Childhood Education

Obviously I blame my parents for my childhood.
We lived in a house that was loaded with books, cassettes and videos. Later, of course, the cassettes and videos were replaced by CDs and DVDs.
As my dad said books are for reading not ornaments. So, when we were old enough, we were free to borrow books, listen to music or slide off into my bedroom and watch a film. Not the horrors but we had a choice of war, western, epic movies. All that was expected of us was that we returned what we borrowed in the same condition to the place that we took it from.
I remember once going to a boot fair and they had a load of comics like Spiderman, Incredible Hulk and Batman and when my younger brother and I couldn't make up our minds which ones we wanted Dad scooped up the lot. We went home with this black sack of comics and when we got home we counted them. We had about 150 of them with Flash, Green Lantern and Aquaman and loads more.
Dad showed us lots of things as well. How to fish, how to track and tell a badger's print from a fox but these were things that he had learned when he was in the Boy Scouts.
At school we learned the normal things like Maths, English and Science - dad taught us about the other things. Unlike school there was no pressure. If we read a book or watched a film then it was our choice to do that. Being able to have that choice meant that we able to form an opinion.
And, once in a while, when I take my young boys to bed I will read them a western story or make one up in my head for them.
Just like dad did for my older sisters, my younger brother and me.