Home School Allows for Custom Education and Evaluation

The primary benefits of home school is that it allows for customization of education, personal attention, and personalized evaluation.As some parents become increasingly less satisfied with the quality of public education available to their children, many are turning to home-schooling. Naysayers may feel that the lack of formal structure or standardized teaching or testing means a lower quality education. However, the primary benefits of home school is that it allows for customization of education, personal attention, and personalized evaluation.Just as adults have strength and weaknesses, so do children. They will develop at different speeds in different areas, sometimes called asynchronous development. For example, a ten-year-old may be a late-bloomer in writing, but a genius in math. This child simply may not have the motor skills to write as quickly as he or she can think. Sadly, these days people are quick to label, and a child with uneven abilities may be deemed learning disabled or as having ADD. While these conditions certainly do exist, any child that falls below “average” in some way may be inappropriately labeled. The greatest benefit of home-schooling is that a curriculum can be customized to the abilities of the child. In a traditional classroom, the ten-year-old from the above example may, over time, fall so far behind in one subject that they are held back from going to the next Rosetta Stone French level (i.e. the next “grade”) because their abilities fall short of what is assumed to be “normal.” Instead of following the coursework of any particular grade, a home-school curriculum can be designed around the needs of the child. Along with customization of curriculum, home-schooling allows for the personal attention not always available in a traditional school environment. Not only can coursework be tailored to the individual, but so can the method of delivery. Learning styles can be classified in three ways: visual (learn through seeing), auditory (learn through listening), and kinesthetic (learn through doing, moving, or touching). A typical classroom will attempt to support all three styles in order to reach everyone. However, if your child is clearly a visual learner, the method of delivery can be adjusted to fit their needs specifically.Some fear that since not all states require home-schoolers to take state standardized tests, the progress of home-schooled students is not being measured in any way. When given the choice, many parents still choose to have their home-schooled children take these standardized tests as a diagnostic tool. But, instead of being measured against an “average,” custom testing lets parents measure students against their own development goals. Affordable exam software is available for anyone that wants to create a test. Test Generator is a popular test maker that allows tests to be designed specifically for the student, the content, or both. Parents customize the test content based on the child’s specific curriculum, and they can also choose the evaluation method. For example, a student who is not particularly strong in writing shouldn’t penalized by being forced to take an essay test; instead, the exam software can be set up in a multiple choice format.Some may feel that home-school doesn’t offer the same kind of formal structure or standardized testing as traditional schooling. However, this informality allows for greater flexibility. A customized curriculum can developed around the abilities of the child, and delivered in a teaching style that meets the needs of the student.

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Some Tips For Home Schooling

Recently, home schooling has exploded in the country. A lot of parents and children are doing it and most of the time, they are successful. There are quite a lot of reasons why home schooling is preferred by more and more families. However, before you start deciding home schooling your children, you have to remember that home schooling is simply not for everyone. Although home schooling may be successful for some people, it will not work as well for others. You have to remember that home schooling will require a commitment from both the parents and the children. Before you decide to home school your children, there are still so many questions that you have to answer in order for you to determine if home schooling is the best for your kids or not. So, here are things that you may want to look into in order for you to decide if home schooling is the right choice or not. First of all, you need to understand the laws about home schooling in your state. Make sure that you can follow the requirements before you decide. You have to remember that home schooling demands a lot of time from the parents. If both parents are working, then home schooling may not be the right choice. You also need to ask yourself if you and your children have a close personal relationship. Although this question may seem a bit odd, try figuring out if you can get along with your children well. If you have a hard time being around your children at any given amount of time, then you can expect to have a tough time home schooling them.You also need to ask yourself about your educational skills. Even if you will be teaching Rosetta Stone basic math, reading and writing, you have to remember that these basic skills are the most important things that you should teach your kids. If you are not good at any of it, then you may want to give up on home schooling. Both parents can also share the load. For example, if you are good at math, but bad in reading and writing but your spouse is good at reading and writing but bad in math, you can share the load for teaching. Aside from ensuring the best education for your children, both parents will be able to spend quality time with their children. Your communication skills should also be another factor that you should look into. Try asking yourself if you are good at communicating with others. Remember that you will be a teacher to your children and good communication skills are required in order for your children to understand what you are trying to teach them. You also need to be observant. If you are naturally observant and that you really know your children, then home schooling can work for you. You have to remember the fact that parents are not just there to provide food for their children, but they are also there to love and also guide them in order to let them grow up well and develop good values as well as discourage undesirable ones. Organization is also an important skill that you must have. Ask yourself if you are organized enough to handle home schooling. Although this may look easy, you have to consider the fact that there are other things that you will need to do. You need to work, make lunch, dinner, clean the house, and any other issues that may come during the day. If you can organize all these things and still give plenty of time for home schooling, then this is for you. Remember these tips and you can be sure that home schooling will indeed work for you. Just remember that if you are going to decide if home schooling is right for your kids, ask yourself the question if this kind of method of education is the best for your kids.

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Socialization and the Home Schooled Child

If you are home schooling your child you have no doubt heard the question, "But what about his/her need for socialization?" By this we know they mean, "Will the child be able to interact with a variety of people in a positive way? Will he or she learn the rules and behaviors that are acceptable in his particular society?"Is this something you really need to worry about? Well, of course it is. But…Understand this one thing. The public schools are a horrible place for your children learn their social skills. Ever hear of "peer pressure"?These classrooms are filled with other children who are the same age and often the same socioeconomic backgrounds. They are not taught to get along with those who are different. They learn to bully them. And the victims are told to "just ignore it."In a home school situation the bullies would be required to stop their ‘wrong' behavior. And the victims are taught to ‘forgive.'If your school has police officers roaming the halls, it is not because the children are learning to love each other. It's because there is crime going on in the schools. Do you want your children learning their social skills from criminals? Do you really think you cannot do a better job?Another thing to think about is this: Ever since your child was born you have been developing a bond with him/her. Then he turns five and you send him off to school. You lose precious and valuable time for building a relationship with your child. Homeschooling parents can continue building these bonds for many years.You may not have thought about it but public schools are a recent development. Not many generations ago, children did Rosetta Stone not go to public schools and they were socialized just fine. You say things are different now. Not really. The family is still the basic unit of any society. When families fall apart so does the society. Make sure yours remains strong.So how do you teach your children social skills?Relax. Your children will learn social skills no matter where they are. The question is what kind? Unlike publicly educated children, home schooled children have mostly adults to teach them their social skills. And since these adults are usually family, they are more concerned that their children learn the right behaviors.Think about it this way. Would you teach your child table manners by putting them in a school cafeteria with dozens of other kids their own age? Can you say "food fight!"? By the same token, why would you think they'd learn proper socialization skills from their peers? The light finally came on, didn't it?Children in public schools are put in classrooms where they are expected to conform. No freedom to be oneself. It is a well known fact that children are influenced by peer pressure. When children are worried about what others think, they are not free to discover their own interest and talents. In the home school environment children can set and pursue their own goals, with a little guidance from the parents.Studies have shown that home schooled children function socially at or above that of their publicly schooled peers. Why should this be surprising? They have better examples.And there are many activities they can be involved in to give them exposure to a wide variety of people. Things like Scouting or 4-H groups, music or swimming lessons.Art museums offer classes where they can explore their creativity. Zoos have classes for them to learn about the wildlife in other countries.Most communities have support groups which offer field trips and park days where children can relate to others their own age. These groups are also good places for parentsto share ideas about what works in their homeschool. There are many ways to give your child positive experiences that will help them grow into responsible adults.

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Choosing The Right Math Curriculum For Home Schooling

You will never find the perfect home school curriculum, but you will be able to find curriculum that works for your family. The main thing you will need to look for in math curriculum is that the quality is good and the content you want to teach is there. The most important thing is you as the teacher, not necessarily what curriculum you choose. You need to understand how your child learns and what their needs are. While you may dislike the actual subject of math, you need to make it seem, as it is your favorite subject. Your child needs to get the sense from you that it's fun and exciting, even if you do not truly believe this. You may want to teach with drawings and pictures to get the content across in a way your child will appreciate. If you are not a math expert, there is no need to worry. There are plenty of trainings and classes that you can take to prepare you to teach. You can also turn to home school support groups or chat rooms for assistance.There are a few curricula that many home school families' use; here are just a few of them.Horizon Math – Uses pictures that are bright and colorful with lessons with varying topics.Modern Curriculum Math – Designed for students in grades K-6, very easy to follow for both parents and students. Saxon Math – Popular with high school students and widely used in the home school community.While there are many to choose from, these are Rosetta Stone Korean just a few to get you started in your math curriculum search.There are two ways math curriculum is taught, spiraling and mastery based. With spiraling instruction you will be reviewing during the day and not introducing new content often. This way your child will learn one topic very well before moving on to the next. Mastery is much the same, but new content is introduced often while still reviewing the content that was previously taught. You will also want to consider the prices of the home school curriculum. You may be able to find many on used book websites, or if you have friends in the home school community, they may be willing to give you their old books and aides. Small children often like to learn by looking at pictures that are bright and colorful, choose books based on this knowledge. Other students may find the bright colors distracting, so you will wan to look for curriculum that is black and white so your child does not get easily distracted. For many families, religion is a large reason for them home schooling their children. While math is not normally a subject religion is incorporated into, you will be able to find curriculum that suits your religious needs.Regardless of what math curriculum you choose, know that it's the best choice for your family. Talk to other families who home school and get their thoughts and ideas on what they used and if it worked for them. You may find you have to experiment with different curriculum. You can also take a break from math for a bit if you find the home school curriculum you chose isn't working. That's the beauty of home schooling; you have the freedom to do what is best for your child.There are numerous benefits of home schooling a child. Benefits include choosing an appropriate and proper home school curriculum, which includes math, science, history, and geography for your child.

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Click to play video Return to video Video feedback Use this form to: Ask for technichal assistance in playing the multimedia available on this site, or Provide feedback to the multimedia producers. Return to video Video feedback Thank you. Your feedback was successfully sent. Video will begin in 5 seconds. Don't play Play now More video Recommended Click to play video Return of the polarising Polariser Click to play video Renault's swap-n-go sedan Click to play video Quick Spin: Porsche Cayman R Click to play video Toorak-istan tractor for sale Replay video Return to video Video settings What type of connection do you have? Return to video Video settings Your video format settings have been saved. Motor Show reveals latest models Drive editor Toby Hagon looks at trends in the Australian International Motor Show. Video feedback Video settings Importers star at the Melbourne motor show as local manufacturers shy away from the big reveals. The Melbourne motor show opened this week, albeit without some of the fanfare of previous Australian motor shows. In a week when Holden, seemingly the most secure of our local manufacturers, began making ominous noises about future investment in its Australian operations, the locals were largely overshadowed by exotic imported machinery at their home show. Lamborghini Aventador supercar made a big splash, while BMW efficient dynamics hybrid sports car and Audi electric e-Tron gave glimpses of a low-emission future. Ford and Holden, meanwhile, are set to show off mildly tweaked Black Edition versions of their V8 performance heroes. Advertisement: Story continues below Click for more photos 2011 Melbourne motor show: Show time Audi's R8 based E-Tron will be hard to miss at this year's Melbourne motor show.It was a far cry from the Rosetta Stone Hindi heyday of Aussie family cars, when local heroes regularly stole the show both in Sydney and Melbourne. In 1998, Holden stunned showgoers in Sydney with the reborn Monaro. It followed up in 2000 with the Mambo-inspired Sandman concept, then repeated the dose with the Torana concept in 2004 and the retro Efijy hot rod in 2005. Ford countered with the R5 crew cab ute in 2000 and the R7 concept, which later became the Ford Territory, in 2002. It also did a ute version of the Escape SUV with fashion label M-One-11 and debuted the modern Falcon GT. Toyota even got in on the show car act in 2004 with its locally-designed Sportivo Coupe concept. These days, there simply isnt the money to throw around on a show car that has no chance of making it to production. When the Monaro concept was unveiled, Holden was selling close to 95,000 Commodores a year. Last year, they sold about 46,000, while less than 30,000 Ford Falcons found homes. Ironically, Australian designers are still getting the opportunity to design wild concept cars for overseas shows. GM designers Warrack Leach and Ondrej Koromhaz have both penned show cars for the Detroit motor show. And Ford Australia designers were responsible for the new Ranger ute, which will be sold globally. It not only the local car makers who are scaling down their show presence. The shows themselves are struggling to demand the attention they once received from exhibitors, thanks to exorbitant rental costs (a show stand can cost upwards of $2 million) and a growing push by car makers to ensure they get maximum bang for their marketing buck. For the past few years, crowd-pleasing brands such as Ferrari have stayed away from our motor shows, choosing to spend their cash on more targeted marketing events that provide better returns on their investment. The move led to Sydney and Melbourne agreeing to each host a show on a bi-annual basis. Has the move attracted more crowd-pleasers to this year show? Drive looks at the stars of the Melbourne show.

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Aussies voted among world's best tourists

Australian tourists may be generous and polite but their dressand reluctance to eat local food lets them down, according tointernational hoteliers. That's why Australians are ranked only number six by hoteliersasked who they think are the world's best tourists, and who put theJapanese at number one. More than 4000 hoteliers were questioned in the inaugural BestTourist Survey by online travel company Expedia. Advertisement: Story continues below Among the topics probed were tourists' behaviour, manners,generosity, willingness to learn the language and try local cuisineand their propensity to complain. Japanese tourists took out the top overall place, followed bythe British and Germans in joint second place, and the Canadians inthird position. Australians were ranked in joint sixth place with Swedes, andwere singled out for their generosity and politeness, coming in atfourth place in both categories. But they were in the lower ranks for dress standards and effortto eat local cuisine. The French, Indians and Chinese were considered the worsttourists among the 31 nationalities, while Americans wereconsidered the least polite. Expedia.au managing director Arthur Hoffman said Australianshad to dress better and make an effort to try more local cuisine inorder to rank better in next year's survey. The world's top tourists, according to hoteliers 1. Japanese 2. British/Germans 3. Canadians 4. Swiss 5. Dutch 6. Australians/Swedes 7. Belgians 8. Things to see: Tourist Information There is no information centre in Wee Waa but the Narrabri Shire Visitors' Centre can answer your questions. Rosetta Stone German Located on the Newell Highway in Narrabri, it is open from 9.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m. on weekends and public holidays, (02) 6799 6760 or email tourismnarrabri.nsw.gov.au. A summary of the shire's attractions is broadcast on Tourist Radio, FM88. Cotton Tours Information on tours to local cotton farms and cotton gins can be obtained from the Narrabri Shire Visitors' Centre on (02) 6799 6760. They are available during the picking season (April to June). Heritage Buildings The Imperial Hotel in Rose St was the first threestoried building in northwest NSW (1912). It has some fine castiron lacework on the balconies and a small square tower. The small brick courthouse at the corner of Rose and Nelson Sts was built around 1880. By stark contrast is the very modern police station adjacent, supposedly built by mistake when the plans for a Snowy Mountains structure were incorrectly sent to Wee Waa. Australia Telescope A radio helioscope was established at Culgoora by the CSIRO in 1967. In the 1980s the Australia Telescope was built. Linked to the telescopes at Coonabarabran, Parkes and Tidbinbilla, it is the most powerful in the Southern Hemisphere, receiving radio waves from deep space by means of six gigantic dishes placed upon a rail track to allow for spatial readjustment. It is about 20 km southeast of town. Access is via the Old Pilliga Rd and the route is mostly sealed. There is a visitors' centre at the complex with pushbutton displays and videos. It is open from 8.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. daily. Staff are available to answer questions from Monday to Friday, although they are also in attendance on weekends during public holidays.

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Collaboration, he says, keeps him from going stale

It's a "point of contention", admits Kelly, smiling. His parenting philosophy issimple: "Praise them and teach them manners and set limits." Kev Carmody has joined Kelly on family camping trips: "He's got that really quiet nature, but the children have got the guidelines:we've finished dinner so we've got to wash up, then we can watch TVor play games. They play a lot of family games." When he's not writing music or recording in his garden shedstudio, Kelly is reading Martin Amis and Ian McEwan of late, as well as popular science writers such as Steven Pinker and Richard Dawkins. At 52, he looks slightly cartoonish with his oversizedears and knobbly nose, unruly eyebrows and silvery hair like ironfilings scattered across his scalp. He's "less elastic" than he was "you take longer to recover from strenuous exercise or strenuousdrinking" but he says ageing doesn't worry him. Even if he faces what he calls "the Van Morrison problem". At his age he isn'tautomatically on the radio, he says, but then he never was. "There was a period there in the '80s and '90s when Van Morrison wasputting out one great record after another, every couple of years,but it's like, 'Oh, another great Van Morrison record' becausepop wants the new," says Kelly. He jots down everyday observations in a notebook and recordsmelodic snippets on cassette that may eventually a day or adecade down the track become the kernel of a new song. "I've doneall the dumb things" was a line he overheard, for example, and Darling It Hurts was a bit of graffiti he saw in Darlinghurst. At this point he likens his repertoire to a kit bag:there's a song for every occasion. "I know if I've got to sing at awedding I've got some tools in the kit; if I've got to go and singin a pub I've got this set of tools; if I've got to go and sing ata concert I've got a few others in there," he says. "But you always want to find the next power drill." For Kelly, songwriting is like completing a puzzle: the melodyusually comes first and then it's a case of finding the words tofit. "I still find it fascinating," he says Rosetta Stone . "I don't know how it works but when you manage to write a song it's just the greatestfeeling." Kelly often struggles to explain what his songs are about, sometimes because he's not sure himself. Ideally, they are"songs that don't get used up", he says, that are open tointerpretation. Much like the man who writes them. A year in Kelly town June 2006 Kelly's published song lyrics, Don't Start Me Talking: Lyrics19842004, were added to the VCE curriculum in 2006; heper forms solo shows for more than 1500 students at the Forum Theatre.July Tours the UK. The movie Jindabyne is released,with its soundtrack composed by Kelly and Dan Luscombe.August Plays 17 cities in the United States and Canada.September Works on a new album with his band, the Boon Companions(to be released in July), and a tribute record to Kev Carmody.October Plays at a Timor fundraiser with the Hoodoo Gurus at the Athenaeum Theatre in Melbourne.Also performs at a concert, murundak, celebrating Aboriginal songsof survival at the Arts Centre.November Performs at the Spiegeltent in a cabaret production of hissongs with artists including the Bone Palace Orchestra, Paul Capsisand Eddie Perfect. Appears at the Make Poverty History concert.December Performs his AZ show 100 songs in alphabetical orderover four nights.January Tours regional Australia with the Boon Companions andper forms with the Pretenders and the Church for the Day on the Green concert series in four states.

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Steering through rough seas

Refugee politics. Photo: Judy Green The surge in asylum seeker arrivals is causing angst in a Government with little room to move on the issue. THE Rudd Government is staring at a problem it fervently hoped would not reemerge. The number of asylum seekers arriving by boat has increased substantially, and is expected to continue to do so. When on Thursday a vessel with 69 passengers was intercepted, it was the fourth in less than a week. One of the earlier three had to be rescued while still outside Australian waters; it was in distress and there were fears the people could soon perish. Advertisement: Story continues below Nearly 1600 people have arrived so far this year compared with 161 for the whole of last year and 148 in 2007. We're certainly not back to 2001, when more than 5500 came, but the trend is unmistakable. Christmas Island's huge 800bed facility, ordered by the Howard government and once thought destined to become a white elephant, can't accommodate the flow. The island can take about 1300 at a squeeze; this week there were 900 with another 150 on the way. Double pressure is worsening the situation. The Taliban's increasing success has meant more Afghans (who mostly come through Indonesia) are on the move. And as Immigration Minister Chris Evans describes it, a ''second supply chain'' has recently opened up from Sri Lanka, with some boats coming directly from there. The Government is deeply concerned about both what's happening, and where things could go politically. Evans says the about 500 arrivals in September are ''way out of proportion'' to what's been seen previously, ''the worst month probably since 200102'', and a ''worrying development''. Much is at stake for Evans, who has overseen important and desirable reforms to process people faster and treat them more humanely Rosetta Stone . As the numbers escalate, pressure to roll back the changes is likely to intensify. So far, the issue has been largely under the political radar. Opposition spokeswoman Sharman Stone has ramped up the rhetoric but carries little weight publicly and could be moved when Malcolm Turnbull finally reshuffles. The Coalition is divided about exploiting the border issue, which caused internal rows in government. But it is turning more attention to it. Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce, just back from Christmas Island, claimed this week that a majority of the asylum seekers appeared to be ''economic migrants''. He said suspicion of bona fides should be raised by healthylooking 20 to 40yearold males who brought with them multivitamins, were concerned about putting on too much weight, and called friends to tell them of their arrival. Whether or not Joyce's observations are accurate, he shouldn't be written off as a redneck or political opportunist. The tone of Joyce who was outspoken in 2006 in support of West Papuan asylum seekers and has a brother involved with refugees is quite different from the Coalition's 2001 demonising language. He stresses those he saw on Christmas Island are ''good people'' but argues the line between people leaving in fear of persecution and those escaping a poor life is being blurred. Most claimants are being approved as refugees: so far this year 641 have been granted permanent visas; only a handful have returned home, going voluntarily. Some who have been rejected are in various stages of appeal.

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Team effort beat Pies, says Ratten

CARLTON coach Brett Ratten lauded his team's ability to winwithout any goals from spearhead Brendan Fevola after the Bluespowered to a 51point thumping of Collingwood at the MCG. Carlton captain Chris Judd was comfortably best on ground,snaring 32 possessions, although Ratten said he was most pleasedthe Blues had achieved the win without any passengers. "To our boys' credit 133; I think we had a lot ofcontributors, and that's been a big part of our game that hasprobably fluctuated a fair bit, where we've had 1012 contributingand a few 133; blokes we've had to carry through games. I thoughttoday everyone played their part," he said. Advertisement: Story continues below Collingwood defender Simon Prestigiacomo's resolute effortagainst Fevola was the first time the Carlton forward had been keptscoreless since round 20, 2007, but Ratten said Fevola 151; savefor a 50metre penalty against him in the third quarter 151; haddisplayed "great body language". "I suppose it's the belief of players around and the team thathe doesn't have to dominate games for us to win," Ratten said. "Theway he went about rolling up and assisting and creating space forothers (was important)." Judd was even more glowing in his praise of Fevola. "I thoughtFev was terrific. He was a general down there, he really set ourforward line up," he told 3AW. "Some of his tackling was fantastic Rosetta Stone Italian ,he stirred up and put it down Eddie Betts' throat. He mightn't havehit the scoreboard as much as usual but his impact was justhuge." Four goals from livewire forward Betts and three from utilityJarrad Waite filled the Fevola scoring void for Carlton, whereasCollingwood 151; missing Paul Medhurst, Anthony Rocca, Didak andDale Thomas from its forward line 151; had only two multiplegoalkickers, Jack Anthony and Tarkyn Lockyer, who kicked twoeach. Despite the Magpies' deficit reaching 45 points atthreequartertime and extending beyond 10 goals midway through thelast quarter, coach Mick Malthouse insisted his team's chances ofvictory were not blown until the last five minutes of thematch. "I didn't think we were out of the game at all, at any stage,until the last five minutes," he said. "Obviously that a coach'sperception but we were getting enough of the football. "We just weren't getting enough clean football and we weren'tgetting the ball in a clean manner forward." Malthouse said he would not use injuries as an excuse for theloss 151; "You're dealt the hand, you play the hand" 151; andinstead lamented the lack of pressure to Carlton's players in thefirst quarter, as well as the Magpies' slow movement of theball. "We went forward more than the opposition but 133; they werequick into the forward line, we were slow into the forward line,"he said. "And sometimes that's got to do with the way we moved it. Wejust didn't have the confidence to run it. When we did we lookedOK, but it was infrequent." Indeed, Ratten acknowledged the Blues' players had "forcedCollingwood's inside50 kicks to be high balls and not clean andcrisp". It was the second successive match in which the Magpies had beenpunished by an opposition's small forward but Malthouse defendedhis decision to keep assigning Harry O'Brien to these quickerplayers.

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Long days and medieval knights

Well fortified ... (from top) Carcassonne’s Cite's cobbled streets; a mural at Notre Dame de l’Abbaye; jousting reenactment. Photo: Lonely Planet, In a land of castles and cassoulet, Susan Johnson slows to the seasonal rhythm of life. Lost in Carcassonne, not entirely certain whether I'm heading in the direction of the medieval walled Cite for which it is famous, I use my schoolgirl French to ask a passing stranger for directions. "Mais oui," replies the handsome, welldressed young man of perhaps 20 or 25, holding hands with his plump, pretty girlfriend. Advertisement: Story continues below He confirms that I am indeed taking the best and shortest route possible, before giving me his broadest smile, revealing a mouthful of blackened, medieval teeth. Those rotten teeth sum up for me the experience of being in the Languedoc region of southwest France, an area with only the thinnest of tourist veneers covering its gnarled and ancient heart. Carcassonne's medieval Cite may be a Unesco World Heritagelisted site and the second most visited tourist site in France after Paris (the French love it) but in truth the city and its regions are more la France profonde than bon chic, bon genre. This is the supposed birthplace of that quintessential French peasant feast, cassoulet, the rich, heavy dish made from pork sausage and goose and duck and sometimes more pork, mixed with white haricot beans. Nearby Toulouse claims to have invented it, too, and so does the town of Castelnaudary, 30 kilometres from Carcassonne, but whoever dreamt up the dish was most certainly a Languedoc native, steeped in the language and traditions and seasons of this most southern of French landscapes. Still deeply agricultural and tied to the rhythms of the farming seasons, Carcassonne is surrounded by vineyards and farmland. Its calendar is marked, Rosetta Stone Arabic year in and year out, with local fetes celebrating cassoulet or chestnuts, onions or farm labourers and most especially foie gras, a speciality of the region. Carcassonne and its environs are also home to the legendary Cathars, the persecuted early Christians defeated by the French Crusaders representing the Catholic Church and the King. In the 11th century, the Cathars built a series of spectacular fortified castles high in the foothills of the Pyrenees and they fled here after they were driven out of the cities and towns. On clear days, the dramatic, snowy peaks of the Pyrenees are visible from the villages around Carcassonne. The ruined castles in which the Cathars were besieged for weeks and months perch at breathtaking heights thousands of feet above sea level. Driving through the deep valleys to reach the castles, you pass thick pine forests and alpine lakes, spa towns and rushing whitewater rivers, sometimes travelling on winding roads cut through massive granite mountains that suddenly disappear into rolling fields. It is spectacularly varied country. Carcassonne is the setting for Kate Mosse's bestseller, Labyrinth, that girls' own Holy Grail of a book that has sold millions of copies worldwide. As with Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, Mosse's thriller covers similar territory (France, grails, secrets, religious conspiracies) but in a dual narrative: through Alice, a presentday English archaeologist, and the hothearted 17yearold heroine, Alais, who lives with her Cathar family within the fortified walls of the Cite (constructed on Roman and Visigoth foundations and fortified by the Cathars in the 11th century). Controversially tarted up by a rich local duke in the second half of the 19th century, the old Cite is still inhabited by families who have lived here for generations (the bulk of Carcassonne's 50,000 residents live on the other side of the Aude River, in the newer part of the city, known as the Bastide SaintLouis).

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Travel guide to British writers' homes

Book marks ... Haworth, West Yorkshire, the former home town of the Bronte sisters. The English landscapes that inspired its greatest writers are just as compelling for their readers, writes Susan Johnson. The English language bequeathed to the world a rich literary heritage, a unique legacy of novels, plays and poems, which in turn inspired romantic myths about the Englishmen and women who wrote them. The enigmatic lives of Byron, Shakespeare, the Brontes, Jane Austen and Dickens have aroused almost as much interest as their works. Jane Campion's new film, Bright Star, about the doomed love life of the poet John Keats, is the latest in a long line of movies, books and plays about English writers. Advertisement: Story continues below In a country with such a peerless literary history, it is hardly surprising that literary tourism is booming. A niche travel market, English literary tourism appeals to readers keen to see the birthplaces, graves and especially the houses and landscapes where writers' imaginations were formed and blossomed. Alison Dalby, of the National Trust, which owns and manages the largest number of British writers' houses, says the number of visitors grows annually. Interest in the trust's most recently opened property, Greenway Agatha Christie's holiday home in Devon was so great last summer that visitors had to be turned away. The dwellings of England's most famous writers draw millions of visitors each year. The five houses associated with Shakespeare in StratforduponAvon attract 750,000 tourists annually, the largest number of literary pilgrims. Surprisingly, it is not Jane Austen's house at Chawton in Hampshire (40,000 annual visitors) or the only surviving London home of Charles Dickens in Doughty Street (25,000 a year) that attracts the secondlargest group of visitors. It is Sissinghurst Rosetta Stone Castle in Kent, the home of Vita SackvilleWest, novelist and sometime lover of Virginia Woolf (about 160,000 annual visitors). "It is definitely Vita herself her own story and her garden that draws people," the trust's communications officer for the southeast, Michelle Cleverley, says. But it is London that is most alive with literary history, from Dr Johnson's house near Fleet Street (Johnson was the compiler of the first comprehensive English dictionary and was also famous for declaring "when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life") to the beautiful, newly restored Hampstead house of Keats, who wrote Ode to a Nightingale there, inspired by a bird singing in the plum tree outside his window. Keats was in love with the girl who lived in the adjoining house, 18yearold Fanny Brawne, and her bedroom is now open to visitors for the first time. Campion's new film has already had an impact on visitor numbers. An actual landscape as much as an imagined one, London attracts literary tourists like no other city. Dickens made the city his own and his only surviving London house is in a beautiful part of town, near Chancery Lane, which inspired his novel Bleak House. Sherlock Holmes's famous flat in Baker Street is not far away and is now the site of the Sherlock Holmes Museum.

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Determined to be Zadie

Photo: Washington Post Zadie Smith's hostility to certainty stems from herupbringing, writes Boyd Tonkin. AS THIS decade sinks towards an end, its frothy beginnings nowfeel like a dream. Did all that really happen? Did, for instance, agifted, earnest and precociously erudite young writer able to ridethe twin waves of fiction and criticism with the aplomb of a newVirginia Woolf find herself swept away on a rip-tide of hype thatflung her in the public face as a sort of North London-bred BeyonceKnowles with a talent for a yarn? The record tells us it was so. And, after White Teeth in2000 saw its 25-year-old author press-ganged into poster-girl dutyfor some merrily upbeat post-millennium, new-Brit zeitgeistproject, Zadie Smith has had to spend much of the time since inrecovery. Smith, who now finds the author of that effervescentlycomic family saga ''a different person'', gave more proof of amighty potential in The Autograph Man (2002) and OnBeauty (2005). Advertisement: Story continues below Then came a period of retrenchment. She chose to teachliterature, modestly and seriously, at Harvard and Columbiauniversities. She moved to Rome with her husband, the poet andnovelist Nick Laird, to learn Italian and escape the frenzy ofpremature fame. She read, thought and wrote essays of luminousinsight, exemplary poise and deep, mature, unshowy feeling aboutthe art - and life - that matters to her, from Kafka to KatharineHepburn, E. M. Forster to British comedy, Nabokov to her late, muchmissed contemporary hero, David Foster Wallace. Changing My Mind, a harvest of those essays, lectures andreviews, bears witness to a series of shifts in gear and direction.''The idea that certainty is the highest value you can have inargument, in politics, in art - I don't understand it. I don't feelthat way,'' she says. The work Rosetta Stone Hindi V3 that captures all these transitions perms ebullientforays into canonical fiction with family memoirs, the odd travelpiece and even film reviews. ''As much as possible, I'd like to bring people along. I think there are many of my readers whowouldn't be comfortable with a book that was nothing but literarycriticism. And it wouldn't, for me, represent the things I like towrite anyway.'' Changing My Mind showcases the best of Zadie Smith:thoughtful but never pompous, agile but never glib, witty but nevercruel, with heart and head sweetly aligned. Take the trio ofelegiac pieces on her father Harvey, who died in 2006. When Smithlanded in that cloudburst of media spangles, grumblers sniped that her CV (Willesden street cred, comprehensive school, King's College, Cambridge, ''mixed race'' heritage) sounded too good to betrue. They didn't know the half of it. Because Harvey from Bromley had enlisted early and married his second, Jamaican wife, Yvonne, late (he was born in 1925; Zadie in1975), the father of the author of White Teeth fought on thebeaches of Normandy on D-day. ''He was so old,'' she says, ''that I think I'd been expectinghis death from about the age of seven or eight, in a constant state of tension.'' Writers, she says, use their work to rehearse thesepassages. ''Part of writing is the making safe of the future So I thought that as far as my father's death went, I was fully prepared, having had 25 years of waiting for it. But in factnothing does prepare you.'' His daughter's essays tell how she tried to record this''ordinary man's experience of extremity'' during thephotographer-turned-salesman's last days in a nursing home; theyexplore his affection for the lugubrious class comedy of Steptoeand Son and Tony Hancock; and evoke the bittersweet mayhem of Christmas in Willesden. Each one is a jewel. Yet the writer who, in 2000, could write a scorching anonymouscritique of her debut, scolds herself for the theft of a lovedone's life. ''It's a grim thing to admit to yourself: that theseessays will end up being in my mind more real versions of my father than my father I always think that every time a writer isborn into a family, that family has reason to fear.''

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Those who made it out were battered back by waves

A little wet around the ankles... a fisherman tries his luck at Clovelly yesterday. Photo: Edwina Pickles IT WAS the wettest May in seven years and it felt it. As the month drew to a close, almost 10 millimetres of rain fell in the central business district and more than 20mm fell in Gosford. All but the most ardent of rock fishermen were forced from the coast by thick winds. Those who made it out were battered back by waves and squalling rain. ''We've had two east coast lows that have both led to rainy days,'' a forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology, Gina Lawrie, said. ''For the rest of the week we've basically got winds coming in from over the ocean that push showers on shore.'' Advertisement: Story continues below Sydney received 169mm of rain in May, almost 50mm above the average. Batemans Bay had its wettest May in 25 years, recording 172mm. The State Emergency Service expected the cherry-pickers to start rolling in this morning after the weekend storms. And the specialty arborists. ''We've just hit the 500 mark in terms of total calls for assistance,'' a spokesman, Phil Campbell, said. ''That's since the event began late Saturday night.'' Rosetta Stone Greek Severe weather warnings were in place yesterday for the Illawarra, Sydney metropolitan area and the south coast. Most of the storm damage was contained between Narooma and Bermagui. Rain is forecast until at least Sunday. A 41-year-old Sydney man drowned off Kiama on Friday night, bringing the number of people in NSW to die while rock fishing to eight in May, and 13 in 11 months. Five people of Hong Kong-Chinese descent died on May 9 while fishing at Catherine Hill Bay. Wendy Huang, the manager of group operations at Australia's largest publisher of Chinese-language news, the Chinese Newspaper Group, said rock fishing rated among the most important stories in the Chinese-Australian papers. ''It is because you can't do it in China that people want to do it here,'' she said. ''It's not something that's popular in China - that's the reason they're not aware of the safety aspect.'' Safe Waters, a government initiative aimed at curbing drownings, describes rock fishing as ''probably the most dangerous sport in Australia''. Surf Life Saving NSW reported the sport was ''the second highest cause of coastal drowning deaths in NSW after swimming and being caught in a rip current''. A safety campaign, spearheaded by Surf Life Saving, was under way in foreign-language press, a spokesman said.

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