Australia is too hot! New Zealand is beautiful and fits all your criteria. Unfortunately, its has earthquakes and that "fush and chups" accent. Maybe Tasmania..... D

To give you an idea of how prevalent the idea of Mother England was in Australia, here is an except from Sir Henry Parkes' Tenterfield Oration, widely thought to be one of the most important steps to Australia becoming a Federation. He gave the speech in 1889. White settlement was 100 years old. It took another 12 years for Australia to become a nation, and arguably, another 50 years for Parkes' dream of a proud Australian identity to be realised. “Why should not the name of an Australian citizen be equal to that of a Briton?.... Why should not the name of an Australian citizen be equal to that of the proudest country under the sun?.... But there is something more. Make yourselves a united people, appear before the world as one, and the dream of going ’home’ would die away… We should have home within our shores.†(Henry Parkes speech calling for Federation) TENTERFIELD ORATION 1889

Skip is still used in Sydney, particularly in the very multicultural west. I've never found it to be derogatory, but then, wog isn't really used as an insult here anymore, either. More evidence of the slightly off Aussie sense of humour and our comfort with that wave of immigration. We still have serious issues with racism towards newer arrivals. Someone mentioned finding convicts in their past. It used to be something you covered up, but now its quite fashionable. Needs to be a few generations back, mind you! My mum has convicts in her past. My dad came from Sth Australia (the only state that wasn't a penal colony) and was very proud that there were no convicts in his family. I find the whole "British" thing interesting. All the Scots and Welshmen I've ever met have been adamant that they are Scottish or Welsh, not British. I think some of that is reflected in the Australian identity, too, particularly for those of us of Irish Catholic descent (my family came here because of the famine, so they were probably very bitter). And then there is our national inferiority complex which left us clinging to Mother England. I think we're just about over that, although if we keep losing both the cricket and rugby to the Poms, it may resurface. D

I think it some of it is about a sense of place. My family have been in Australia since the 1850s. That's a long time in this very young country. Australia has had waves of immigration. It is a talking point that you are from a skip (Anglo-Celtic), wog (Mediterranean) or Asian background. We use it to explain things: I'm a skip, we eat boring food, drink beer and don't hug each other. My SIL is a wog, they grow tomatoes in the backyard, drink wine and have big family parties. My best friend is Indian (actually she's a pom, but her parents are Indian), they eat curry, live in a big house and drive a flash car. These are huge generalisations and usually said with no offence. We are fiercely proud of the multiculturalism that has created Australia. But Australians do have a pretty weird sense of humour. Until you have lived in a displaced culture, I don't think you can fully appreciate how important it is to have some link to your past culture. Most of us probably picked up references to our ancestral homes from our parents and grandparents. As a British colony, I think this was very prevalent in Australia. Many Australian born Aussies still referred to England as the mother country or 'home" until after WWII. We have been very loyal (we turned up to all of Britain's awful wars, even when it meant leaving Australia vulnerable) because we thought we belonged to Britain. Past culture helps explains things. I come from Celtic stock. My father's grandparents were Scots. my grandmother was very Scottish, despite being born here. It affected her methods of discipline, her faith, her cooking, etc. All of those influenced me through my father. She absolutely loathed the Royal Family (she probably missed her calling as a modern day Scottish Nationalist). Dad's father was first generation Australian from an Irish mother and Welsh father. It affected his religion (Catholic), my great grandfathers work (mining), his love of singing and the songs he sang. It also caused a huge fracas when my grandparents chose to marry. My mother is more of a mix: Welsh, Irish, English and Danish. She has more generations in Australia, but the influences remain. Mum is Catholic, and music, singing in particular, played a huge role in her family through her Welsh grandfather. So yes, I'm Australian. I have a Welsh name. I've spent time in Wales. I'm not Welsh. But I can recognise whole slabs of my family that have their basis in Welsh culture. Same deal in Ireland. We're not pretenders: we're mongrels, looking for some clue to how we evolved into the culture we have in our new countries, and tragically, trying to find the bits of our cultural past that we've lost in the transition. D

I've just started some basic literature analysis with DS 12. I get him to read the book first, which he usually does in 24 hours. Then we use graphic organisers to make notes of the characters, setting and plot/climax. This requires that we reread some bits. No essays or formal questions yet, only discussions and the graphic organisers. I read the book straight after him and use post-its to make notes, which I'm really doing to model this method for him and he's starting to get it. He's a voracious reader and I hope to keep it that way! He's also an almost teen boy, hates writng and is prone to grunting instead of discussing. So far so good. I guess its also my take on the trivium: grammar =1st read, get the story and enjoy the magic, logic = 2nd read and start analysis, rhetoric = deep understanding, able to use story and character references in everyday conversation, draw parallels etc. After all, this is how I have really come to know stories that I love. Also worth keeping in mind that this deep analysis really only happens with a few books. HTH D

I read it in year 11. I went to a fairly open-minded Catholic girls school. I have absolutely no recollection of the book being about sex!!!!!!! It's not a standout piece of literature, but it does come up a lot in various cultural references and thus is worth reading and understanding (a bit like the Bible for atheists). I don't think kids have the maturity to deal effectively with the whole dystopian thing before 15 or so. Its a lot to process in a balanced way. I plan to wait till year 10 or so with DS. D

We used a variety: mostly a Steiner curriculum with Key to...., which was fabulous but DS out grew this and also needed more review. We played with Fred, then shifted to MEP. The closer we get to the end of MEP yr 6 the more I regret not starting it earlier. It's a very clever, complex curriculum and has prepared DS12 very, very well for the Australian high curriculum (we're currently in year 7, the first year of high school for us, and there is lots of overlap between MEP6 and Aust year 7). DS wasn't mathy at all before this. He's taken to algebra really easily, thought directed numbers were stupidly easy and blitzed probability. He still loathes geometry, though! D

Scarlett I think you have been really gracious in this thread. I'm still laughing about the cat litter! I shouldn't laugh, cos its something DS12 would do, and then it would be my problem and not so funny...... D

I haven't read all of the post, but I just wanted to say that I grew up in a house with very harsh consequences for mistakes. This doesn't make kids responsible, it just makes them either fearful or resentful. It made me a very good liar. Forgiveness and understanding makes kids responsible. I have a 12.5 year old DS. He is particularly stupid at the moment. I only punish him if its deliberate. His sister was the same at this age. She once leaned forward and put her whole breast into a tea cup during a family gathering. When she left the room to change my BIL said " did she forget they were there?". Yes, I think she did! Teenagers are growing sooo much and trying to be so grown up they just can't keep up with themselves. D

North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell. Fabulous, 1850ish. After you've read it you can swoon at the BBC miniseries. Better than P&P D

My DH is a melancholy bugger. So is DS12. I spend a good portion of my time resisting the urge to run about the house yelling, "Oh just bloody CHEER UP!" Most of time I just eat too much chocolate. It may not help, but the placebo effect is fantastic. D

Definitely Milly Molly Mandy. AA Milne's poetry The younger Enid Blyton books (ditch anything with gollywogs if that's a sensitive topic) Else Beskow books - not chapter books but wonderfully illustrated and complex stories. Preread them: I remember one freaked DS out. D

I've had to use a temperature converter to understand this conversation because we use celsius here in Oz. I have to say I'm horrified by your profligate power use! We have hot summers in outer Sydney. 35 (about 95) is a reprieve. 30 degrees (85) is almost unheard of. We have runs of days over 40 (104 F) with high humidity. We have a 37 degree rule at our house: if its not 37 (98.5) you are not allowed to use the air con. Even then, it usually only goes on a night. We have a window unit that cools the lounge and bedrooms. It physically hurts me to turn it on because it uses soooo much power (and we have solar panels on the roof). I just hate it. But I also hate the heat. We turned on the air con 5 times last summer. How do we cope? We have an old house with small windows, we close up the house during the day (I'm obsessive about this), we've planted lots of trees, we eat cool foods or quick stir fries and drink a lot of water, we do outside activities in the early morning and late afternoon, we avoid other peoples air con, which only makes you feel worse when you leave, we use fans and vent our roof space, we shade the house with external blinds and verandahs and we take cool showers ((but only once a day because summer is water rationing time). And we suck it up. This is where we live. If we can't take it, we probably need to move. D

Peanut butter M&Ms . Yummy, and outrageously expensive and hard to find here. Maple syrup is really expensive (we have a fake flavoured syrup for those too tight to pay for the good stuff). And maple sugar is almost unheard of. I love it but its VERY sweet. D

We read Sonnet 116 at our wedding. Its my favourite D

Stir fry: chicken and almonds with rice, tofu with noodles, kangaroo with rice Pasta: any will do, preferably with creamy sauce Lamb chops and mashed potatoes with seasonal veg Curries: Indian or Thai Anything with pastry! My husband is tall and thin. He eats all the time. After 20 years living with him, I am still tall but not thin...... D

In Australia, unschoolers generally prefer the term "natural learners." I think its wonderfully optimistic. Honestly, some of it looks fabulous: the kids are happy, have loads of free time and join in every activity going. But my son would never choose to do grammar or write an essay, Monopoly is not enough maths for a child with an engineering bent, and reading a whole lot of history and science books is no substitute for proper analysis. So, nice to watch but not for us. D

I live in New South Wales, Australia. We have a reasonable amount of oversight. It still allows for unschoolers. The NSW Board of Studies (BoS) sends out an Authorised Person (AP), usually an experienced teacher employed on a contractual basis, to do home visits and check that we are covering the Key Learning Areas outlined in the NSW syllabus. While we don't have to match the NSW syllabus (we never have) we must show that we have covered the each of the KLAs adequately. In practice this means that we do history, science etc in the order I choose, not in the order taught in the local school, but that I keep an eye on the maths syllabus to make sure we don't have any holes. For language arts I keep to my own curriculum entirely. The AP looks at the list of work done and proposed, samples of the children's work, the area used for schooling and the resources available, and talks to the children about their experiences. First time homeschoolers can be given a maximum of 12 months, repeat applicants a maximum of 2 years. If your record keeping, proposals, etc are not up to scratch, you are given some sage advice and 3 months to sort yourself out before the next inspection. This has happened to a few people, but most get on fairly well. Our AP is a very experienced educator and I found her last visit really helpful and encouraging. There are people who aren't happy, mostly because of some perceived inconsistencies between APs in other areas. Our homeschool group is about 50/50 book-work and unschoolers. Some of the unschoolers are registered using the above process, others fly under the radar (by law you should register but if you've never been in the State school system its easy to go unnoticed). The unschoolers I know are usually very earnest about their unschooling. In fact some are down-right arrogant about it and I know they think I am over the top (in comparison with some of your homeschools, mine would look like a holiday camp!). I generally leave them to their opinions, but I do commiserate with the posters who have talked about the intrusion of endless social activities into school time. The unschoolers have piles of free time and are often looking to fill it. We have limited time and lots of work to get through. Unfortunately, the biggest impact has been on my son, who is now 12. He's one of the older kids in the group, so has more school work, but he feels really ripped-off and is convinced that he's the only one who ever has to do anything. I am, therefore, a big meany. We have had the usually talks about potential, achievement, choices, etc. And we've had the one where he is told to just suck it up, but the unschoolers bumming around all day and proposing endless park dates does take its toll. D

Oh, yeah, and you guys smell nice, wash as often as we do and change your clothes daily. We have endless jokes about Poms hiding things under the soap...... D

Just to clarify the term "septic" that a previous poster objected to: its a carry over from the 1940s. American GIs came to Australia on leave and raised merry hell. Australian soldiers were very angry when they came home and found that their girlfriends had left them for Americans. GIs were much better paid than Aussie soldiers and much happier to spend their pay on women ( Aussie blokes spent most of their leave pay on beer). The irony is that the Aussies had done exactly the same thing to the Brits in WWI. Americans were described as "overpaid, oversexed and over here". The slang "septic tank" arose out of this ill feeling and it stuck. Added to this, Aussies have a very perverse sense of humour. Most of our terms of endearment are derogatory or offensive: boofhead, larda#$e, tiny if you're fat, gut if you're thin, curly if you're bald, smiley if you're a miserable sod. Australians don't find these terms offensive. If someone is comfortable enough to insult you, you must be a good mate. Of course, it makes us look like ill mannered buggers overseas! I travelled through Wales with a Canadian and an American. The American came from the East Coast but had lived in Britian for 20 years. On the second day they pulled me aside and very seriously asked me to please say that I was going to the bathroom, rather than "going to the loo," which they found offensive. As a blunt Aussie, I found this quite silly: I clearly wasn't going in there for any other reason at 2 in the afternoon. Minor cultural difference, but a big deal for them. I worked hard to blend in in Germany because I was travelling alone. Most people assumed I was English as soon as I ordered tea instead of coffee. I think some of you are being a bit sensitive. You asked what we noticed. If you don't want to know, don't look! Yes Australians find overt politeness insincere. We are quite laid back and off hand. If you are really nice we assume you want something. That's the point of this thread, to highlight cultural norms, not judge who is right. Australians generally really like American tourists: you are a lot like us, but drink less and pay better. Be grateful you aren't known as the drunken yobbos of the international tourist scene! D

Lucy, I was going to mention drunken Aussies in Europe - sadly an entirely justified stereotype. In my limited experience, Americans are more flamboyant in their speech and gestures. "Big and loud" is the common American stereotype in Oz. BTW, we call you all "Yanks" or the less flattering "septics", a choice piece of rhyming slang (Yank, Yank, septic tank - started in WWII). You are more overtly polite than we are, which many Aussies assume is insincere. You also pay much more attention to grooming: American women have obviously styled hair and wear more make-up. You take HUGE hand luggage on planes. And you tip. Aussies are very stingy with tipping. D

This is a beat up. Today Tonight is a nasty, ratings driven program with poor journalistic ethics. Real ambulance chasing stuff. Alan Jones is a nasty right-wing bigot who likes to think he has the power to bring down governments. Mind you, if you had a perverse sense of humour, you could have great fun with someone who came to the door asking about your sex life! D

I so hope this makes it to Australia! D

The main lesson books are a Waldorf carry-over. Waldorf kids usually make one main lesson book per block, eg botany, Ancient Greece, Ancient mythology, local geography, etc. Waldorf schools use unlined paper bound into approx A4/letter size books of 20-50 sheets. These books are highly decorative and become treasured keepsakes. Maths and language arts books tend to become reference books. They may contain a summary, explanation or formula and a worked example, but are usually separate from workbooks and worksheets. As my son gets older (he's in yr 7) and we move away from our Waldorf roots and become more classical, we use visual arts books for history and french, a self-made reference book for maths (in a visual arts book which we began in year 4), and folders of his work for English and science. Sometimes we'll do our main lesson work on blank A4 drawing paper and bind it into a book. I used to hand sew these but now I use a ring binder. D

I hated Gatsby, too! Not sure if was due to teenage contrariness (I read it in high school), or over-analysis (cos I read it in high school). I have never been able to bring myself to read it again. Because I'm not American I haven't felt too stricken by this. D