“Mom? Were you cool when you were a teenager?”

(Post Number 200 on Nothing By The Book! Milestone! We’re celebrating it with a spin-off blog–more on that below.)

Jane: … And we’d come here late at night, and sit on those rocks, and look at the stars, and talk.

Flora: Cool… (Pause). Mom? Where you cool when you were a teenager?

Jane: Me? Geez–no. I was always, you know, kind of weird.

Flora: But isn’t weird cool?

Yup. But I think… I didn’t always know it back then. And I’m just so happy that you just know it, little munchkin.

Flora and I had this conversation just a few days after I had read Sarah Small’s wonderful post Are homeschooled kids weird, on Simplehomeschool.net. Pop over and read it yourself; but until you do, here’s the best bit:

Because 99.9% of kids (totally made-up statistic) are innately weird, creative, silly, funny, uninhibited, and terribly clever—if they are allowed to be.

AND NOW–AN ANNOUNCEMENT

And speaking of weird homeschooled kids–I’m splitting my blogging personality into two. Nothing By The Book will remain my primary blog, focused on Nothing By The Book parenting unadvice, stories from the trenches of family life, and “those conversations” from Cinder, Flora and Ender. I’m migrating the homeschool-specific stuff to Undogmatic Unschoolers, so that I can blather on enthusiastically about overt aspects of our unschooling adventure without boring or annoying those of my lovely NBTB readers who couldn’t care less (it’s okay not to care about homeschooling if you don’t homeschool. Really. My eyes glaze over when my best friends start to talk about PTA meetings, school fundraisers and homework. We don’t all have to be the same. That’s what rocks about being us). Those of you who are on a similar learning journey with me… well, I hope you come over and follow Undogmatic Unschoolers (look, another hyperlink, click now).