The kids learn whatever THEY want to learn and nothing they don't.
So long as I'd been motivated enough to learn to read, I'd know everything in the encyclopedia and a weird set of regional cooking encyclopedias. Those were my favorite things to read growing up. And reading was my favorite part of learning.
Sadly none of this has ever helped me figure out the actual name of a frog that starts with x. I read two encyclopedias trying to figure that one out. And then someone handed me a glass of vodka and offered to teach me to fight with sticks, so I, being out of new encyclopedias, was distracted. Um, I was 26 at the time. Still bugged about the frog thing though.
When my parents got married, my mom didn't know how to cook.
Mine too. My dad taught my mom to cook. I learned from both parents. Dad's the one who taught me the secret of keeping scrambled eggs from sticking to a stainless steel pan.
I'd know everything in the encyclopedia and a weird set of regional cooking encyclopedias.
and every racing stat ever
I think its more a matter of them learning how to learn stuff than the actual stuff learned. You can always FIND the capital of X.
What is the secret of keeping eggs from sticking to a stainless steel pan?
and every racing stat ever
For that I needed them to invent the internet.
I only knew the racing stats for racing since I'd been interested. So everything since I was ... seven or eight.
Oh and I knew about spy novels, once I was old enough to borrow steal those books too.
I've heard lots of stories about unschooled kids learning things at what seem like weird paces, but in ways that work for the kid. Like a kid sees an exhibit at a museum or a science TV show or something and wants to learn about atoms. Pretty quickly realizes that learning more than the basics about atoms requires knowing algebra, so finds an algebra book and learns everything in it in a month or two. Or (and, OK, this example is me -- I wasn't unschooled, but my mother definitely had a lot of the same philosophy toward what I did during non-school hours) spend a month reading Gone With the Wind, the next month reading Roots, the next two weeks on A Time to Kill, and then the next several months on Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley High.
I also went through a stage around second or third grade where I'd make increasingly detailed scale diagrams of our house. I'd measure everything with a tape measure and draw it all out on graph paper. According to my teacher at school, I didn't know the multiplication tables, but I was easily able to calculate that my sister's room was bigger than mine, and by how much, and how our allowances should be adjusted to compensate for that. (My parents did not buy that argument. My mom was impressed, but wouldn't give me more money.)
If I were unschooled, I would probably not know the little bits of science I do know, and know a lot more about life in the 1800's. I was really into Little House.
Oh, and unsurprisingly for what I do now, I also used to make my mom read plays with me, and I would direct her. We did the best arn 2 person production of Our Town ever.
for omelettes , the key is heating the pan BEFORE adding the olive oil. The pan has to be nice and hot, that way the oil becomes one with the pan, and acts as a barrier. Dunno the chemistry behind it, but it makes for pretty omelettes. Also, the low heat once the egg is in the pan. and lots of Cheeeeeese. Mmmmmm. Damn it, between that, and the Undercover Boss episode of White Castle, I'm wanting food, salty food, savory food, fried food. Despite having eaten way too many cookies (yes, I went grocery shopping while hungry, and got choco chip cookies. They are almost half gone. Nom Nom Nom!)
