What a great idea! I really need to get focused on our reading together time - it has become frustratingly bedtime-only recently and I want to get out of that habit. Focusing on a goal might just persuade me 

Lelask, you can download kindle for PC for free, so you don't even need to have a kindle to get free books. Also, there are often good chapter books or fairy story books to download from http://www.homeschoolfreebie.wholesomechildhood.com/

I second the Little Musician recommendation  Of the three it probably has the best age-range (I'm learning a lot from it!) and I can imagine the whole family would enjoy it. The new LR is amazing, but if you already have reading plans in place then Little Musician would be my choice.

We got a cheap used copy of Saxon K for maths - the lessons are entirely scripted and start with super-simple patterns and one-to-one counting and build up really slowly. We started just after my son turned 3 and he had no trouble with the lessons. I think you could easily use it as a foundation for maths, or just something to build activities on. The manipulatives are simple - counters and linking blocks - so you probably already have bits you can use for that.

Another great option is simply getting a load of maths-themed books from the library (or buying them, but that would be expensive).

I found this site, but haven't had a chance to look around yet - it is a free curriculum for preschool onwards: http://www.freeworldu.org/static/index.aspx

If you want to follow a scripted curriculum for Maths, then MEP is great - it starts at Reception (K) level so you will need to do some other pre-K work before you start, but they go on through high school and it is absolutely free (well, minus printing costs )

I get a lot of ideas and resource links by following a few EL and Montessori blogs and checking out the Montessori Monday linky for new ideas. I also use some of the activities from here: http://lapbooksbycarisa.homestead.com/ForTots.html

Check out charity shops for educational board games/puzzles/books - I have got a lot of stuff really cheap this way.

Sign up to homeschool freebie of the day - and resist the temptation to download everything!

I had to pump initially, because my naughty boy came early and spent 6 weeks in special care. I think that helped to start - I was in control for the initial painful bit and could stop and take a break if it was too much. Unfortunately, I was so worried about losing my supply that I over-pumped and had about 2 months' supply in the freezer (which I donated to the milk bank for poorly babies) when I took him home 

The fact that I could have fed twins and still had milk to spare made the changeover to exclusive feeding and no pumping somewhat painful and very leaky. After that initial week or so, my supply regulated and my only problem was trying to convince my reflux baby that despite his constant spit-ups, I was not willing to have him permanently attached at the boob. Mostly, he won.

We breastfed until 3, then I got fed up of him groping my boobs and trying to remove my top every time I sat down    Apart from a couple of new-tooth issues, he never really hurt me and I really enjoyed it.

My son is 3 and also wriggles like mad during LR - I just have to assume he's learning something.  Even if he doesn't start sight reading, there are a lot of vocabulary words that he may not come across in general conversation, and practice with things like colour and shape. And if she doens't hear Chinese at home, then even 3 or 4 LR sessions a week will make a massive difference in her ability 

Try Reading Bear - it was an immediate hit with us and in a week he was sounding out CVC words. 

Nikki is absolutely in love with 'his' School Bus and would watch it all day if I let him!    I can't imagine it being less of a hit in your family! He also loves the Leapfrog DVDs (Letter Factory, Talking Words Factory etc.) which taught him the letter sounds and introduce a lot of phonics rules that he has yet to actively use (but I'm sure he knows because I have memorized the dvds from the number of times we've seen them over the last year )

It might make more sense to your daughter if you go through the numbers section of LM using the grid format - she is at an age where she probably won't learn the difference between 98 and 100 dots placed randomly on the screen, but will notice the two missing dots from a grid. I am doing this with my son, though we will play through a daily lesson if he wants it as an extra.

I don't tend to mention EL much. My son is only sounding out CVC words (and only IF he wants to, which considering he won't even talk in front of adults he doesn't know, is rarely) so doesn't come across as super-advanced on the reading front - I have talked to other parents at playgroups and said that he has shown a great interest in letters and their sounds that I simply encourage and they show no more interest. I think if I told them what we do they'd think I'm being pushy and 'forcing' him to learn 

He is much more 'advanced' in Maths, Music and Fine Motor, which are less noticeable. Everyone assumes that the fine motor skills are a side effect of taking so long to walk - he spent a lot of time in one place practicing. While this is true, it is not the *only* reason.   People are always amazed that he holds a pen correctly - they don't realise how much easier it is to simply not allow him to get in the habit of holding it incorrectly!

Maths never gets brought up (as he doesn't talk in front of others) and Music is 'just singing' as far as they are concerned.

In terms of my family, I don't tell them much. They know how about his reading, but as we were all reading pre-school my Mum doesn't consider it overly 'advanced'. They know he counts, but I haven't mentioned we are doing a K-level textbook. My Mum thinks anything beyond learning numbers (and perhaps memorizing some times tables songs) is 'too much' because "otherwise, what will they learn in school?"  She often rants at my cousin's boasting that her nearly-5 year old is doing age 5-7 maths workbooks and is 'so advanced' because Mum thinks we should leave it to the teachers, lest they become bored.

So, pretty much only my best friend knows, and I hope to share EL more completely with her when she eventually has her own children.

Honestly, if it weren't for the encouragement of this forum, I might have done a lot less with my son. As it is, I don't feel that I can ever do enough 

He loved it It was a great way to keep the presents under the tree safe, too - the fact he had his own 'present' to open every day helped him ignore the ones that weren't his. 

We didn't do it this year - I meant to, as I have all the books, but I just didn't get round to wrapping them up! Also, he has a playmobil one this year and Grandma gave him one with pictures, and he got a chocolate one from his girlfriend (when he went to her birthday party) so it just seemed like enough as it is!

I'll probably do it again for next year - he'll be able to read them to me by then (I hope )

We did this last year: http://dancingwithdinos.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/advent-calendar.html 

Thanks Sonya.

I was referring to the Dowling method - it says to spend months completely memorizing the grammar tables and that is what got me stuck: I couldn't imagine months of *just* grammar tables. The way you have done it sounds really good. I have dabbled a little with both D'Ooge and Adler in the past so am familiar with the texts - that seems a gentler way to enforce the grammar learning.

Thanks for all your wonderful ideas

I think we have taken over this thread a little  Sorry Seastar 

Sonya,
I just wanted to ask about how you taught your older child Latin. I understand you used the grammar-intensive program that you linked to - how old was he at the time you started the program? I can see the definite benefits for me to (re)learn Latin using that method, but how do you convince a child to learn grammar tables and not make it the most boring thing ever? Did you do any Latin learning while still memorizing the tables? How do you make them not hate the language?

I think this method will also help with our Russian once we're ready for formal grammar lessons. I really want to make sure he learns his grammar tables completely and doesn't just 'get the idea' so that as soon as he's having informal conversations it all goes out the window (like with me). I am just struggling to visualise it being anything other than painful. Especially writing the tables out 200 times! Did your son actually do all that?!

No, but I'd love to I've been thinking of this myself and also wondered how people include EL into the mix - how much do the parents know about your EL activities?

I'm also in the UK, but there is a serious shortage of daycare children in my area (or should I say too many childminders) so I've been trying to figure out if and EL environment would help or hinder me with actually getting any work in this area.

Unfortunately, I've just been given a lecture about 'not drawing on people' when I tried to colour his fingers... This is from the boy who paints his tummy at every possible opportunity

I think we will use this idea and try making a piano fingers poster instead.
I have managed to persuade him to at least hit keys with his other fingers today, though if I asked him to play a specific note he still only used his pointer finger. Small progress is better than none, though, and we've only just started with the finger exercises

Thanks for all your ideas - they've helped me de-stress about the whole issue. I really like the idea of giving him a chance for free play while I do a couple of chores - it should help stop my desire to hover at all times that he has the keyboard on

I know what you mean, Sonya. As much as I'd love to go through the whole list, Latin is my first priority for a second language because it is so much help with English and the Romance Languages.

In the end, I expect we will only really know Russian (second native language) and Latin well - no matter how much I plan to add more, I expect life will get in the way (as well as the fact that they are the only two languages I have any real knowledge of myself)

Thanks for all the ideas. I've started trying to teach some finger exercises away from the piano and he seems to enjoy them.

TMT - I Love the idea of colouring his fingers! We use LM too and are learning the note colours, so this would be easy enough to do. I'm definitely going to try that!

Wow Sonya - I have never come across that method, but it looks great! I think I will stick with CLC for the first introduction to the language, but I now want to start learning to really read Latin myself

Seastar - I know what you mean about needing a plan! I am currently using 3 languages at home:

English (my mother tongue)
Russian (his father's mother tongue)
Chinese (because he likes it)

I have always planned to add Latin. I also would love to add Irish (my grandfather's mother tongue - he didn't pass it on to his children) and I daydream about adding Japanese and German (I studied in school), Spanish (my brother lives in Spain) and maybe Ancient Greek. That's the short list!  I would be happy with just the Russian and Latin at a fluent level and any one of the others at a good second language level.

I did try a couple of years ago to do lots of languages at once, different ones each day and all sorts of other techniques to fit them in, but in the end it became a logistical nightmare and I couldn't cope for long trying to prepare myself to teach my son! That's when I cut down to LR chinese and daily Russian conversation (because that's the one language I know!). Now I'm planning to add another language every couple of years, to give us a chance to get a good focus on each language and make a good move towards fluency in all the ones we start, rather than dabbling a little in lots and lots (no matter how tempting). The only thing that would change that is when LR releases more languages! Then the lessons are prepared for me