Tuesdays With Mooch & Fuss: Multiply It!
Fuss watering our roses.
FUSS
Letters? Boom! Sight words? Boom! Colors? Boom! Potty trained? A very long ago boom! Not shoving random children at parks and Pottery Barn Kids? Yeah … not so much. Fuss is all of two. Not just the cute, puppy-eyed, soft-skinned, lingering traces of baby smell two. She’s tantruming two, and screaming two, and ranting about how it’s “Mine. Mine! Mine!” two. January and February were rough. I often wished I was on “Who Wants to Be a Mommy,” so I could use a lifeline and ‘phone a friend’ to have them come rescue me until she’s eighteen.
I can’t complain, though. She’s gotten a lot better. She’s more compassionate. She listens (as long as she’s well-fed, well-rested, the sun is in a specific position and the stars align correctly), and she uses her words often. When she’s frustrated, however, her attempts to get her point across can be likened to that of a customer cheated out of their money during a Macy’s transaction. We’re working on it.
Her new sleep schedule is based on a forty-eight hour slot instead of a twenty-four hour day. Don’t Google it. I made it up. I studied her behavior in conjunction with her ability to fall asleep easily at night and realized that a nap every single day was too much for her. What I do is have her nap every other day, with the daytime sleep being from 12-2pm. On days when she naps, her bedtime is 7:30pm. When she doesn’t nap, her bedtime is 6:45pm. Don’t ask me why this works. It just does. She puts herself to sleep at naptime and bedtime with ease by singing or chatting quietly with her doll.
To learn more about the homeschooling that I do with Fuss, please visit Teaching Fuss.
MOOCH
My eldest is reading Hugo Cabret. Actually, by the time you finish reading this blog, she will have finished all 532 pages of it. This morning she was on page five hundred. I never read books that size at her age. Even in college, I stuck to excerpts. Her patience with stories amazes me. She loves stories so much, that I found a story method to teach her the multiplication tables. I’m so excited about it, that I have to share it with you. I found it on Amazon after researching different ways to help children retain the times tables. I knew this way would work for Mooch.
Mooch learning her times tables
The book assigns a word for each number. For example, three is represented by “tree” and four is represented by “door.” Stories are then told on the left page with a corresponding picture (for memory) on the right page. The “tree” and “door” story talks about a tree with a little door in it. Inside the door lives an “elf.” At the bottom of the page, it reads, “Tree x Door = Elf,” which translates, of course, to “3×4=12.” She learned her threes through nines in one day! This book is amazing. We’re working on twelves this weekend. She already knew 1s, 2s, 5s, 10s, and 11s, because those have easy tricks. After this week, it’ll just be drilling from here on out to get them into her long-term memory. What fun!
Here is a link to the book: Multiplication in a Flash
Mooch cheesing at homeschool
Tuesdays With Mooch & Fuss: Co-ops and Performances
With coarse pigtails flying into the wind and airplane arms spanning about three feet, Fuss took off from her comfortable spot near my arm today. We visited a pre-school for her, because after drop-in daycare during Mooch’s commercial shoot Monday, she didn’t want to return to homeschool. I want to do what is best for her, and if that’s allowing her to hug other children until they fall on the floor together, then so be it. Mooch thrived at home. Fuss thrives at home — but only academically. She’ll likely start going two to three days per week in July, so she’ll still be homeschooled part-time. I may choose a co-op, or I may resume schooling a couple of extra kids at my home. That would give her what she needs, and also earn me some more cheese. 
That’s not all. The past couple of weeks, she has emerged from her stranger danger shy shell. If you remember November through February, she would scream bloody murder at anyone who said hello or even looked at her. Now she serves up the salutations and even walks away with certain people. Hopefully the tantrum phase ends as quickly as the bashful one did.
Mooch is all Shakespearean in preparation for her show this Saturday. She’ll be singing “All Africa” by Abbey Lincoln, and she’ll be performing excerpts from various plays. This is a video of her practicing:
Tuesdays With Mooch & Fuss: Pita Pizzas Schoolhouse Rocks Nokia
Last Saturday, the girls and I made pita pizzas. It was really simple, because I didn’t make the sauce from scratch this time around. We just used pita bread, spaghetti sauce, fresh spinach, and Daiya (soyless vegan cheese). It’s such a simple recipe that even Fuss could participate fully. In fact, she made her own. They were really yummy.
You basically preheat the oven to 425 degrees, spread the sauce on sprinkle spinach (or whatever toppings you want) and cheese, and then bake it for 10-12 minutes.
This past Friday, Mooch starred as the conductor in her class’ Schoolhouse Rocks play. She sang Conjunction Junction with the class singing background. It was awesome! She’ll be shooting a Nokia commercial this coming Monday and a web series in April and May. She’s on avail for Capitol One, but I’ll keep you posted.
To read or see more about homeschooling Fuss, please visit Teaching Fuss.
Tuesdays With Mooch & Fuss: Mooch is Home!
Mooch is home!!! This week is President’s Week at her school, so she’s off. Yesterday the girls played soccer together outside and practiced hula hooping. Well, Fuss mostly threw her hoop across the yard while Mooch did some pretty impressive tricks.
I’ve kept Fuss’ schedule this week the same, so that I don’t have to do a major attitude overhaul next week when Mooch returns to school. During work time, Mooch brushes up on areas she wants to improve — cursive, geography, and math. We all do snack and lunch together, and Mooch has two hours of free time during Fuss’ nap while I work.
We may do a couple of field trips this week — the California Science Center and the skating rink. Mooch is much more confident on her skates now and she wants to roll out. I haven’t had her help me with dinner at all this week, which is odd. That’s one of the perks of having her here all day. Maybe tonight.
Yesterday, we started building a marble run, but it’s definitely not finished. We also realized that we don’t have any marbles. Ha! Here are pictures from that:
As always, you can read more about Fuss’ learning by clicking this link.
Thematic Thursdays: The FAQs Are These
So, I was supposed to write a blog about this whole Too Short drama last night, but instead of devoting my time to a self-serving nut job, I typed a long Facebook response message to a friend. She was interested in what I’m doing with Fuss in homeschool, so that she can implement those things with her son.
I spent my writing time detailing Fuss’ current daily rhythm, and answering a slew of questions about her son’s development. I won’t put all of her child’s business in the streets, because that is irrelevant. What I will note is that her message was one of MANY emails, chats, text messages, etc. regarding what’s happening with my kids.
WAHMs (Work at Home Moms) have to stick together, because where one of us has a lot of tools the other may be lacking and vice versa. It is through sharing that our kids really benefit, and shoot this woman has cute sons. My daughters may want husbands some day. 
I decided to add a FAQ (frequently asked questions) section to this blog, which you’ll now find in the navigation bar at the top. Does this mean you have to stop emailing me and messaging me? Absolutely not!! I enjoy our interactions immensely. This is just a place where you can go to obtain some of my tips, tricks, links, and trinkets for use with your little one.
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