jorja

Hi it seems to me that this forum is really not helping anyone (this thread anyway!). as far as i can see there are a couple of people who really would like to help, but most people who have been talking about HE seem to be more interested in picking holes in each other. i joined this discussion because i wanted to help people with my experience, but it is a waste of my time and there are obviously a great number of people out there with time to waste and nothing better to do than criticise. if anyone really is interested in Home Education then i suggest you check out the links on the 1st page of this thread that bigjimbishop has given as that will give you all the info you need without all the crap that has been on since!! you cannot learn about HE by listening to narrow minded people who have never tried it. it's like learning to play the guitar from someone who hates music!! georgia

actually i think it is a very personal decision to HE and not everyone would want to do it or is able to. although i do have a penpal in the UK who is a single mum with M.E. and every excuse not to HE but she does. (her oldest child also has ME and is unable to go to school) so maybe my real opinion is that  most people could if they wanted to. but i am not saying that it is wrong to not want to teach your kids at home. i think the fact is that all HEing parents have invested a huge amount of time and effort into what they are doing, so they are bound to feel very strongly about what they do.

[quote]Fascinating! Dick, as always, erudite and coherent (I admire that, because I can't do it myself!). But there must be better arguments for home-schooling than the ones BJB is quoting, surely? In no...[/quote] may i say that as a middle-class??, used-to-be vegetarian and definite carob-hater i think you are rather rude and extremely narrow minded. we home educated our two girls because we think it is the best way to raise them. they have french friends of all ages and after seven months of living here are making very good progress with the language and are both able to hold a reasonable conversation on their own. we are not privileged in anyway. we purposefully have made our life much more simple so that we can HE. we don't live mortgage free, we rent! my husband and i work very hard to make it work here and we spend lots of time with our girls. we are not constricted by school timetables so take advantage of the many opportunities on offer in our region and further afield. i know if you met my daughters and some of the friends we have in the UK that HE you would have to change your opinions. unfortunately those of us who choose to take the 'road less travelled' often make other people uncomfortable. usually because people like you want to pidgeon-hole us, and you know what, we don't fit in any specific 'hole'. we are proud to be thinking for ourselves and not always going with the flow. i had a wonderful compliment given to me the other day by some french friends who are in their mid-thirties and expecting their 1st baby in a few months. they said that the behaviour, education and social skills of my daughters have made them decide that they will teach their child at home. i don't think that as HEing parents there can be a better compliment than that, do you? they said they were impressed by my 13yr old's thirst for learning, and by the way she is no great swot, she just likes to know about things. we do drive a 4x4......an old range rover!!!  

[quote]Jim - I'm not looking for a fight! I think you are looking at this from a different direction from me. I wouldn't put down what you are doing, but it often the 'alternative' is in danger of becoming s...[/quote] Hi Dicksmith You were asking about research on HE. I have recently reviewed a book 'Educating children at home' by Alan Thomas. I believe it is definitely unbiased as it shows both sides - the good and the bad. You may find it interesting. (ISBN:0-8264-5205-1) regards georgia

we have been HEing here in the auvergne (63) for 7 months now with no problems. i don't know if we are doing it correctly but all i have had to do is send a letter to the local ed dept telling them that we plan on doing this for the next year. apparently it has to be done every year. we follow the same plan as we did in the UK. basically learning what we are interested in not following a set programme. i would love to meet up or have contact with other mums or dads home educating in france. my email address is [email protected] . georgia, issoire 63

Hi we are living in the Auvergne region of france and are home educating our two daughters of 11 & 13. i would love to hear from anyone else in our area or actually anywhere else in france. so far we have had no problems with anything by keeping a low profile and sending a letter to the local education dept to tell them that we are planning on HEing for the next year. if anyone would like to meet up or just email i would be very happy to do that. my email  address is [email protected] georgia

Hi we recently moved to Issoire which is a fairly large sized town in the auvergne. we were told by france telecom that we would definitely have ADSL at the house so we applied for it only to find out 11 days later that we couldn't despite our neighbour, who's house is about 50 feet away having 2.4 meg ADSL. they told us that the area was saturated. i did this test on line and was wondering if anyone could explain what it means:  Informations Techniques   Eligibilité France TélécomLigne testée : 04 73 89 97 91Caractéristiques générales de la ligne : Code Commutateur Local : ISS63 [Couverture]Nom Commutateur Local : ISSOIRELongueur de ligne : 890 mètresAffaiblissement : 13.35 dB[Estimation] Débit descendant ADSL : 8149 kbps (1019 ko/s)[Estimation] Débit descendant ADSL 2+ : 24582 kbps (3073 ko/s)Caractéristiques IP/ADSL France Télécom : Plaque ADSL : AUVE-1Type de DSLAM : ALCATEL   

Hi we are wanting to sell 'stuff' at our weekly saturday market here (63). i can't seem to find any info on how it works! do you just turn up and pick a spot? is a license required? we don't want to register as a business until we see if it will work and we can make money. as you can see i don't really know much about it!! if anyone can point me in the right direction i would be very grateful. or if there is anyone out there who has already done it any advice would be wonderful.   thanks jorja Issoire

hi can anyone help?? we are looking for a house or flat to rent in the 06 Alpes-Maritimes or 83 Var regions. we currently live in the Auvergne but for various reasons (the main one being a landlord from HELL!!) we are relocating to the South. Just wondering if anybody could point us in the direction of estate agents or any rental property that they know of. thanks so much jorja

hi please can anyone help?? we have signed up with netbysky for internet access. our speed should be 768kbps. we got the dish up ok and are recieving TV on the computer so we know that it is working but the internet is no faster. i have reconfigured the computer as per all the instructions but................. i have spent a week trying to sort this out and am now desparate. if there is anyone who could help we live in bergonne nr. issoire in the auvergne. i would be more than willing to pay an english speaking tech to come and sort it out - maintenant!! my phone number is 04 73 55 21 75. thanks jorja

just a little update on ses-astra.fr .... we signed up for it with skybynet and were eagerly awaiting delivery of our dish and modem having been promised it within 48H (yeah right!!). after 4 days waiting in i finally rang the 0.34€ a min helpline and asked what was happening. they said it may come friday or saturday - 7 or 8 days later. anyway tomorrow is friday, so you never know. i'll let you know how it goes. we run our business off the net so i can't wait (not to mention the downloads i miss!!). jorja

[quote]As a second home owner I’d settle for a decent dial-up connection at the moment, our house is in the Vendee and our dial-up connection is impossibly slow, 28Kb during the day, if I need to use the net...[/quote] you could try 'onspeed'. it only costs about £25 for a years subscription and def speeds things up. www.onspeed.com jorja 

i was looking at www.ses-astra.com today and thought it may be an option. it doesn't seem to matter where you live. has anyone subscribed to this. it sounds like cheap sat broadband to me at about 22€ a month. jorja

hi despite being told when we moved here that we would have adsl within a couple of months it now turns out that it will be a couple of years!! so we signed up for onspeed. www.onspeed.com it's not as fast as broadband nor does it free up your phone line, but it definitely does speed things up much more. it only costs £25 per year (approx) and is well worth it. another option that i am looking into is sat broadband. check out www.ses-astra.com i would be very grateful to hear whether anyone has had sucess with this and what it involves. ie. does it free up your phone line. meanwhile i can recomend onspeed. jorja

hi we moved here a couple of months ago and brought a set of 3 cordless phones with us. they work fine inc the answerphone. we just use a UK adaptor to plug them in to the electricity supply (for charging) and a conector phone point that was bought from a french supermarket (carrefour). jorja

sorry didn't mean to offend anyone!

hi we have recently moved to the Auvergne from the UK and brough our washing machine with us. unfortunately 2 weeks after plumbing it in, it blew up and we had to get a new one. the question i have is how do we dispose of the old one? do we just leave it out for the garbage disposal? thanks jorja bergonne

thank you. finally a sensible and un-opinionated (is that a word??!) answer!! simple and to the point. thank you for your advice. jorja bergonne

thank you. finally a sensible and un-opinionated (is that a word??!) answer!! simple and to the point. thank you for your advice. jorja bergonne

[quote]jorja - personal opinion only but a 1991 2.5 diesel Range Rover would be a problem anywhere. John[/quote] what do you mean??

we have bought a 2.5 diesel range rover in the UK. 1991. do you think this will be a problem?  should be bringing it back over mid-january. jorja

we have bought a 2.5 diesel range rover in the UK. 1991. do you think this will be a problem?  should be bringing it back over mid-january. jorja

thanks for the reply. the reason we were buying in the UK is that 2nd hand vehicles are much cheaper there. obviously re-registering isn't easy tho! 

hi i am sure this has been covered already but i am too lazy and my internet is too slow to go looking for the answer!........... i am planning to buy a landrover discovery in the UK (worth about £3000) and bring it back to France to re-register it here. i was speaking to a French friend this evening and he said i may have to pay up to 2000euro tax as it is considered a luxury vehicle. is this right?? i thought that all it cost was around 250euro??? any help would be hugely appreciated. thanks jorja

hi we are rather new to all this and could do with some advise. we have never had sky in the UK but would like to have it here in France. my Q is whether it is better to have the french canalsatellite or  uk one. we do have an address in the uk we could use but i am confused as to how it all works. the more i look at the forum the worse it gets i am sure this has all been covered before so if someone could give me an idea where to look i would be eternally grateful! thanks jorja bergonne 63500