Thank you everyone some very inspiring goals.  I want my goals to focus more on input than output as I don't want to put pressure on myself or kids to get anywhere in particular, as for us, this can cause stress and probably slow us down more than anything!

When I have something down as 'daily' this actually means 4 days per week as the other 3 days I am working and don't have time to do EL activities (although I do try to squeeze in LMs, LR and one book in the morning before I go to work!)

So my current goals / ideas / rough directions (although no doubt will change as we go along) are:

E - aged 3.5y

Literature
-   Read 5 books per day (1-2 she reads to me, 3-4 I read to her).  This will equate to 1000 books per year.  They don't all need to be different.  But as we move to chapter books this target will reduce (maybe 1 chapter = 1 "book"?)
-   Work towards increasing complexity of stories
-   Poems – one per week – repeated daily, discussion of concepts and vocab
-   Story-telling and comprehension – use dialogic reading and ask increasingly complex questions about plot, encourage abilty to summarize and retell story in her own words, encourage to tell own stories

Maths
-   Continue to work on (ideally complete) RS level A
-   Areas to work on using a variety of means including apps: time, number bonds to 5 and 10, money, simple fractions (half, third, quarter), skip counting, continue comparisons (fewer and more), 3d shapes
-   Critical / logical thinking – 2-3 questions
-   Continue gentle soroban intro using app and a small soroban
-   Complete eurotalk 3-5 (we just have one quiz to complete!) and try out the new eurotalk math app 4-6
-   
Spelling and Writing
-   Improve confidence with writing  - practice writing letters and words
-   Complete AAS level 1 and start level 2 using tiles (ideally to be writing by the end of the year)

Music
-   Complete LMS
-   Soft Mozart Piano practice 3-4 times weekly, covering exercises, singing solfege and playing songs with R, L and both hands.  Enter into Hellene's Spring recital if she does another one this year.

Languages
-   Consider LR in French or spanish if released!
-   Practice French in preparation for our holiday to France – not sure yet how we will do this one…..


M - aged 18 months

Reading and language
-   Continue LR 1-2 time daily, finish UK curriculum and move onto other files (repeat the new UK V3 once released)
-       Show EK LR files
-   Work on phonics sounds for letters
-   Start Reading bear and use my powerpoint fleschcard files as well
-       Read at least 5 books per day (picture and board books)
-       Continue to use BSL for signing new words, learn to sign the alphabet
-       Listen to a poem daily each week and to books read to his older sister

Maths
-   Lots of counting activities
-   Shapes, colours (via LR)
-       Look for some fun simple math apps as he gets a little older
-       Start using numicon when around 2y
-   Hmm – need to think about this one - there is not much in this box!

Music
-   Continue LMS (and repeat if we finish).
-       Consider starting Soft Mozart if he is willing from age 2ish

Gosh - what a difference in goals between the two kids.  I need to think hard about what I'm missing with the little one.

I love the idea of a poetry challenge. Poems cover a fantastic range of vocabulary and ideas to discuss. I'd like to move towards memorising some poems eventually.

I think we could aim for a poem every day. Not sure yet about the repetition issue and whether they will all need to be different to count. I'm also wondering about looking for an audio compilation of poems to listen in the car....

I do love the following collection of poems which were all chosen by children of different ages:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Like-This-Poem-Collection-International/dp/0140312951/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357424451&sr=1-1

Good news for non-US or Canadians!   
I just had a conversation on the live chat and they are happy to honor the deal and arrange payment by Paypal. 
I asked for an additional 30% off because of the Newmember30 discount - this gives a 1y total of $125.98
I think this is a good deal (although would love 90%  ) but I'm happy to hear that 70% is still a good deal!  I think full price is $49.99 per month.
It's not mega cheap but a good option for us because shipping on most critical reasoning products is very expensive (e.g. everything by the critical reasoning co - their books are quite expensive and with shipping the cost goes up....).

I think the offer has been extended to 26 Dec at the moment....

Boooo hooo they don't accept cards from outside the USA or Canada.   I just tried to sign up and it would not let me.     >

Hooray!!  We love the 3-5 app and are just about to finish it.  Can't wait to move on to the next one 

I found this website really helpful http://www.uswim.com/

At the beginning, just getting used to water and playing, splashing etc is really important.  Some swim schools like to progress to dunking the babies very early to get them used to being under water.  But making it fun is the most important thing.  Many babies I have seen don't swim per se until quite a bit older but their water confidence is amazing.  Also teaching to hold onto the side and to learn to pull themselves up and out of the water is very important for water safety.

We do LMs and LR every morning during breakfast.  For LM I only do the numerals / counting part of the curriculum rather than the equations because I could not get my youngest to focus and my older daughter flat out refused to do LM at about 2, I think largely because of the equations.  I'm not convinced that she learned much from this part of the curriculum but like Manda, I do think her number sense was good from her exposure to LM.  She never learned to subsitize large numbers though.  She's happy to watch the counting and skip counting sections so we stick with that.  This makes it a lot shorter and actually easier to fit in at the same time as the other programmes.  We never have an problem sitting through the music!

In the evening after dinner we repeat LR and LM (counting only) and sometimes LMs but not always.  I have a laptop at the kitchen table so it's easy to set up and watch after meals.  My oldest does not need to watch LR as she knows all the words but often chooses to watch with us and still enjoys it.  She likes pressing the mouse buttons.

Then I space out our other EL activities throughout the day in small bursts.  We tend to do reading after breakfast, after lunch and at bedtime, and maths activities / Soft Mozart in the afternoon.  And of course everything else from swimming, gymnastics, park, walks etc etc in between!

Thanks for the link to the Soroban site Nadia - I am thinking of purchasing one. I'm wondering if it's better to start with a small 5 or 5 column soroban for my DD so she doesn't get overwhelmed.  has anyone else used these or just gone straight for a full soroban?

Keri - if you are struggling to find a teacher maybe you could look at distance learning?  Our local soroban teacher starts at age 3-3.5 for face to face classes and will post out the materials monthly.  You may well be able to find someone in the US who would do this as well?  Then the requirement for age is less of an issue as you will be doing the teaching yourself using the materials provided and you can adapt as you see fit (as you have been doing already with all the other learning ;-)  It might also reduce time in the car.

We found the meet the sight words apps by the preschool prep co to be very good.  I like the game rather than the flashcard version.  http://www.preschoolprepco.com/digital/apps.php

I really like the app too!  It has helped me to get over my own fear of the soroban    I've been practicing myself so I'm better able to teach my DD.  It's amazing - I have made a lot of progress in a couple of days.  I'd like to make sure I'm doing it properly so I also need some help to know which fingers are used to move which beads on the abacus.

For info, I bought the paid for version of the app.  It's just the same as the free but in the free version you can't progress beyond about level 18 or so.  Annoyingly, in the paid for version you have to start again from the beginning to unlock each level - you can't skip to the level that you reached in the free app.  There is also quite a sudden increase in difficulty at this point.  I checked out the Facebook page of the app's developer.  He had just posted a question asking if people thought the app was a bit hard for teaching children. I posted that I thought it needed to have more levels and a gradual progression in difficulty.  He replied that they have just updated this version and it will have more levels and not jump up so quickly.  He also said that they are in the process of developing an app for kids that is even simpler.  So that might be good too.

Great Christmas present Keri!

Has anyone tried the app Adventure Abacus?  https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/abacus-adventure-free/id568745586?mt=8

It's not a proper soroban by any means but I'm wondering if it might be a bridging game that would help to work towards the soroban at a later stage.  I find my DD is more willing to try new things on an app for some reason.

I downloaded the free version and it has been great to teach me the elements of simple calculation using an abacus of this style - if anyone knows more about Soroban than me and has seen this app I'd love to have confirmation that what it is teaching is correct.  Or if there are any major reasons not to use it.

I have found soroban lessons in our area that start at age 4 - only 6 months away and I think she might be more ready for classes by then.

Thanks!

I also love Speekee for Spanish.  My DD loved this although I must admit we have been less disciplined about watching in recent months.  I think they have a two week free trial to watch their videos online (so you need a good internet connection).  I think there might be a discount via Brillkids too 

http://www.speekee.co.uk/

Very interesting!  I'd love to know what apps they preloaded onto the tablets!

I found some rainbow coloured small dot stickers on ebay or amazon that were really inexpensive and fit really well with the colours of LMs.  I put a dot on each of her fingernails.  You can play a lot of games with this such as putting a matching dot on various toys around the room to touch with the same finger.  Eventually you can move this game to the piano where you can put the dots on different keys.

Just be prepared for tiny dot stickers to appear EVERYWHERE around the house - I discovered our rubbish bin decorated with them this morning  

Thank you TMT.  This is a great idea.  I am going to have another go with this for my 3.5 year old.  I will let her choose the icons (princesses, pooh bear and others might be popular!).  I will call it "Princess Maths"!! 

In a similar way, she is learning a lot from seeing the pattern phonics lessons for her younger brother in LR, so I'm sure this will also be very beneficial.

Also the USB speakers tip is a great idea - we are using the laptop a lot at the moment, usually at the breakfast time, and it's often difficult to hear.  This will also be very beneficial for LMs.  I found there are some really good value USB speakers on amazon UK.