Sparkling Adventures in Child Neglect: Vive La France

[leggajegga]

Isn't it illegal to homeschool your children and then not teach them anything? I have a friend who, along with her siblings, was homeschooled until Middle School. Her mother had to cover a wide range of subjects and submit reports showing what she was teaching and how her children's school hours were being divided. At the end of the year, she and her siblings had to take an official test to prove that they had mastered the proper skills. My friend said it was ridiculously easy, but then again she was lightyears ahead of the rest of us when she started traditional schooling.

I don't know how it works in Australia, but is there really no annual assessment or some sort of way to make sure homeschoolers are being taught properly? How can Lauren's complete failure to teach her girls anything more than rudimentary literacy and basic arithmetic (if even that) go unnoticed? Surely there is some cause for the authorities to look into the girls' education if not their standard of living?

[pastaswife]

RE: homeschooling, my Mum homeschooled me after I left school due to bullying, she had all these lessons planned out and the people who came to set it up were really surprised, they said people don't usually have this much planned when they start. Id say its pretty lax here..

also, that was the last time they ever checked on us the entire year before I went to a new school.

[ohnomoe]

lmao A break from fucking what? Swanning around the countryside taking photos? Spending a month in Bali? Buying designer clothes for herself? Exchanging energy with her loving rainbow family? Avoiding giving her children a stable home? Buying expensive shit? Having nice people feed and bathe her kids for her because she couldn't be bothered?

Spending hours in a salon getting her dreads attended to? Driving, surfing, sightseeing? Dreaming up new ways to scam people out of money and hospitality? Thinking up new heights of self righteousness? Changing the oil in her donated bus? Buying rats?? FFS.

Yeah, yeah, I understand she's had to deal with a verrrry traumatic event in losing Elijah, and I do feel for the whole family.

But send Lauren overseas to give her a break? Give ME a fucken break.lol

I didn't intend to imply that I thought that she needed a break, but that her family/friends who seem to support Lauren in her way of life might have felt she needed a break.

Personally I think that her situation is largely self inflicted and agree with those saying if she needs space she has a reasonably sized house where she'd have her own bedroom and quiet space. At the same time, I think there is a lot more to Lauren's life and mental state than we see through her internet persona. I think it is possible that as she refuses go back to a more settled way of life, that the people who love her might think a holiday without the kids would give her some space to heal? That doesn't mean I think it is the responsible thing to do but I could see friends/family thinking that it is a nice thing to do for someone who has lost a child and has no privacy or doesn't appear to be coping. If someone has paid for it then I'd question if they are enabling her, but I don't really know.

Now if only someone would take pity on me and buy me an overseas holiday!

[August]

Those less direct routes are so so much cheaper though.

Involving a direct flight to Paris? I know for me the cheapest flight to Europe is through Iceland, but I doubt it is the cheapest way to get here from Sydney.

[Trudestar]

From Qld Gov't education website. There is some accountability.....

Home education >

Reporting

Will my child's progress be monitored?

Yes. You will monitor and report on your child's progress. If you employ a teacher for part of your child's home education they may provide you with information to use as part of your report.

For my child to remain registered do I have to provide a written report?

Yes. You are required to provide an annual written report on the educational progress of your child.

What sort of information will I need to provide in my child's report?

Ultimately, you will select, analyse and present a handful of your child's work samples for the tenth month report. How you might select this material is detailed in a reporting pack which is sent to you, each year, in the sixth month of the registration.

These samples will represent aspects of:

the learning experiences your child had over the year

the outcomes you or your child were aiming to achieve

pairs of comparative samples collected over time to assess your child's learning growth and identify gaps and strengths in their learning

the variety of genre your child may have studied including reports, stories, poems, reading logs, learning diaries, photographs, science observations, posters, essays, newspaper articles, letters, pamphlets, songs, projects, and models (to mention a few).

Why should I provide the HEU with a report about my child's educational progress?

Providing an annual written report is a standard condition of registration. Home education legislation is about respecting a parent's right to home educate their child, while recognising the right of each child to have a high-quality education. The report assists you to demonstrate that you are meeting the standard conditions of registration by providing your child with a high-quality education and that your child is making educational progress.

When is the report due?

An annual written report is supplied by the parent. The report is due each year in the tenth month of the registration.

For example, if a registration was issued on 8 June 2010, then the report and new program are due in the following year, between 8 March 2011 and by 8 April 2011.

Can I seek a time extension to provide the report?

No. There is a specific time frame in which the report and new program are due and you are required to comply, each year, in the tenth month of your child's individual registration period.

What if I don't send in a report?

The registration could be cancelled. If this were to happen you would firstly be posted a Show Cause Notice.

^ Top of page

This page was last reviewed on 19 Feb 2013

[ladyaudley]

But she's never in one place long enough for that monitoring to take place.

I think James might have paid for this visit; he is a pretty successful DoP on various film projects. Judging from his instagram, more of his relatives were over, so they probably invited Lauren. Why they'd specifically exclude the girls is beyond me though.

I wonder what David would say about this if he knew.

[Sister_Wife]

FWIW Qld is super relaxed about homeschool. Some of my homeschooling mummy friends are registered as Natural Learners (unschoolers), and they just need to provide evidence that they provide educational opportunities to their kids. ie: photos of a trip to museum, a notebook with writing in it, art projects etc.... At a recent homeschool info night I attended ( we are contemplating homeschool) the lady who heads up the Home Education Unit (they regulate homeschoolers in qld) was pretty blasé about keeping track of what your doing.... Basically regular homeschoolers submit sample lessons etc or topics they'll cover for the year, but if what you submit at the end of the year is completely different they don't care. I got the impression it was "just write what you need to at the start of the year to appease us, but just do what you like"

Sounds right up Lauren's alley!

[August]

Unschoolers all share tips on writing normal life up as learning for the authorities. Baking= fractions, etc. Every time I bake I think how it really really isn't giving a real understanding of fractions even though they use the words. Like Lauren saying her kids all knew percentages because of the power bar on the ipads.

[Flossie]

When I read about lauren's life with those kids in a tiny bus I feel exhausted. She doesn't post about the days it's raining and they are either trapped in that bus or spending all the time in a museum. I love museums but if I had to spend my day wandering around in some public place with little kids because I had no where comfortable to keep four children and it was pouring out it would wear me down pretty quick. Zero privacy in the bus, zero privacy in other people's homes, zero privacy in all these public places she hangs out in. And then you get one kid sick and everyone is trapped in the bus, probably for days at a stretch especially if the weather is poor, kids are cranky and bored with wherever they are parked.

She only posts the sparkles or very minor crankiness the children exhibit so she can tell a story about how they overcame it. But I bet she is totally burned out!!

I'm typing this in one room and my kids are two rooms away from me watching a dvd and I have more privacy and mental space than lauren could even imagine from what her life seems to be like. If you ever thought you were going insane on really long car trip with kids imagine that is your whole life. Yes a normal person setting out on such a venture would plan for it or when they realized how exhausting it was they would figure out a way to pace themselves or have breaks. Have the kids stay one week every couple months with a relative, plan some time to yourself. But that's not sparkly so I think what we are seeing is no different than her taking off in NZ, it's a reaction.

I brought this up on an earlier thread... at some point (not for a while, but soon enough) those girls are going to google themselves and their parents - what are they going to find? Mom calling their brother's death "neutral"? How their mom didn't call 911 when one of them got lost in the bush with a strange man? Basically anytime Lauren neglected and ignored them?

Maybe that's why she doesn't interact with them, except to treat them as props. And why she seems militantly calm when they go missing. She gets more privacy, and then presents it to the world as the kids are off growing, learning, and soaking in the sparkliness of life.

[clarinetpower]

Sorry if this has been covered (I didn't examine the whole thread, new job, little time), but there's no mention of France on her page any more, and I went back to August posts. Did she delete? (Why?)

[church_of_dog]

From instagram, she is actually IN Iceland, not just at the airport...

[bubblekitty]

Wow, so it seems. The mystery deepens. Why doesn't she just say "I'm here visiting someone".

[thoughtful]

I try so hard not to be prejudiced, but Lauren has affected me. :(

I just watched an HGTV show about a woman wanting to move from Marin, CA to Guatemala to open an organic cafe. She was a blonde white woman with dreads, and, according to the episode description:

Kathleen grew tired of the materialism and sense of entitlement she identified in Marin County, California. Wanting a fuller life for her 5 year old adopted Guatemalan son, she rented out her house and brought her little boy on a ten month journey through Central America in search of a place they could call home. When Kathleen wandered into Granada, Nicaragua, she fell in love with the city's beauty and sense of community.

I had to keep telling myself she wasn't necessarily a self-righteous, mooching, chlid-ignoring shit, just because she reminded me so much of Lauren!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3147856/

[August]

God, those people are so open minded their brains have fallen out.

I was snooping around all Lauren's accounts, and followed a link she posted to some blog. Who'd posted this

Aside from a small handful of breathetarians in the world (yes, people who don’t need food to survive), most of us eat food to grow and maintain our bodily functions. Proponents for all possible food realities exist: from raw food to fasting, vegetarian to macrobiotic, vegan to carnivore, paleo, gluten-free, organic, free-range, blah, blah, blah. We all eat. And we’re all different.

Barb, dear. I know you're very authentic and accepting, but really. There is not a single grown functioning adult alive who actually believes that breatharians do actually live on sunlight. It's OK to say it.

[Arete]

God, those people are so open minded their brains have fallen out.

[ladyaudley]

It's been one week since I've been away from my girls, and I've reached my natural limit and *miss them SO much*! I have one more week to explore Iceland and two days' travel before I'm home.

I'm grateful for Alice and Sophie who are mama-ing in my absence and Ben and Ágúst who are amusing me on the other side of the globe!

I met all four of these beautiful friends online, and I'm so blessed to have them in my life! Let's create a beautiful future together, okay?

today's FB. Create a beautiful future?

Ben and Ágúst appear to be a married gay couple.

[Snarfblatt]

I try so hard not to be prejudiced, but Lauren has affected me. :(

I just watched an HGTV show about a woman wanting to move from Marin, CA to Guatemala to open an organic cafe. She was a blonde white woman with dreads, and, according to the episode description:

I had to keep telling myself she wasn't necessarily a self-righteous, mooching, chlid-ignoring shit, just because she reminded me so much of Lauren!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3147856/

If it makes you feel any better I had EXACTLY the same reaction when I saw that episode.

[Trudestar]

today's FB. Create a beautiful future?

Ben and Ágúst appear to be a married gay couple.

It seems weird that she's gone all the way over there, fairly spontaneously. There must be some reason.

Gee, maybe she's going to be a surrogate mother for them? The ultimate sacrifice.

[tuckerphez]

I was going to say maybe Lauren isn't allowed to take the kids out of the country because of David and custody laws, but then I remembered Bali.

So yeah, this "sans enfants" trip still makes no goddamn sense.

[Snarfblatt]

I am guessing she couldn't find anyone to foot the bill for four additional plane tickets to France or wherever her final destination is. I don't know how much it costs to fly to France from Australia but I do know how much it costs from the US because I do it fairly regularly. I can find one cheap plane ticket but five cheap plane tickets add up to a lot.

Not that that justifies her leaving the girls behind like that.

[halfheartedheroine]

It seems weird that she's gone all the way over there, fairly spontaneously. There must be some reason.

Gee, maybe she's going to be a surrogate mother for them? The ultimate sacrifice.

:pink-shock: I could actually see that happening. eesh.

[Dysfundamental]

It seems weird that she's gone all the way over there, fairly spontaneously. There must be some reason.

Gee, maybe she's going to be a surrogate mother for them? The ultimate sacrifice.

Interesting idea. She would be a decent candidate in some senses, having had five uncomplicated deliveries, but her age and her itinerant lifestyle would be big strikes against her.

[duplessis3]

She is totally detached from her kids so I cc ant imagine giving an infant up would c4c cause her much trouble.

[August]

She is totally detached from her kids so I cc ant imagine giving an infant up would c4c cause her much trouble.

She gets terrible PPD. She'd be crazy to do it.

[Isis]

I believe surrogacy is illegal in Iceland both with and without compensation. So two gay men would have a very hard time finding a surrogate in Iceland.

Plus didn't she post about her wish to be a surrogate a while back?

I read recently that some midwives were getting in the home-based infertility "business" - doing IUI's for clients and stuff...