Sparkling Adventures Blog

[wild little fox]

I just looked at the blog. There are two entries about the biting. One is Elijah's Last Day and the other is Double Dutch.

So disregard this:

I read about the biting two days ago. IIRC I read someone else's account esterday and how they wondered if it was something that caused Elijah's death.

In otherwords, Hi Lauren!

ETA clarification (twice)

[pastaswife]

Reading through her old entries there was a big motif of "FIRE" fire baths, girls lighting sticks on fire, playing with lighters, etc. I started to assume (even knowing what's happened) that fire would play a big role in the future. It's like she's writing a novel, not her life.

[Morton Fan]

Aisha looks better because she is old enough to groom herself and probably tries to take care of her clothes. But she's still reliant on her mother to provide personal care items and clothes and to launder those clothes, so no matter how hard she tries she will still be "different".

Little girls of that age can be brutally cruel to another child who is different. I remember being teased mercilessly about my family being hippies, and I at least looked like the other kids, even if my parents didn't look like their parents.

And I wonder if Aisha is old enough to remember some normalcy and thus, cares more what others think, recalls how to groom herself, etc. whereas the little girls wouldn't know where to begin.

[shedemei]

Lauren looks so thin here it's scary.

http://www.sparklingadventures.com/images/9331.jpg

Yeah. Based on the last few entries that I've read, I think it's pretty clear that Lauren is real emotional trouble. Tired of running and tired of forcing herself into living and pretending to enjoy an escapist fantasy. I hope she is aware of it enough to find someone to help her and the children.

[heidi]

I just looked at the blog. There are two entries about the biting. One is Elijah's Last Day and the other is Double Dutch.

So disregard this:

I read about the biting two days ago. IIRC I read someone else's account esterday and how they wondered if it was something that caused Elijah's death.

In otherwords, Hi Lauren!

ETA clarification (twice)

The paranoid side of me wonders if she edited it out because it did somehow contribute to his death :(

[pastaswife]

Reading back through again, in the "Elijah's unfuneral" post all the girls are wearing red or pink exept for Aisha who is wearing black clothes. I think if anyone is feeling Elijah's death it's her, even now she seems the most unhappy, the only picture she really smiled in was when she opened the present from David, what a sad, emotionally stunted life that poor girl will lead :(

[Abi]

And I wonder if Aisha is old enough to remember some normalcy and thus, cares more what others think, recalls how to groom herself, etc. whereas the little girls wouldn't know where to begin.

It's sad enough that this is the only life the younger girls are used to. I think it's even sadder that Aisha is old enough that she can remember a time where things weren't quite as royally fucked up.. On some level, she must realise that this is NOT normal.

[constantgardener]

Well, according to the girls, you're usually on the computer, so that would be a no.

This. There are many troublesome issues with the way Lauren is living, but if I was living like that, one of the big positives would be the amount of time I would get to spend with my kids. She has no job, no house to run, only even does the laundry every couple of weeks...yet she is admitting that she doesn't often play with her children. She may say she travelling the country meeting sparkling people, but the reality is she is spending most of her time in front of a screen. The life she is giving those girls is little better than the lives of people on benefits, sat in their council houses watching TV all day, letting their kids roam the streets (I don't want to stereotype the unemployed here, I just happen to live on that kind of street).

[August]

I just found this, via her twitter

http://www.smh.com.au/national/educatio ... 2d59r.html

Seven-year-old Aisha Fisher may not know the alphabet, but it does not stop her writing letters. When she wanted to know how to spell ''love'', she asked her mother, Lauren Fisher, who reminded her how to form the letters. ''At this point, it's irrelevant that she doesn't know how to write a Q or a G,'' she said. ''When she needs to know those letters, she will ask how to form them.'' Fisher adopts the same teaching method for all of her four daughters aged between three and seven - none of whom go to school.

Instead, they are unschooled, which is a method of home schooling in which a child is free to pursue the things they want to learn without having topics and tasks forced upon them. To be legal in NSW, the method has to be approved by an inspector from the Board of Studies.

Moreover, Fisher and her daughters are full-time travellers and live out of a bus, which she says provides added learning opportunities. ''We engage in life - household chores, long-term projects, outings, visits and down-time - and along the way my girls approach problems with creativity and a quest for answers,'' she said.

[bbfreethinker]

I just found this, via her twitter

http://www.smh.com.au/national/educatio ... 2d59r.html

Look at Aisha in the picture with that article, chair turned with her back to the rest of the family, look of anger on her face.

[Blahblah]

Does the SMH pay for interviews? Just wondering how they picked her and why she agreed to speak to them.

[August]

Does the SMH pay for interviews? Just wondering how they picked her and why she agreed to speak to them.

Extra sparkle points for being panned by the paper. As for finding her, she's on te first page of hits when you google "australian unchoolers"

[Blahblah]

^^thanks. Wonder if she expected to gain converts to her ways by showing off her well-groomed kids. Did you check out poor Aisha's feet?

[miffy]

She needs to settle in an area that has a primary school with a Steiner stream, because that seems to be the style of schooling her 'unschooling' is following.

I don't understand why these fundie/ex fundie types pick half arsed home schooling over school of the air?

Also as bitchy as it is I find Lauren to be a total dork. She tries so hard to be cool, but fails. Hellena is a dork too.

[miffy]

Also X2 if Lauren doesn't lose all her kids soon, i'm thinking that Aisha will demand to stay with her cousins in Tamworth (or wherever it was) or her Grandfather in Sydney within the next year or two.

[happy atheist]

Aisha is seven and doesn't know her letters? Unless she has a learning disability, that's criminal! If she has a learning disability, then Lauren sure as hell needs to address it.

[pastaswife]

Come on! Clearly she's a great educator, look at Dell, she has advanced knowledge of holding a book! If that's not a great education nothing is. :roll:

[lilith]

Lauren was teaching Aisha her letters at two, and wouldn't let her "officially" turn five until she independently read a book aloud. I have seen things Aisha has written on the blog too. So she is not only not learning, she has gone backwards a substantial amount since her education was entrusted to an iPad.

I also don't believe her unschooling "curriculum" was approved by the Department of Education, because it doesnt fucking exist.

I have no idea why the SMH chose to profile her, except that she had the look they were after for the photo. It stuns me that there is no mention of the dead baby or incarcerated husband.

I do very much doubt they were paid to participate.

I hate that Lauren will see the article as endorsement and legitimizing of her fucked up educational choices.

[adidas]

SMH, SMH.

(Shaking my head, Sydney Morning Herald)

[Guest Anonymous]

I'm sure that the story about forming the letters LOVE is an old one that I read on the blog when going through the archives.

Edit: Apparently she wrote a "Christian unschooling' manifesto in 2010, which she updated into a secular version that she published last November. In it she refers to "A child", not "Seven year old Aisha":

sparklingadventures.com/index.php?id=1785

I'm guessing she put herself forward for the interview and talked such sparkly bullshit that the journalist decided to make something up from her blog instead.

The picture is horrible. Poor Aisha. :(

[Cerdwin]

I exchanged emails regarding homeschooling with her last year, and was told that her curriculum was approved. I do not doubt that, but I do doubt that she is making any effort to stick to whatever curriculum she showed the government. This will catch up with her sooner or later.

[guidedbybobafett]

Aisha is seven and doesn't know her letters? Unless she has a learning disability, that's criminal! If she has a learning disability, then Lauren sure as hell needs to address it.

Wow. If she does have a learning disability, that needs to be addressed ASAP! I will be totally honest here: I think unschooling is an acceptable path for children who have already learned the basic skills needed to function. I will be doubly honest: my definition of basic skills needed to function is a lot more rigorous than most others. Can your child (hopefully of at least 15 years of age) read a book at a skill level well beyond their age level and define for you the most difficult words? Can they then give you a clear and concise summary of said book? Can they then further dissect said book to reveal deeper issues at play? Can they add, multiply, subtract and divide at or beyond their grade level? (You can tell I'm not a math person, since I don't have very rigorous standards for that ;) ) Do they understand the Scientific Method? Can they demonstrate an ability to read history and consider the viewpoints of any given 'side', as it were? Do they actively engage with the world around them and show an interest in learning new things, experimenting with their surroundings, and learning new skills?

IF THE ANSWER IS NO: Unschooling is not an option for you. You will be putting your child at a severe disadvantage. Unschooling is for children who have not functioned well in a structured learning environment BUT WHO HAVE ALSO shown an interest in actively learning on their own. ARGHHH. I really don't think this is a good idea for anyone who isn't in high school, clearly.

[Guest Anonymous]

Is it safe to pick up jellyfish, as the children do in this video?

UGuX5u8rSwk

[blatantlyeggplant]

Probably. The venomous jellyfish tend to live in warm water, from what I understand, so much further north. When I was a kid (albeit in Perth WA, far from Tasmania) my classmates used to pick up and play with the ones that washed up on the river banks. They were completely harmless.

[Guest Anonymous]

Probably. The venomous jellyfish tend to live in warm water, from what I understand, so much further north. When I was a kid (albeit in Perth WA, far from Tasmania) my classmates used to pick up and play with the ones that washed up on the river banks. They were completely harmless.

Thank you. I was under the impression that jellyfish could sting so I winced when the little on picked one up. :)