Tuesdays With Mooch & Fuss: Staying Active
Mooch was tired of feeling left out at school, so I told her that perhaps secluding herself in the library studying Greek Mythology had something to do with it. I offered that maybe she should give soccer a shot just once, and that if she made a mistake on the field, she would learn from it. She stated that she didn’t like soccer, because she wasn’t good at it, and that she wasn’t going to try this option.
Last week, I was helping with the auction project for her class, and Fuss wandered out of the project room. When I noticed her gone, I searched the field for her, and who did I spot playing soccer with a huge smile on her face? Mooch. I didn’t bother her. I just watched her play from the window. When I asked her how her day was today, she told me all about her newfound love for the sport. I pretended to be shocked. *chuckle* She said, “I’ve been playing for a week now, Mom.”
I updated Mooch’s website the other night with new videos of recent work, etc. I also designed new typography for her, but I’m still going to redesign her whole site all together. I just need a free moment to do that. Right.
Fuss has finished her dinosaur unit, and I hardly captured any of it on camera. The documenting seems to go well when we’re outside, but it’s distracting to her in the classroom. Anyway, she cut between pterodactyls on strips of paper, played matching games, experienced a dino sensory tub, acted like a dinosaur, and learned the names of several throughout the process.
She’s been taking a little dance class with me, which has allowed her to express her rhythmic ability and get out some of that energy. In the summer, I will revisit gymnastics, and see if she is a little more focused. She walks on brick walls, does little spins, and loves to swing extra high at the park, so she’ll enjoy every second of it once she can stick with the group and not be married to the trampoline.
For more about homeschooling Fuss, please click here: Teaching Fuss.
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: 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.
Tuesdays With Mooch & Fuss: Itty Bitty Toyota Fabric
Whoa! There’s so much to catch you up on. Let’s see. Mooch and I participated in the Itty Bitty Art Sale at her school, where people submit tiny works of art on postcards to be sold anonymously at the Itty Bitty Art event. The artist’s name and message are on the back, but when purchasing, the buyer doesn’t know who the artist is. There are always celebrities, famous artists, and politicians who contribute pieces as well, so one never knows who they’ll get. Here are our submissions — now that the event is over.
Mooch’s Toyota commercials also aired. I didn’t have time to figure out copying/embedding from the site they’re on, but you may visit this link to watch them. Mooch has become well acquainted with her face paint set since her punishment began, so here are a few shots of that. She’s off punishment next week, but she says she’s gotten used to entertaining herself.
Fuss went on a field trip downtown last Friday, where she perused fabrics, and admired flowers. We went with a friend, who was searching for fabric for a couple of projects. It’s quite expensive, I noticed. Anyway, I think Fuss’ favorite fabric was satin. She also liked this fabric, but it was $20 per yard. Umm no.
Number recognition and letter recognition are out of the park, but colors — not so much. We’re working on it throughout the day and with activities on the shelf. She knows what purple is — that’s for sure. Fuss is selectively breaking out of her shy phase. It really just depends on the person now. Sometimes she screams bloody murder, and sometimes she’ll offer a hello or even willingly walk away with the person. She reads energy.
Her favorite thing to do lately is put random crap (and I mean random) in her little shopping cart and push it around the house like she’s going somewhere. Missing an earring? It may be in there. The remote control, socks, Elmo, and a few tortilla chips, yup, they’re in there, too.
Random: I’ve been co-washing her hair almost twice per week, and it is so much easier to manage! I just thought I’d share.
If you’d like to read more about homeschooling Fuss specifically, you can do that here.
As a family, we went to Lakeshore this past Saturday for their free arts and crafts session. It was pretty cool. Both girls made flowers and (paper) purses. On Black Love Day (Feb. 13th), we surprised them each with these little baskets.
There are strawberries to grow, African-American paper dolls, a Star Wars coloring book, and a card signed by each parent. Mooch also got a journal in hers, because she fills them really quickly! They got plate sets, because they’ve been needing those for a while. Hannibal wasn’t supposed to buy me anything, because of our art project, but he cheated and bought me the most awesome earrings from a Black-Owned business in Leimert Park.
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