Rosewitch, England was definitely one of my favorite places I have ever visited. My folks took me there when I was 14, and I remember bits and pieces the Crown jewels, walking amongst the Stonehenge stones (roped off now, vandalism), Stratford upon Avon. Time for me to take my own 14YO. Im trying to think how I can get over there for a whole summer, LOL. Dlynn, I could have worked so much more. I didnt really look at night time stuff and there was loads to do. Greece: cant help you, but shoot Yasou a line, she went a few years ago. LOL Annie! Teresa, well go together. I wanted to explore more cooking and food shops/stores but didnt get to. Terri, here is more a link to Pictures of England, a website pointed out to me by Denise. I started it on Bourton on the Water, where we stayed for a few days. Thanks Sharon, I was actually thinking how can I even come close to posting her quality of travel guides, I dont do the pictures she does LOL. We might have sat at the same table in the Cheshire Cheeses dining room! Sawdust still there, but we didnt make it to the cellar. I missed a lot of the British Museum. It has changed.check out the new atrium. I couldnt keep up with DH and DS16. Afternoons, when I planned museums, I crashed. Next time! Pam, lots of people did more than we did per day! Theater every night, more attractions, I cant imagine. Gina heh heh yeah I need another vacation like a hole in my head. Speaking of whichDH has another week off in August. Nooooooooo! Kathleen, DH says he took an average of 200 pictures a day. Yup. Me, I just buy the post cards or Google the images, same thing (DARFC from the photo bugs here) Cathy, thanks for giving me the War and Peace moniker heh heh. Next time I go with CF friends! LindaC, I know. Im still exhausted. Speaking of the V&A, did you know there was a Dale Chihuly chandelier in the entrance room?

I am an adult who was homeschooled almost fifty (egad!) years ago and I think that it would be best to have a separated area for the home school activities. I like the idea of French doors (maybe even Dutch style French doors - does that make them Flemish doors?? - so they could contain the dogs on the lower part but still be opened on top) to set the space apart visually and functionally, even if you leave them open a lot of the time. Although you presently use the room for FR-type activities you may find your kids take a more workman-like approach if the room function is dedicated more to schooling. I think I see a VCR/cable box so I was wondering if you also use the space for after-hours TV viewing. That would be a huge temptation, I think. One of the things that is important for homeschooling is to have some demarcation between your time spent supervising home school and your time spent strictly as a parent. Otherwise it can get very intense. So using spatial cues to reinforce the distinction may help. I know when we had a separate school room for home school it was better and when we homeschooled in the sitting room and dining room it was hard to not have one activity spill into the other. It was much better to have a designated school room where we settled down to work and could also leave things set up on desks and tables for the next session. I'd also vote for putting your desk in there, no matter how functional it looks. That will give you something to do when you kids are working and at the same time they can watch and model your approach to paperwork. Your kids' artwork and maps and posters and natural history specimens will make handsome and stimulating wall decorations. Plus, I'd add a big white board so you could use that space collaboratively to work on problems. Molly

I don't know what your high school is like, but in our public high schools AP or IB classes are available for sophmores through seniors. We have had a few kids earn their community college AA degree the same month they graduated from high school. Actually, an AA degree is not necessary since I am sure your student will want a bachelor's degree minimally. Your child could just work on general college courses to get them out of the way or even take that German he wants. We have many students taking American sign language at our community college for high school credit and college credit. Students must be 16 or special arrangements made to take courses at the community college here. Be sure that you know which courses are transferable to your university as credit for the courses you want and are not just elective credits. Also, our really bright students accellerate in math, and by the time they are in high school, often are taking their math in the community colleges or universities in our area. My youngest cousin was one of those bright stars. Luckily his local high school was New Trier, where he could take really advanced classes of all sorts. He proficiencied into this junior year at Northwestern with all his great high school work. Look for a special interest for your student too. Instrumental music and the school orchestra, for example. The cousin worked in the technology end of their high school radio station. Good luck. I agree with your concerns about social maturity and promotion.

Finally!! People talking about homeschooling. I homeschool all 4 of my children. Last year they gave me a run for my money....you can't make me do it, I don't like math, she's sitting too close to me. I told them, stop or spend a year in public school. None of them have ever been in public school.........homeschooled from the start. Anyway, they kept it up. I marched them down to the public school, enrolled them, told the principal they were being enrolled in school as punishment. Never did I realize how much punishment it would be! All 4 kids are on the principal's honor roll, all grades above 95 on their report cards. But the ideas and attitudes they are subjected to are horrid to say the least. My 8 year old daughter said she has never seen such rude kids in all her life. Kids who tell the teachers to shut up, tell the guidance counselor how fat she is. My first grade daughter had a little boy in her class ask her if she had a boyfriend. She told him she was 6 and wasn't allowed a boyfriend, but he could be her friend. He commenced to telling her that he was now her boyfriend and they needed to have to sex, because that's what boyfriends and girlfriends do. For pity sake, this child is 6! Finally my little Mary gave him her phone number and told him to call her daddy and discuss it with him. hehehehe Whenever I walk into the school, the principal asks me "what do you want now?". I went to the school because a boy in my 11 year old sons class punched him in the back as he was walking into class. 5 punches later my son put him across 2 desks. They suspended my son and did nothing to the other child. Principal told me that my son had no right to touch him because he's a minority child and the school could get sued!!! That my son needs to realize how to get along in the real world and that people are going to bully him his whole life so just get use to it. I won't tell you the things I told her and his parents becuause this isn't the place for that, but it was handled. The education is horrible, the kids are worse, the teachers show no respect for the kids, so they show none to the teachers. It's a circus. As for socialization, my children get plenty of the right kinds.........church, family friends, youth groups, ect. Not the kind that teaches them that it's ok to not have any morals or respect. And you wonder why I homeschool. They won't ever push me to the point that I will ever have to send them back.