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Anyone else . . .


scrapbookbuzz
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. . . basically studying to learn college-level material without actually taking formal classes?

 

At a job that I worked in 2003, I worked with a gal who had just completed a four year degree in Anthropology. She said, "I spent thousands of dollars to learn what I could have just as easily learned at the library!" There is some truth to that.

 

I am currently working towards going back to work. But in order to get into the industry where I want to work, it seems I need to update my education. I had looked at some various online colleges and course work only to find that it would cost me anywher between $5,000 and $25,000 (certification to actual degree, respectively). Then someone close to me mentioned Project Management Certification, told me to look at it and if it was something that I thought I could/wanted to do, said person would pay for the testing. :cheers2: So, I thought I'd take them up on it! :D

 

Therefore, I am currently starting at the beginning really, on my own, studying Project Management. I found a couple of books at the library and even a FREE Project Management 101 course via the library, for which I'm very thankful!

 

So, basically, my question to you all is are any of you doing something like this? :bigear:

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I've done this at various times. I learned to make a Japanese garden and built one. I spent the winter with every book I could get my hands on, nursing baby in my lap, surrounded by bits of paper, with an experienced gardener (no experience with Japanese gardens) on hand for consultations. I went on field trips and went to a few lectures. The weekend the snow melted, I stepped outside to find that my husband had attached a come-along to a big tree and was dragging a 5 foot boulder across the yard to get my garden started and I began the lab/practical phase of my study. It was the first time I had ever studied something intensively on my own and the process was enlightening. For the first time as an adult (I did it all the time as a child, on a child's level), I was studying to gain information *I* badly wanted, in *my* own way, which turns out to be very different than the way a conventional school works. The knowledge I was gaining was probably about the same as if I went back to school. I felt very rich to be able to learn something in my own way, just for my own pleasure, without having to get officially certified so other people would buy my knowledge.

 

Now I am doing it again, more leisurely, with watercolour painting, and I am feeling just as rich about it.

 

-Nan

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Nan, I bet your garden is beautiful! Sounds like you did well in picking out a husband, too! :D

 

Have fun with the watercolour! I saw an article in a home decorating magazine today that showed a picture of a kids room that had paint-by-number pictures framed and hung on the wall. It looked great! However, I'm sure you're not-by-the-number watercolour will look even better!

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I discovered iTunesU in the iTunes store about 6 months ago and it has literally changed my life! I take entire courses from Stanford , Berkley, various seminaries, etc! I just download the FREE lectures for an entire course and its syllabus, then acquire the reading materials, often via Project Gutenberg, inexpensive downloads on my Nook (classics are a dime a dozen or less!), Lit2Go audio books also free from iTunes, or abebooks.com.

 

Right now I'm doing a course on C.S. Lewis & his writings from the Reformed Theological Seminary. Excellent! I highly recommend this!:thumbup:

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Wow, Kat! I have iTunes and I had NO idea about ITunesU. I'll definitely be looking into that! Especially since I have both the Kindle and Nook apps for pc. (Although, I really want my own Kindle! :) ) Enjoy your studies of CS Lewis. That should be fascinating!

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Yes, my choice of husband has played rather a crucial part of my studying GRIN. He is fabulous.

I hope you find learning out of school as nice as I have. It is still hard work, but it is much, much nicer to be able to do it on my own schedule, in my own way.

Best of luck!

-Nan

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Well I'm doing it for my job - I have to study and then sit for the actuarial exams. So I read textbooks and teach myself the material. It's pretty fun actually. :) Learning math from professors was always hard for me anyway...I had trouble paying attention, studying on my own is more hands on!

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Nan, I bet your garden is beautiful! Sounds like you did well in picking out a husband, too! :D

 

Have fun with the watercolour! I saw an article in a home decorating magazine today that showed a picture of a kids room that had paint-by-number pictures framed and hung on the wall. It looked great! However, I'm sure you're not-by-the-number watercolour will look even better!

 

Haha I need that paint by number kit! I've tried painting by hand (on a blank canvas) and the results are not good...:lol:

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Actuary, that's too funny! Here's to you having time to complete a paint by numbers painting, and enjoying the process AND the result! As for math, maybe that was my problem - paying attention to the professors. When I didn't know what they were talking about (which was most of the time), I'd tune out!

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Yup. Having a study partner for the painting (my mother, who is learning too) has helped enormously. If it is just me, at home, with all the other things I am supposed to be doing, I don't do it. I have to go elsewhere. I think eventually I will be able to work at home, but I am going to need a special place in which to do it, at the very least a special corner, so I can feel separate from the dishes and email and laundry, and so I only have to have the will power to make my feet move me that direction and keep in in that place. If it requires more willpower than that, I don't think I'll be able to manage to accomplish anything that requires concentration. I think I also will have to have established hours when I am "at work". Much as I hate routines and schedules, I doubt I will be able to get anything done unless I somehow manage to set aside some time to do that when I don't have to feel guilty about not doing other things.

-Nan

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