for the government, homeschooling saves educational funds =)