glowingfish

I'm not entirely clear whether "free-range" here means "didn't do anything outside the basic school day" or "didn't go to school at all". I wasn't far off the first one (I'm very roughly your age) and I certainly walked to school alone from the age of nine. No ballet or piano recitals, certainly. I didn't know anyone who was home-schooled; I'm not even sure what the legalities were in the 1980s here.