“List five things you learned after the age of twelve that you learned totally outside of school.”

One time i was sitting around chatting with some friends on a music playing weekend and they were asking me about home schooling etc. I started talking about the ‘University of You Tube’ as we like to call it in our house, which led to a great conversation amongst all these adults as to what they had learned from it. One person, who was a surgeon, had learned how to do ear lobe fillers from it! I thought that was amazing, that a surgeon was learning his craft from YouTube, (but also that having your earlobes filled was even a thing! ).

Others had learned how to fix a toilet cistern, repair a car, sew a button on, tune a double bass -its a great conversation starter and I’ve used it since!

Things learned this month alone, (some with and some without the help of YouTube):

All about wheelchair types so as to make an appropriate purchase and how to safely push someone in it.

How to care for Rose bushes so they keep flowering, and how to take cuttings so i can have the same roses as my mum has in my own garden

How to trim a dogs nails (quite complicated and stressful and may well go back to taking her to the groomers).

How to ride a horse (not up to cantering yet but can trot and make him go mostly where i intend...)

All about cellos and bows so i can make an informed purchase for my daughter who is upgrading from a hire instrument.

And I’m only stopping there as the rule is 5!!!

-=-And I’m only stopping there as the rule is 5!!! -=-

Feel free to continue if you're still in the mood!

The numbers were on that page partly because it was a way for people to get in the mood while they waited for the session to start. It was purposefully very schooly-seeming, thought the topic was very "are you ready to step away from school?" :-)

The conference that year was very awkward, and resulted in a split of the state homeschooling organization in New Mexico at the time, because there were too many heathen unschoolers, finally, and the too-serious Christian homeschoolers began to feel affronted. So I spoke at two conferences, 1996 and 1997, and it ended up being the last two I went to. They went off and had their conferences after that without inviting unschoolers. :-) :-) Everyone was probably better for it. I wasn't the only unschooler, but few of the unschoolers were quiet, and several spoke. Too many, apparently. :-)

They were quite into the competitive show-off aspects—standardized testing, spelling-bee, geography competitions (identifying things on maps and answering questions about places and history). Unschoolers weren't joining in on those things.

But I knew the questionnaire would help them stumble upon some things, in their memories, that they hadn't looked at from any new or different angle yet. It worked. It didn't hurt me, and it didn't hurt any of them. Even if they stayed as they were, they did it with less assuredness. :-)

Sandra