Homeschooling allows children to take extra time in areas which interest them. Even while completing all the other subjects required (English, Math, History, Science, etc.) homeschoolers have an efficiency of time which grants "extra time" in which to play, practice, experiment, explore, focus and find their "specialty." The real world rewards specialists more than generalists, and homeschooling allows the specialist the opportunity to emerge.

Michelle Bolton is a case in point. She has been homeschooled since the second grade. Because they set their own schedule for school work, practice, and lessons, the Boltons enjoy a flexibility not available to classroom-bound students. This has led to some surprising benefits.

Michelle began playing the flute in her grade school years. Then, one day she decided the French horn might be fun, so she asked if she could try it. She was 13 then. By the time she was 17 she had an invitation to play French horn at Carnegie Hall in New York City. She had won a place on the All-Eastern High School Honors Ensemble. She had made All-District, All-State, and now she had achieved a status reserved for fewer than 500 musicians from a combined 11 other states, called the All-Eastern States by the National Music Educators' Association.

Her other stops in the process read like a Who's Who resume:

• Portland Youth Orchestra (Portland, Maine)
  
• Portland Youth Wind Ensemble
  
• New England Conservatory Youth Philharmonic Orchestra (Boston, Massachusetts)
  
• New England Conservatory Scholarship Brass Quintet
  
• Performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra Brass Ensemble
  
• Numerous competition awards, prizes and scholarships, including the Martha J. Blood
  Memorial Scholarship for $1,000, the Littmann Competition in NY, and a $20,000
  scholarship from Concordia College.
  
• Traveling ensemble for the New England Conservatory Philharmonic performing in Cuba
  and Mexico City.