Sparkling Adventures in Child Neglect: Now with Rats!

[CheeseDeprived]

Third of all, Minecraft is popular with a lot of people, not just homeschooled children. Maybe Lauren thinks that ebil public schools take children away from internet games.

Yep. I've got one authentic homeschooled child right now, and one oppressed one in ze ebil public schoolz. :mrgreen: They both love Minecraft! Clearly, I'm doing something wrong... :shifty:

Seriously, I get that she's trying to explain how learning happens all the time and that you don't always need to be in a structured classroom setting (which is something most parents know, no matter how they choose to educate their children... surely?!), but she just comes across as trying too hard and being all sanctiomonious at the same time.

As a homeschooling parent her definitions of "schooling" and her accompanying ramblings really annoy me. I've said it before and I'll say it again - she's the kind of person who gives homeschooling/unschooling a bad name and portrays it as something it shouldn't be... and I don't know how she ever managed to convince the education authorities that she is providing an adequate curriculum, because, as she's just admitted herself, she doesn't have one. She's just winging it.

[lilith]

My kids love minecraft, I bake with them and they google their OWN answers to questions.

All at the same time as attending a public school and doing structured homework every night. Oh, and I brush their hair too.

[lilith]

Also, Lauren isn't wearing her wedding or engagement ring in her oil change picture. She's wearing a ring David gave her on her middle finger, but that's it. Interesting.

Also, no mention of Marcus in the day in the life. I wonder if he's still with them.

[already hungover]

Lauren really, really irritates me. Like more than anyone else we talk about here. More than MckMama.

[MajorMajor]

Also, Lauren isn't wearing her wedding or engagement ring in her oil change picture. She's wearing a ring David gave her on her middle finger, but that's it. Interesting.

Also, no mention of Marcus in the day in the life. I wonder if he's still with them.

She stopped wearing her wedding ring a while ago. sparklingadventures.com/index.php?id=1351

[Cerdwin]

I was talking to a teacher friend recently, here in unenlightened, not sparkly Brisbane. She was telling me about a project her class was given as homework while studying ancient Egypt. They were making models of pyramids. A group of boys approached her to ask if they could make their models on Minecraft. She let them, and got a set of the most intricately detailed projects she has ever seen. Even poor oppressed public schooled kids are playing Minecraft, Lauren, and they are fitting it around learning a whole lot of other stuff!

[ILoveJellybeans]

Lauren really, really irritates me. Like more than anyone else we talk about here. More than MckMama.

Maybe because she is more blatant about how little she cares about her kids?

Yeah, the majority of people who are snarked about on here are because they are bad parents who are screwing up their kids, but Lauren makes no attempt to make things look nice. They even at least pretend they care about their kids on their blogs. Nomatter how cramped the other bloggers accomodations are, whether theyre homeless and living in a pop up, or trying to make a 2 bedroom house work with 10 kids by stacking them on shelves, they keep it fairly clean and organised. Even though most fundie kids are abused, their parents at least attempt to keep them in a safe environment away from things that will hurt or kill them-they supervise them while swimming, teach their children not to touch sharp objects (even if the way they teach them is cruel) and are careful about who comes in contact with the kids and know where the kids are at all times. Lauren happily posts pictures of her kids playing with scissors, riding on a forklift truck high up over concrete while playing with saw blades, swimming unsupervised, getting lost overnight with a stranger who could molest them. Even though most fundie bloggers are not homeschooling their children correctly, teaching them psuedoscience instead of facts, using crappy curriculums and not helping the kids with socialisation, they are at least doing something. Lauren's kids do not get any education at all, their education consists of wandering around in dangerous situations and surfing the internet. The fundie kids, despite being dressed in ugly frumpers or wearing flipflops in situations that arent appropriate, at least appear to be clean, have neat hair, are wearing shoes, and their clothes fit them and are clean, compared to Lauren's kids with their self cut hair, filthy rags and bare feet. Even if the fundie kids are fed on crap or have tiny portions because their parents cant afford to feed them, they at least get regular cooked meals and have never had to resort to eating sand.

Also most of the fundies here have yet to kill one of their kids.

[tuckerphez]

Good thing she got WiFi for the bus! Now there's even less call for her to interact with her children. They can just have unlimited access to YouTube. There's never anything inappropriate on YouTube! It's totally educational!

Ugh, this. Especially since the next sentence is her saying the kids don't have emails or an internet browser. Youtube is on the internet, Lauren, and there's ton of inappropriate stuff on there.

[Stephanie66]

The kids all have their own ipads?

A three year old does NOT need an iPad. She will break it, because it is what small children do when given expensive electronics. Or let the rats pee on it. Or whatever.

I know of people who are working full time jobs who don't even have one iPad. Australian welfare must be awesome.

[lilith]

She stopped wearing her wedding ring a while ago. sparklingadventures.com/index.php?id=1351

Aaah, I remember now. She took them off to allow non authentic bitches like she used to be to judge her. Of course, she never judges anyone now she's all enlightened and is never self righteous about her choices....:.

[Blahblah]

Just read the Day in the Life post. At our home, that's called the weekend.

Oh, and Minecraft is a favourite with most kids these days isn't it? I don't recall it being reserved for sparkly people. My 12 year old uses it at school for design projects with the blessing of his teacher, who actively encourages it.

Every time I read something from her she plumbs new depths of arrogance and smugness.

All I can think about is my tax dollars supporting this nonsense and then continuing to support it because these girls have no hope of fitting in to mainstream society unless something changes drastically, so I see years of unemployment benefits in their futures too.

[Antipodes]

Brioni has just turned seven and her favorite books are The Famous Five series and The Secret Seven. That is very advanced for her age.

Edited to say perhaps they are being read to Brioni rather than her reading them herself.

[miffy]

Brioni has just turned seven and her favorite books are The Famous Five series and The Secret Seven. That is very advanced for her age.

Edited to say perhaps they are being read to Brioni rather than her reading them herself.

It's quite possible that Brioni & Aisha can both read. The intensive homeschooling & David being the primary caregiver until a year ago gives them a pretty good chance to at least have learned to read & write a little bit.

[lilith]

Brioni has just turned seven and her favorite books are The Famous Five series and The Secret Seven. That is very advanced for her age.

Edited to say perhaps they are being read to Brioni rather than her reading them herself.

They're not that advanced, my 6 year old can read them and he's not in the top reading group for his age at school (he's in the second top, which means he's reading a little above average but not at an advanced level. My 9 year old, who is an advanced reader, hasn't read Enid Blyton for years cause she finds it way too formulaic).

[ladyaudley]

Are mine eyes deceiving me or are the girls indeed barefoot at Kata Tjuta?? Not that it should surprise me...

and she always seems to buy annual passes to everything. It makes me so angry to see her mooching off the system like that, when I'm going teacher training and working two jobs at the same time because no one will give me a loan. Fuck you, Lauren.

[Trudestar]

The girls often stay awake until the early hours of the morning, then sleep in half the day? WTF?

How can that lack of routine sleep possibly be good for them?

So they don't eat, sleep or learn in any routine fashion. That would do my head in. Lauren does my head in. :cray-cray:

[August]

The girls often stay awake until the early hours of the morning, then sleep in half the day? WTF?

How can that lack of routine sleep possibly be good for them?

So they don't eat, sleep or learn in any routine fashion. That would do my head in. Lauren does my head in. :cray-cray:

They watch movies on the ipad to go to sleep, they have no chance but to stay up later and later because of the bright light. And the bus can't be fully blacked out so they wouldn't be able to sleep nearly late enough. Lauren's a lazy cow who can't be bothered to turn off the screens and snuggle with a book with her kids. Not to mention that an eight year old is not ready to go to sleep at the same time as a three year old, so either the three year old is over tired or the eight year old has to be placated with a movie while the movie keeps the three year old awake. And she has nowhere safe to send the olders while she puts the youngers to sleep. No wonder they have dark circles under their eyes.

Aug. 31, 2012 -- Is setting down your iPad the last thing you do before bed? New research shows that all of those nighttime hours spent with your tablet can wreak havoc on your sleep.

The bright light emitted from these tablets can suppress melatonin. That's a hormone that helps control sleep and wake cycles, called circadian rhythms.

The researchers only looked at the iPad, iPad 2, and a tablet known as the Asus. Using these tablets for two hours on their brightest settings suppressed melatonin by about 22%. The findings appear in the journal Applied Ergonomics.

“If they are bright and they are big and are close to your eyes, they have more potential to disrupt your melatonin than the TV, which is usually farther way,†says researcher Mariana Figueiro. She is an associate professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.

iPhones and other small gadgets may not affect circadian rhythms. “Smaller devices emit less light,†she says. But even if these devices aren't zapping the body’s melatonin supply, they may still be disrupting sleep by delaying your bedtime, she says.

Not ready to give up your tablet before bedtime? Follow these four tips to make sure you use them in a way that does not leave you tired all day long.

[DarkAnts]

Computer Screens and TV screens also have a negative effect on the bodies ability to sleep.

[church_of_dog]

I don't see an oil change photo, although I see plenty of other photos from her "day in the life" and Brioni's party posts. Did she take it down or am I a doofus? ("both" is also a possible answer :lol: )

[Isis]

Her latest post is a parenting fail on so many levels ..I just can't. Ugh.

I feel so badly for her daughters - I can't imagine being sick and not being able to just go to my room and lie down until I felt better.

And WTF, most parents , when their child isn't feeling well are more concerned about making them more comfortable than taking pictures of sick child to blog about....

I'm trying to work out how big the bed is in the bus? When we travel , sometimes we end up with a King bed for the three of us (me, husband, and 3yo). I can't see that there's room for everyone right now, even if they all "fit" , it must be really hard to get a good nights sleep.

What's Lauren's end game so to speak? At some point, they can't continue all fitting in the bus (maybe pull a trailer?). Add tents?

Just wondering - at what age does the money she gets from the gov't run out? I can't think that she continues to collect until the children are 18?

[Isis]

I think Lauren did change her name, Im sure she said once that Lauren isnt her birth name.

I always figured , when she meets new people, that she intorduces herself as "Red Gypsy Lauren" or something, LOL. At some point, she'll just go by "The Red Gypsy".

[chaotic life]

I'm so glad to see she mooched off Brioni's birthday celebration and present to the current host family. Pictures of the cake THEY made her and the present THEY gave her. I can't help but think if they had not pitched in, since Brioni's birthday was the day before their own child's birthday, that there would have been NO celebration. It certainly doesn't look like Lauren intended to be a mother and celebrate her own child's birthday!

[tankgirl]

Chaotic, I don't think regular birthdays have ever been much of a standard in their family outside, the whole interview deal. In the past they had the whole "earn your new year", where they had to learn some new skill to get a "birthday" like present and acknowledgement, and then after it seems, unless someone else seems to step up, I have never heard of Lauren doing much for any of the girls birthdays. It seems all of the cakes made were done by host families, and you don't hear much about presents to the girls from Lauren, though it seems that David, might have arranged some gifts maybe in the past (I thought a birthday gift for one of the girls was included in the birthday gifts, but I might have remembered wrong). Overall, that was something these girls have never really had.

[August]

Isis, the welfare's designed so she has to start looking for work have a financially solvent person to sponge off exchange energy with when the youngest turns six.

[Closed Womb]

In the past several days, I have read all 4 threads (although not Lauren's blog, with the exception of a heavily discussed entry here and there.) I don't know why I feel the need to announce this; I actually found it quite annoying when other people did that throughout the threads, but now that it's ME it feels like a big, exhausting accomplishment that I must acknowledge.

I have two questions, neither of them about the damn Thermomix (which I do NOT sell, but might get kickbacks from my neighbor who does, shhh :lol: ):

1) What the hell is a Kipi? I mean, I know they use it to mean their iPads, but is it an actual word that means something else? (Example, in the US some people will use pet names for a baby's pacifier -- like a Binky or a Nukkie or something; then when something as an adult pacifies them, we'll call it that. I have friends that call their CPAP machine a Binky because they can't fall asleep without it.)

2) Why do people think David purposely tried to drive off the road? I read that as one back tire fell off the road when he was trying to execute a three point turn in tight quarters. Until I read it myself, I thought he literally tried to drive off the road, head first. Is this because of the timing (close to when he killed Elijah) or was there something there I am not seeing? To me, that seemed like an honest perception error.

Riffles