Rowan

Hi Jillyann, We are moving to the Northern/central part of France as the land is better for horses. Let me know when you move as I will be delighted to use your services for my Lipizzaners. Rowan

Oh and that would mean Forget home schooling lol Not sure it would be a good idea and you guys helped me realise that! Schools are so much better for them and social integration. Thanks again

Hi All and thank you for your help and e mails. We seem to be getting somewhere positive with Lauren now and we have sat down and discussed all that is bothering us both (her and me and my husband) we have agreed that if she wants to be treated more like an adult these things have to be earned with a mutual respect. Funny thing is, she got the highest result in her class for her french exam last week, I didnt say a word but giggled to myself as she thinks she is hopeless at french, of course I told her that was brill etc but didnt say oh you will be fine in France then. We may have found a stud farm to buy and it has a local village with quite a few english and french children of her age living there so that is brilliant. Thanks again to all. Rowan

Hi everyone. Please dont bite my head off but I need some constructive advice with regard to our daughter. We live in Dorset UK and have 5 children between us. The youngest is now the only one left at home and has turned into the child from HELL! To cut a long story short, we now have the Social services teling us how we should allow her to smoke and drink and have all her luxuries like moile phone and playstation given back to her as her behaviour is that of "Growing up"! We have been planning a move to France with my Mother and our 3 dogs, 4 lipizzaner horses and one cat for the last 4 years and were going to wait until Lauren had finished her schooling. We now feel that we cannot carry on with the system in the UK if we are to succeed and get her back on the right track. She wanted to go into care as it is so unfair here! For those of you who think we must have done some terrible crime to her, its because I caught her in the village, smoking drugs with older kids and then she was caught leaving the school premises to have a fag with a boy! so we confiscated her favorite items and she reported us to the teachers for cruelty! Having had a report they had to follow it up and now tell us what to do! I feel that with her attitude putting her into a french school would be disastrous and would like to teach her from home and get her involved with our stud farm practise and therapy centre plus a small gite business, the farmin side she knows how to do so would be paid for it but also have lessons in life as well as education. We would integrate with the locals as much as possible as my husband does a lot of work for both the french and ex-pat property owners for renovation etc Please if anyone has embarked on teaching their own child I would love some advice, obviously it would b e far better for her to be thrown straight into the french system but lets be realistic, she is having an emotional teenage frenzy and I think she would use the language barrier (even though she speaks the basics) as a tool. Thank you Rowan (going grey rapidly)!