Rob and mboston, There is soooo much help out there for homeschooling. You can teach as much or as little as you want. If there is a subject you are not very good at you have many options on what you can do. You can trade or pay with someone else that is good in that subject, there are online schools- private and public where you can pick for them to teach all or just one subject, you can also learn it yourself. There are tons of homeschooling groups out there for support and ideas. Many also offer classes, fieldtrips, get together weekly and more. When I pulled my kids out to homeschool I was terrified since I had never done it before. But the way I looked at it. They weren't getting much of an education at there school to begin with so I had nothing to lose. Yes, I know not all schools and teachers are bad, infact I had a few great ones growing up. If you feel strongly about homeschooling, just google it and you will find tons of links and info and yahoo probably even has a support group for your area/county. At worst you put your kids back in public schools. I know that there a tons of people who don't like homeschoolers and thats ok. That is their choice. But there are planty of people that do. Homeschooling is not for everyone. Had someone told me a few years ago that I would be homeschooling my kids. I would have never believed them. But things happen. I will do whatever I think is best for my children. Just so you know, I have 4 children ranging in ages of 3-17. My 17 yr old still attends public school, and that is fine with me. She is doing great where she is at and I have no desire to change something if it is working. My 2 middle boys were having some struggles, especially my 8 yr old. trust me when I say I fought with the schools to get my son the help he needed. I did everything they asked of me and they still wouldn't give me son the help he needed. If I had the time and money I would have sued them for all the crap they put me and my son through and the lack of education. My son sat in the back of his class room and did almost nothing for a year. The teachers were required to send the students papers home every month. And my sons papers were lucky if they had his name on them much less any work done. Since I started homeschooling my boys, their self esteem has improved so much, they are learnig well. They have plenty of friends and are in sports, scout, church groups and more. Homeschool children have to be tested at the end of every year to make sure they are getting a proper education. I know that this is all over the place but I was trying to type what came to mind. Good luck

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?

Wow....what an amazing list of people.... too many of them no longer with us or active here. It is nice to remember some of their names and their struggles that we shared. Thanks for the memories.

I think whether classes are online or in person -- its still up to the student whether they learn anything or not. Plenty of students present in person and not learning. In some schools (K-12) an "upside down" method is employed -- students can watch video of the teacher explaining/teaching a concept, and then when they go to class, the teacher works with them to execute the concept. The idea behind that is that students can watch the explanation as many times as needed (and some students would not ask an instructor to repeat themselves when in the classroom), and then go to the physical classroom and get hands-on help (like doing the homework in the classroom). I think it works better in some situations than others. Also K-12, some schools are expanding their capability to hold online segments of classes, to cover snow days, or to allow sick students to participate via facetime type setups and even robots that can roll from room to room (usually students facing long-term illness situations). Given how many things can be learned online, sometimes it might even work better -- for example, I google actions in Photoshop when they are needed, and think sometimes that tiny lesson "sticks" even better because I learned it when it was truly needed. So to your original question -- yes I think it can be effective, but as with most schooling it depends what the student brings to it as well. And no, I don't think it would be effective in all situations. (Although its pretty amazing what can be learned online now!)