Wiggly News

Since I know you're all sitting on pins and needles.

Paul wrote: "The last two times The Wiggles have been up at Dreamworld, Greg has not been with the guys and this is why he has not been able to sign one of the shirts. Its simply a practical challenge! He'll get there one day in the future and perhaps we'll get him to sign a shirt to send up. I saw Greg today with the guys and he is still getting tests and asistance but he is still not yet "match fit" as the football coaches say.. We'll keep you all in the loop but as yet we dont know how soon it will be before he is treading the boards again."

I'm tired.

I'm tired. That's it. I really don't have anything else to say. I've been grumpy and tired all week, and I'm tired of being tired.

Oh, and I got to clean up diarrhea off the floor this morning. Fun! Apparently the kids are NOT done with the stomach bug they've had, or this is a new one. Or something.

More Wiggly Worries

Again, feel free to skip this post. What is this pic of? A display at Dream World in Australia, that has three signed Wiggles skivvies. This was posted on the WMB by an Australian member who just took this pick. She said that it looked as though a fourth signed skivvy had been there, there were dust markings as though the stand had been removed. I'm sure you can imagine the speculation. Still no new update on Greg.

More Homeschool Math!

Interesting dialogue today:

Pauly: What's two plus two?
Me: I don't know, why don't you tell me?
Pauly (without counting fingers): It's 4! What's two plus two plus two?
Me: Can you figure it out?
Pauly (again, with no pause and without counting): It's six! What's three plus three?
Me: What do you think it is?
Pauly turns around and looks at the clock to attempt to figure it out that way. P: 7?
Me: No, count again.
Pauly counts it out on his fingers: It's six! Three plus three and two plus two plus two are both six!

I thought it was very interesting that he got 2+2+2 without even thinking about it, but had to count out 3+3.

More on the Pope and Islam

I just read a very interesting article commenting on the Pope's speech, that took a tack I hadn't actually considered before. It insisted that the Pope and the Vatican, in general, are not idiots, and that he very likely knew exactly what he was doing in the speech. That is, the speech was meant to be offensive, and was meant to take a stand against Islamic violence and extremism. It was meant to challenge Islamic leaders to examine themselves and determine whether they are going to choose to be rational or not.

ETA: found it here.

In this vein, this is an interesting blog entry about a statement supporting the Pope, when his speech is view in the light of a challenge to Islam to be rational.

Pauly's School

I still hadn't planned on doing much schoolwork with Pauly, but I went ahead and put the first Bob Books on hold at the library. We picked them up today, and he caught right on! The first book used words only containing the letters m, a, t and s. It went something like "Mat." under a picture of the character "Mat." Then "Sam." under a picture of Sam. Then: Mat sat. Sam sat. etc. It also included one "sight word" "on." I think that "on" is only considered a "sight word" because they had not officially introduced the sounds of 'o' and 'n' yet. Pauly, apparently, already knew this word and did not have to sound it out.

After reading book one, Pauly read book two. It added the sounds of 'b' and 'd'. With the Bob Books, you are supposed to introduce the sounds as you go through the books, but Pauly already knows most of the letter sounds from Starfall. It was slow going through both books, but he was definitely catching on. After that, we did spelling using the letters used in the first two books. I cut out squares of poster board, about 1 1/2 inch by 1 1/2 inch, and wrote one letter on each square. Then I put all those in front of Pauly. I said a word, and he sounded it out and formed it with the letter tiles. He did really well with this, and I'm very glad that I got the idea and tried it out.

Anyway, that's what we did for school today!

For Talking Like a Pirate day. . .

You are The Cabin Boy/Galley Wench

You, me lad, are an activist! You will not only change the world, you will make a dyed-in-the-wool Pirate dream of you in a sheep costume. You are the embodiment of the love that dare not hoist its sail! Ahoy thar! You could make a two-patch Pirate turn his head - but then he would lose sleep over it and what good would that do anyone? An innovator, you are WAY ahead of your time - and everyone else's. You are sensitive and artsy-fartsy. You say things like, "artsy-fartsy" but there is always a slight giggle in your voice when you say it - like Paul Lynde on Hollywood Squares delivering a staggering punch line. Speaking of "punching" the only "punching" you would do is punching up that outfit with some accessories - say, a little bandana and some glass beads. You're not the Pirate we want in a fight, but we want you there for the crying game that follows! You go, girl.

What's Yer Inner Pirate?
brought to you by The Official Talk Like A Pirate Web Site. Arrrrr!