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Hello, I am Graham French author of
“The Grand Trick” and creator of this blog site
What’s it for?
The fundamental purpose of this blog is to offer help and friendship. My area of particular interest and experience is a subject largely (if not completely) neglected in schools and universities. It is my hope that through this blog site you will come to get to know me and my family. Like you we have had our ups and downs financially and (it goes hand in hand) emotionally too; one tends to get emotional when one’s income is suddenly, or inexorably, lower than the growing outgoings. If redundancy or incapacitity to work strikes, things can go very swiftly scary and it’s not a happy situation. One of the quick fix, “things will get better” situation savers is, of course, the ubiquitous but pernicious credit card and the limits on those can get magically raised the deeper your indebtedness grows! Then comes the moment of truth, you simply have run out of funds, the cards are at their limits, income has not improved and various internet business ideas have increased outgoings rather than increasing income. So what to do?
Well, having been there, suffered and effected a self rescue plan, we want to assist similarly affcted families.
And the “Why”?
Why? Well the plan is one based on reciprocal benefits, I am not going to claim that I ‘now want to pay back’ as I see so often, so let’s set down my motives:
There are areas of life that I am keen on yet see a great destruction going on and I do not like it and that is “The Family Unit” with married parents and their children. This focus leads directly to “Education” and the destructive effects of the media. So I want a platform from which to help others who have similar values (whether they are currently married or not).
Financial Security – Needed like water, for good health
For familes to hang together, they need to be reasonably financially secure and the banks/credit card companies have played and are still playing what I call “The Grand Trick” on millions upon millions of people, putting them, literally, into debt slavery. It’s nothing new but the system has reached a peak of efficiency to this end!
The Exit is Here – (From Credit Card Debt)
The intent here is to show you an escape route, give you a financial breather and lead you to financial freedom through building a sound online business. We will profit from this exercise but it will be fair profit and will not give rise to any resentment, quite the reverse.
However, the last part of that statement is currently being developed and tested and as it’s vital to have the business building part in place before embarking on this plan, I can only say at this stage, stick with us as we proceed, there is plenty of groundwork to be covered first and we will be posting informative posts on this site and elsewhere as we go meanwhile, take a look at the video and ’sign in’ to our free newsletter for alerts and updates.
What We Don’t Know We Don’t Know!
We want like minded families to share the life changing, fog clearing knowlege that you certainly need, bearing in mind that what you don’t know you don’t know is just what you should know! We will help you clear the fog that is surrounding us and holding us back from enjoying life – and those close to you – as fully as we can. We live on a beautiful planet, the intention is that we should be happy here. Where things have gone wrong is where powerful people have determined that there is not enough abundance for all, so want to keep the masses in ignorance so ‘they’ the self appointerd ‘powerful’ can grab everything (and they are doing just that). The ‘Powerful’ are wrong, negative, destructive yet silly and fundamentally weak and discovering this for ourselves is empowering, if shocking at first.
A very contracted bio: English; Grammar Type, boarding school educated after some home schooling with the PNEU (Parents National Education Union) system.
Bio (well it sounds green);-)
Have travelled since I was 10, always keen on flight (do RC Model a/c flying) joined the RAF for five years then worked overseas for an airforce subcontractor; Switched to the marine environment selling Navigation systems, radar etc to overseas navies and fising fleets, obtained my Diploma In Management Studies; moved on to a major naval contractor then went solo by invitation to act as the UK agent for a Norwegian Water Industry orientated company. Married; three daughters, all musicians. My wife of 26 years (BMus. Cer tEd.) taught our girls at home until they all won major life changing scholarships, she is by profession a Music Teacher, currently teaching piano from home.
Not a Sudden “Good Idea”!
I have been helping people with credit card problems since 1998. I have the privelege to have a business partner of immense experience, knowledge and qualifications. You will find out more about him as you progress with us, you will be amazed.
No Side Effects Cancer Cure?
For several years now I have been ordering various food supplements from a man I Know and trust. I do not try and promote health products because, frankly, people in England are so used to relying 100% on the NHS that they dismiss all ‘that sort of thing’ with “Oh, I am under the doctor” and that’s that, They no longer own their own bodies and health!
But today my friend at AntiAgingLifeExtension.com (who is at least 84) has started a blog andis on Twitter On his latest blog he points you towards a site with the remarkable and exciting claim that…
a) The prime cause of cancer is now known and
b) It’s very easy to prevent and (if not too late in the day) fix! With NO Chemotherapy, hair loss, ‘remission’ etc. Fixed, fixed, fixed!
So Take a look go to http://www.breastcancercured.com/
thought this worth spreading around as the ‘Big Financial Interests’ certainly won’t advertise it!
Of course do your own research but it seems to add up.
How I Have Fixed My High Blood Pressure, Free!
Sometimes things just do work out great and I thought you’d like this story.
A couple of years ago I applied to get some life cover. Following my application I got a phone call from the company saying that they were sending a nurse around to see me. Pleasant woman came and one of the things she checked was my blood pressure. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head; “Mr Paris you must go and see a doctor you have very high blood pressure indeed!” It was 200 over something (120 was a figure I had in mind)
So I went to see my doctor and lo and behold yes, no mistake, it was 200 over something! Hmm, pills prescribed, tests done ’starvation blood test changes of tablet and finally settled down with pressure down around the 160-160 mark 150+ on a good day. Oh well at least I knew and my system could take the pressure!
Then we moved to a hilly area of Lincolnshire, the edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds and cycling around this lovely area is just such a pleasure, you can see the first video I took with my new toy on my bike a ‘Flip Camera’ That was about nine months ago. Now we regularly do rides of 12, 18 even up to 30 miles and I can boast that ‘No Hill Defeats Me’ and that’s quite a boast because some of the lanes around here are like the Oslo Ski Jump! I reckon that ‘Cycling is good for the heart!” (Heard a YouTube Comment – Cycling fixes everything)!
Well a couple of days ago I took my blood pressure and it was 117 over whatever; the first time I can ever remember being below 120!! So there you are, cycling is good for the heart (in this area at least)!
So don’t give in, get a bike, take it easy at first and gradually get more vigorous, occasionally ‘flat out’. I pretend I am back at Champneys (a health resort we went to for a couple of days) on the exercise bike and switching to ‘Flat Out’ I even do that sometimes toiling up a steep hill, Grrrrr! Standing up on the pedals and lifting the handlebars in my exertion – and remember I am (in case you didn’t know it) 67 – Just a silly statistic!
Get pedalling folks – it’s good for you! (see the cycling video for fun)!
Living On a Boat – One of Life's Adventure's
We are, I reckon, a pretty ‘One off’ family with a considerable number of bullet points to our profile!
E.g. We have three daughters who all became musicians, all pianists and all with secondary musical achievements, furthermore we have never had TV .
MV Thorntree
But if we are going to step outside the norm, let’s do it in style…
So once upon a time I came back home to be greeted by, “Our offer on the boat is accepted!”
What!!!??? I had, with some relief given up on the crazy idea hatched up on one rainy Sunday afternoon to sell up and live on a boat. Plan A was a large ‘ready to convert’ MFV (Scottish Motor Fishing Vessel – Drift Netter) lying near Skye, Scotland. Further reflection saved us from that idea
Plan B was a similar – but already converted to live aboard, an MFV lying in Essex, on the River Blackwater. We had viewed the vessel, impressive in parts but ‘my area’ the engine room was a mess. The accommodation was neat and sparkling and smelling heavily of Lavender Polish! Our offer was refused, phew, relief!
But Celia, whilst I was out had an impulse to try again, and it was accepted – subject to our selling our house.
Then – I felt fate betrayed me at the time – we sold the house!
We then sold everything just about (Celia amazed me on that score) except books which got stashed away in friends’ attics and cellars. And one memorable day we packed all that was left into a van and my amazingly commodious Citroen XM (lovely car)! and off we set to arrive, completely exhausted, at the berth in Essex.
We were greeted by the owner – and huge thunder clouds! The first priority was to get the bed linen onto the boat before the threatened deluge. So, tired as we were, we unloaded as much as we could stow away as quick as possible. Then it rained, hard, with thunder and lightning!
But something Celia and I will always treasure, the girls had bought us some special candles and gave them to us aover our first meal aboard with a letter which, frankly, made us cry. They thanked us for buying such a lovely boat and providing such an exciting home. They are loving and thoughtful daughters.
We soon discovered one of the delights of living aboard, a certain closeness to the elements and cloths were deployed to absorb the several rain drop areas around the deck-head (ceiling, which is something else on a boat). “Ah, the dry weather we’ve been having, she’ll soon tighten up.” We were assured – but not so re-assured. “Ah, a Welsh boat!” some wise acre remarked, “compleate with leaks!” Hmmph!
And so we dwelt on this boat for nearly two years. We gradually let go by renting a flat and finally we sold the boat and bought a house again.
Now the first impressions were quite contrary to reality. The sparkling accommodation hid a multitude of sins, whilst the messy engine room actually contained a superb V8 Perkins (Caterpillar) Diesel of considerable power and smoothness, a very fine engine indeed!
Here’s picture, pity it’s against the light because I had just completely burnt off all the paint, recaulked and seamed her and a fresh repaint job. She looked pretty good – a huge labour on my behalf I might say and a very close encounter with Essex Mud. The latter gave me quite a new view of ‘nature’ and the value to wild life of mud. Did you know that mud can sing? Well when its alive with worms etc, it does! And it can look very beautiful to in the right light/sky conditions and be very peaceful too, I rest my case for saltings mud!
Life on board was essentially happy, we had a berth at the end of a somewhat dilapidated run of staging so we were right out in the river and on the other side of that there were ’saltings’ with attendant bird life. The boat was very cosy and had efficient and attractive diesel fired heaters (you could boil a kettle or bake potatoes in foil on them too)!
Celia and I gave up the Masters and Mate’s double berth up for’ard to our two younger daughters and we used a pull out berth situated in the deck house aft of the wheelhouse. From here we had a great view of the stars and I could teach Celia the names of some constellations (‘clusters’ as she called them). No TV – we were the TV! We were also the subject of visiting artists who would draw and paint our boat!
As we had so much stuff aboard we didn’t ‘go out’ much in her as packing away for sea was a too big a job, but we went out on occasion to avoid becoming ’stick-in-the-muds’!
Mentally it’s quite different living on a boat. You feel definitely ‘removed’ from the rest of the world and the mundane things of living don’t seem to impinge in the same way as when you are stuck in your house. We became adopted the boatyard folk especially ‘John’ a traditional boatbuilder of huge experience. We also were adopted by Boris the yard cat. Boris was a very special cat, he was initially totally intrigued by our stereo system on board, upon first hearing it he looked fascinated and searched around for the source of the sounds of the normally classical music of BBC Radio 3.
The acoustics on the boat were fantastic for stereo music, which we could have playing at ‘proper volume’ and a memorable occasion was when we had a request on Radio 3, (Brian Kay of the King’s Singers) played. It aws for Benjamin Britten’s “Sea Interlude” from his opera “Peter Grimes” with the most ferocious and heart searing storm ever set down to music. What an amazing piece that is!
A Classic Plywood Boat, 16ft, 55hp outboard, planing hull!
To the right is a picture of a little 16ft Cabin Cruiser that I just rescued from being cut up. I had always admired it’s friendly but purposeful shape and wanted to ‘get her going’ as she had a nasty example of rot in the transom. One day I found someone working on her, stripping gear out and stopped to chat. He was the owner and had decided to have her scrapped! Oh dear, I’ll buy her off you, I declared and for a few hundred pounds for the gear and trailer and the big outboard ‘in abeyance’ she was mine!
I set to, in between ‘heavy’ jobs on the MFV , knocked out the rotten transom, cleaned up and repaired the associated framework, bought some good thick marine ply and fitted a new transom. Did I feel proud of that! Boatyard crew inspecting and ‘OK’ about it too. My aeromodelling experience certainly came into play here.
As you can see from the picture, she came up very prettily and we had serious fun with that little boat! 20 knots was exciting and, to anyone watching, highly surprising! Mind you, one had to be pointing in the right direction when you put her in gear, no clutch, just in and off! And, no, going astern never pulled the transom off either! Water Cress (as she was called by the previous owner for an especially romantic reason) only drew a very few inches, with the o/b lifted, which meant we could creep over very shallow ground and this enabled us to go to a neighbouring marina, have tea with friends and come back, just clearing a causeway, all on a tide. That was fun, as was a 3AM start for a lovely summer’s day excursion, subject of an acclaimed essay by one of my daughters!
Buying Antique Clock in Horncastle
Where I live is renowned for its antique shops and today we were ostensibly browsing around but in reality being inexorably drawn (oh so innocently) back to a ceramic Edwardian Clock that had been nagging away at us.
It’s a pretty grand looking thing, rather French looking. It wasn’t working as a timepiece but I like fixingthis sort of thing so we were allowed to take a look inside and I reckoned it could be a go-er. We bought it.
I swiftly removed the ‘works’ which were all coated in what looked like treacle, no wonder it wasn’t working!
And I thought you would like to see this thing.
I will post progress as I go along.
Hope you like the tick of a real piece of clockwork made over 100 years ago and still working (now)
You can see it working here:-
A couple of days later now and I have rescued the clock face somewhat. I simply photocopied it onto plain paper. I then coloured in the blemishes using art crayons, photocopied that to fix it. Then inked in the obliterated numbers, finally copying onto glossy paper. Voila, one antique clockface but legible. I may order a replacement as it is a bit dark.
Finished item has found its way to the top of the page! Do you like it?
Another Perspective – There's a Fun Side Too!
Flying Model of the Spitfire Trainer - Miles Magister
Hi, Hello,
Just for Fun!
I can get rather serious sometimes when talking about the economy, finances, banks etc so here’s another side that I think will make you smile.
I have just acquired a Flip Camera (no I am not trying to sell them – at present anyway)!
The first try-out was to strap it on my bike and go out for the daily bike ride with Celia.
And using the camera’s own software here’s the result, posted on You Tube, The Title is
“Upbeat Biking” the link is here:-
http://www.youtube.com/grahamfparis (copy and paste into browser) or click the link in the ‘Links’ section
People think Lincolnshire’s just flat, well it certainly is but not all over, this is a short (about 8miles) route straight out from our house on the South-West edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds, designated ‘An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.’ Lincolnshire is often called ‘The Secret County’. A lot of the country’s food is grown here. I love it!
When You Just Need The Money!
Here’s a pleasant picture.
I have just celebrated 25 years of an exciting, adventurous and happy marriage We have three very talented and (usually)! loving daughters. I have a modern Classic Car, which I enjoy driving and owning We live in a charming beamed cottage in a lovely almost ’secret’ area.
A Piece Went Missing
But a couple of years ago I was hurtling towards financial disaster and retirement at a frightening speed. A Bit Went Missing. An important piece of our life’s jigsaw, money, went missing. The picture was not complete and didn’t look good! Bleak is a warm way to put it.
Just as The Axe Was Falling
But this interesting event primed me to respond to some extraordinary news from a friend regarding a Financial Educational programme/business. Not MLM, by the way. I paid my joining fee without hesitation. Just As the Axe Was Falling on me… I received the information pack an a sunny Sunday morning at a meeting in near London, by Tuesday I had implemented the initial actions required to save myself. My world view shifted. The impending disaster was halted in its tracks and I had a plan of action.
It Is Going to Fall on Many
The one thing that I value very highly, is my integrity. I am known as an honest person and I intend to maintain that reputation. That is why it has taken me two years to put up this my first blog. I have wanted to be sure I have everything in place so that your path to freedom is smooth and – given that you follow my lead – assured.
The banking crisis is dire. We haven’t seen the full extent of the mess yet either. But there is a way to protect yourself. I am now here to help, particularly families, who are either in the position we were in or simply need to take their finances to another level. Very often it is just the ‘finances’ that are limiting decent people’s lives.
Here’s a Prescription
If I Set Up As a Doctor.. And yet had no medical training, I would have one prescription to hand out and if that didn’t fix the problem, my patients could look elsewhere.
“Good morning, Mr Smith, how are we today? Not on top form? Never mind, tell me about it on your next appointment, here’s a prescription I think will help”
The prescription: “Financial Freedom.”
“Just take it along to your bank, that’ll be OK. See you in a month’s time if that doesn’t work.”
How many ills would that cure? How many dis-eases are caused by poor finances? But ‘Finance’ is not taught at school yet everyone needs to know about it! I have been where you are now – and I didn’t like it much! If you are a ‘worried parent’ looking to fit the financial piece of your life’s puzzle into place, then I am addressing you.
I Know How You Feel
I know how you feel, I know how you yearn for freedom from financial worry and constraint. I know the pain of living in the wrong place, with children at the wrong school and all such things. I am no internet guru, I have no ambition to train thousands of people how to sell millions of electronically downloadable $49.00 items. Which you can do of course - I want to help some decent families with whom I can connect and who will become friends of mine, on a national and international basis. What I will be showing you is not for everyone, you have to have a big vision and be willing to have your world view modified. But…on the other side of that is a life with a lot of sunshine in it!
This is Personal
I am offering my personal help and advice from my own personal experience that will be tailored to your situation. I will not make your decisions for you, of course, just present you with options which, right now, you do not know exist. Are you ‘connecting’ here? That being the case, what you can do in the first instance is to email me gfrenchparis@gmail.com with a subject ‘Financial Education’ and we will talk. No clickable gizmos here (not saying there won’t be, I’m learning)!
All the best GrahamFP
Skype: Stateam
email; gfrenchparis@gmail.com
The Grand Trick – Sleepers Awake!
The Grand Trick – Sleepers, Awake!
Oranges and Lemons
Picking up on a recent remark about my stance on ‘Usury’ I thought
it might be interesting to flesh that particular point out.
On it’s own interest/usury is a pernicious concept but I am not
focusing solely on usury but the way money is generated and how most
of the population (world wide) is manipulated and brainwashed into
accepting and not questioning the Grand Trick that is played on
them – and it’s a trick which is fundamentally malevolent and used to
gain power and control.
Who Owns The Banks?
I often start by asking people “Who owns the Bank of England? Who
owns the Federal Reserve?”
People hum and ha but few know that both are privately owned banks
but they are the designated “Central Banks” of their respective countries.
They have the license to ’supply’ our money.
To cut a long story very short the way in which a bank works is
that it ‘looks after people’s money’. Years ago you could take in
your gold coin, deposit it and receive a note to say that that amount
was held in the bank and redeemable upon demand. Instead of
running back to the bank to retrieve your gold to exchange it for
a horse or whatever, you simply passed over your ‘notes’ to the
required value of gold and thus bought your horse.
Simple, convenient and the banks simply charged ‘rent’ to store your
gold safely.
A Clever, Profitable Trick
But then the keepers of the gold could see that they always had
large amounts of gold in their bank, never did ‘everyone’ come in
at one time and take all their gold out. So they secretly hit upon
the idea of lending out extra notes, charging interest for such‘loans’.
A very profitable idea indeed, if you and I tried that trickimagine the
shame and uproar when found out!
Going to Print – Money from Thin Air
Notice at this point that the lenders simply printed a ‘note’ that
had cost them virtually nothing, written an amount on it and then
charged interest on the ‘loan’ or ‘credit’. They created money out of thin
air based on their ‘customer’s promissory note to pay it back.
The promissory note took the place of gold, became the funding
instrument for the new customer’s account and without which, no new
account could be created. No money was taken from another account -
it is a trick based on trust. But this strategy is not ‘well
advertised’ as you can imagine and the population at large generally
has no clue as to what the bankers are doing -treating them as
Lemons, no less!
Who Get’s Rich?
Well, bankers/lenders got very rich producing little except pretty
pieces of paper! But everyone seemed happy until….
Depositors began to wonder how these bankers were getting so rich
and rumours spread that they were spending the depositors money.
The depositors rushed to get ‘their gold’ out of the bank before
everyone else did and guess what? Not enough gold to go around and
the bankers were lynched (well they should have been perhaps)!
Know Your Fractions!
So banking rules were set up and fractional banking approved and
made legal. Bankers had to retain a certain proportion in gold of
what they lent out in notes. They were allowed to lend extra to
what they held in stock they only had to hold a fraction of the
value lent in gold – hence Fractional Banking. Still money backed
by gold but not so much.
Goodbye Gold
But…since the gold standard was abandoned no gold at all need be
kept in the bank (it isn’t) and all money issued today is against
promissory notes of one kind or another, so as above, money is
created out of thin air. Now the fractional banking is based on
these promissory notes (i.e. Loan agreements) instead of gold or
any other precious metal.
Very Interesting Point
So what’s wrong with that? The problem lies in finding the
interest charged. When money is created from promissory notes
everything balances out until you have to find the money to pay the
interest, the only way that can be done is through borrowing more
money into existence.
If the Treasury performed the very same function there would be no
need for the Government to pay these interest charges, think about it.
In 1694 ‘They ‘got Rich ‘We’ Got Poor
The Bank of England was brought into it’s
‘wealth-for-itself-generating-position’ by William and Mary in
1694. William needed money, he did a deal with the Bank to
lend it to him, at interest. Interest on money created out of thin
air, collateral? The population, they would pay taxes, great idea,
here you are Mr King Orange we are surrounded by Silly Lemons, so
no problem!
The Government’s ‘Credit Card’
Forever after the gov’t has enjoyed this system, they have an open
credit card, they sign the promissory notes for billions for arms
(arms sales down, let’s have a war) etc., and pass the burden of
the debt interest to us Lemons who are picking up a growing tab.
Now the banks control nearly everything.
“Lets put a lot of money into the market”
Interest rates down folks, everyone borrow like crazy.
Now watch this trick, lets pull the money in now – up go interest
rates, Lemons go into default on mortgages loans etc, property is
seized! Now see that trick? The money was created out of thin air
but the property is real, who ends up with the property? The banks,
thanks, squeeze another Lemon chaps!
The Credit Card Wheeze – Put on the Squeeze
Credit cards (see how they are promoted to draw people into alleged
debt and subservience to the banks) and there are truly vicious and
underhand tricks played with them
Loans (to consolidate other loans)
Mortgages (Death Grip)
Repossessions Tantamount to Theft
Taking mortgages for example: When interest rates rise and
mortgages go into default and property is seized and sold on as
‘distressed property’ in many, many cases a bit of education and
un-brainwashing could have saved thousands of re-possessions, very
simply.
All the Mortgage lender need to do is to say “You are obviously
struggling, why not switch from repayment to interest only?”
It’s less than half the monthly outgoing and you can manage that.
We are brain washed into thinking that’s a very bad idea – but, but
we’ll never pay for the house what will happen…..?
A Debatable Point?
Consider: The rise in property prices follows a steady trend of say
12% p.a. (it’s about that) property prices rise above and correct
down and fall below sometimes then correct up. Why? There is a
growing housing shortage crisis that’s why. We have 500 more people
in this country through the ‘balance of trade’ between immigrants
and emigrants – per day; not to mention smaller family units (divorce
splits, growing student accommodation requirement etc.) So the
value increase in your house over 25 years is so great that there
is no need to struggle to ‘pay off, you can simply release equity
later, the house will earn more than you! Hence acquiring
property is such an ‘earner’.
But the banking system as you can see is based on a trick, “a
sleight of hand’ as a Bank of England governor said and the tricks
don’t stop at a national level.
Who’s in Charge?
Through the clever mechanics of banking, the bankers can actually
control the world – and they do.
Through big corporations they exploit labour in poorer countries,
they make loans that become national burdens of huge proportions
then send in the economic hit-men to persuade the rulers to bend to
the will of..I will leave that to the imagination, as I am not keen
on being hit myself!
They go in and say, “Now , you owe us a lot of money. In this
pocket I have a lot of money, I can make you very rich, through
‘legitimate’ deals of course, if you follow our prescribed policy
(sell us your oil cheap, for dollars, etc) but in this pocket I have a gun, with
a bullet with your name on it). If the president doesn’t go along
with plan A. His plane blows up in mid air (that’s happened to two
S American, non-co-operative presidents so far).
Our banking system is unsustainable. We are paying taxes that’s
money that goes into a black hole, growing interest on money
created out of thin air and going straight to the bankers (ever
seen an audit of accounts of the Bank of England)?
What have we got a Treasury for?
It can issue Treasury Bonds to raise money (bonds are a form of
money) therefore they can issue debt free money too. It would take
a brave act of parliament. At least three US presidents have tried
and all got assassinated. If that happened we would be immediately
freed from a huge unpayable debt that each Chancellor of the
Exchequer has to find more and more sneaky ways to raise more and
more tax from …..the Lemons!
Let’s Call It Like it Is!
So when I say evil, I mean evil – and powerful – and in control -
and anyone who knows, who’s in any power, is scared to say a word.
I have written to The Chancellor (then GB) and received a response
from Ed Balls, probably why he didn’t make it to Chancellor
himself? I wrote to my MP when he was Shadow Secretary for
Overseas Development – he’s in Education now. Such clever people,
international finance one minute, Education the next; background?
Estate Agent I believe?
I hope that gives some food for thought?
I am now going to save the planet by introducing a fuel saving kit
(stage one giving minimum savings of 50%) stage two, if we are
allowed to import it, gives 100mpg plus.
You would think that HMG would welcome such a green item but that’s
all hog wash, where will they replace the lost fuel tax revenue?
“Ho, Ho, folks, the greens made a mistake, global warming is due to
cyclic sun spot activity don’t worry about it – and those silly old
fuel savers use too much water anyway!”
Squeeze me a Lemon someone, I don’t hear the pips squeaking yet.
Copyright GFParis 5/08
email: gfrenchparis@gmail.com
Home Education – Incalculable Value/Save a Fortune!
As intimated in my profile I have enjoyed wealth and ‘the opposite’(!)
For Richer for Poorer
During a time of abundance we sent our children to a fine local private school. We chose it because the girls and boys from that school always seemed so happy and polite. But our fortunes took a steep downturn and we had no option but to move house and remove the girls from that private school to a local state school. It wasn’t an entirely happy experience and I knew for sure that at least one of our daughters was suffering inside. I remember returning from an important meeting which could result in a turnaround and driving past the school I offered up a heartfelt prayer that we could do something to help our daughters.
Like Father like Daughters
Now I had actually been taught at home for a year or so as my father worked overseas and we travelled a lot. It was the PNEU system (Parents National Education Union) and I suggested to my wife, who was a Music Teacher before we had our girls, that she could do the same.
So we (she) did.
Media Acclaim
It was a great success; we were duly visited by the local education authorities and given an ‘exemplary’ comment, in fact they took notes for their own use!
I Can Play the Piano, the Piano, the Piano….
One evening we were listening to ‘Classic FM’ radio and heard an advert for a Music School, looking for musical children, admission by audition.
So a bit of research into the subject got us thinking about putting our eldest daughter for audition at the three main schools as she was learning to play the piano and was obviously very musical. The result was that she was accepted into one of these top schools through her audition. Now these boarding places are offered, if finances dictate, under a gov’t “Music and Ballet” sponsorship scheme and thus, at that time at least, nearly all the fees were covered!
Scholarships All
All three of our daughters won these scholarships in turn, a fine achievement that hit the front page of our local paper with a lovely photo!
No TV?
I might add that we don’t have TV, it helps.
So why am I telling you this? Because home education is such a good option for you and your children. If you structure your week, get into a routine, you can be flexible and arrange instant ‘field trips’, don’t worry about the ’social interaction’ that’s no problem in fact it’s better. There are thousands of families doing this, you won’t be alone. Your child will have 1:1 attention, work at his/her own pace and your child will feel very secure. There is no substitute for parental attention, effort, sacrifice and interest in their children.
I won’t say that there aren’t character types that would be better off at school, that may be the case, I can only speak from experience.
Can You Put a Value on This?
You probably couldn’t afford such a fine education as this (home education) but if you could, well you’ll save your family exchequer a huge amount of money (work it out) and grow very close to your children?
But still the money has to come in and I will talk about that in another post.
Let me know if you are seriously interested in this concept and I can give further advice.
Check it Out
Meanwhile just start by Googling “Education Otherwise” or “Home Teaching”
In the UK (and the USA/Canada/Australia, I believe. You have the right to provide home education. It just has to be demonstrated that you actually are doing so and your child is receiving adequate tuition. With online programmes and teaching resources readily available it is made a lot easier than you may think. Our years of highest family happiness were when we were teaching at home, it’s fun, hard work but fun! We were happy and felt we were on an exciting journey of discovery together.
So Comparatively Efficient it’s Almost Cheating!
It is also highly efficient compared to going to school! Think about it, you on the spot, breaks are just long enough, class settling down time is almost zero, no travel problems, no bullying etc…
Comments welcome, actions even more so!
All the best – Graham