My parents also always provided me with the freedom of choice. At the beginning of each school year my curriculum was laid out and I was told that I had to complete everything by the end of the year, but that I could do it in any order that I wanted. This gave me flexibility to do my school work at any time of the day and do what I wanted to do at that moment. Sometimes I would only do math for a week at a time and complete an entire course in a single subject before moving on to the next subject. The process and flexibilities of homeschooling provided me with a non-stressful environment and it was very conducive for my style of learning. Even though my parents were the drivers behind my education program, the control that they allowed me to have inspired my interests in my lessons because I was always given the power of choice.
My parents also acknowledged that they wanted to make sure my socialization with other kids was strong. Once again, my parents took a bit of an unorthodox approach for handling this. In addition to entering me into extracurricular activities such as dance and sports, my parents put together an extracurricular course of their own that allowed me to learn about different personalities and how to interact with people. They gave me three incredible books to read that made an impact on my life, and to this day I continuously refer back to them: (i) The Law of Success by Napoleon Hill; (ii) How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie; and (iii) Positive Personality Profiles: D-i-S-C-over Personality Insights to Understand Yourself and Others by Dr. Robert A. Rohm. Reading these books has given me both an understanding of myself and others.
Homeschooling worked for me because it protected me at an early age from being exposed to certain limitations that society imposes upon young minds. My parents always encouraged me to try new things and supported me to take risks and defeat the fear of failure. They have always treated me more like an adult and never put limitations on my aspirations, no matter how outrageous they were! That type of support from my parents guided me to be motivated to learn and grow at my own pace, and homeschooling provided me with the perfect environment to take advantage of that support.