Home is where the school is

When he was 15 years old, Peter Heuer and a friend he met at astronomy camp started building a cyclotron, an experimental physics device that smashes atomic particles together.

Three years later, he has gained grant funding and assistance from a team of scientists at the Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, Va. But Peter and his family say he might never have had time for the project if he had attended a regular school.

"Usually this is like a graduate thesis thing," said Peter, who has been home-schooled since first grade and used his flexible schedule to chase his interest in...