I'll answer to you not only regarding early learning, but in general.
A learning or teaching plan is one thing, a plan of what we want the child to do or be able to, is another.
In my family, I used to be the one making short and long term goals and plans. For now, I've jut let things go on their way, and I make only sketches... I can't make plans like I used to... Life isn't always going the way we plan it, it's even better! Planning is good, though. It keeps us on the track.
I have dreams about how our son will be or what he will be able to do... but I can't have expectations as he never stops to amaze us with what he can do. And what if I expect him to do one thing, and he does another, different, but in a way, more surprising or better or whatever?
I'll do whatever I can do to show and teach our son as many things as I can about this world. But we'll respect his choices on the run. He's free to choose his religion, things he wants to study in depth and so on. Right now we're concentrating on broading his perspective, so he knows what to choose from.
We've decided to be the pillars in his life. He can always count on us, he has to know we'll always be there for him, and love him unconditionally. We've chosen to respect him and his wishes, even if he's so young.
The thing about being a parent is, in our opinion, that no matter how we look at it, we're the ones inevitably shapening the child's perspectives. We imprint our vision on life to our child. And when he's older, maybe he will want to get rid of that imprint to make his own vision - which would be natural, and hard or very hard, in the same time (it depends on how powerful was the parents' personality and influence on the child - speaking from experience...)
Another way we see it, is that we can show him our way, by just doing what we do, living the way we want to, and also show him other ways too - and this is what life knows best how to teach, as life is the greatest teacher of all.
Also, we keep in mind that children need to feel secure - that means the family has to have a system of values, rules etc. Without a certain management in the family, lifes becomes too chaotic and the child will have hard times knowing how and what to choose in life.
Life for us is balance - emotional balance, physical balance, financial balance, social balance, spiritual balance, educational plan balance
etc.
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