My daughter is also 3 and intellectually at least 4. We have been working a lot on fucussing, listening, and following instructions. At this age (which is school age) I do expect her to sit and focus on an activity until it is complete. I am still very aware of when she has accomplished something and it becomes boring, then I find a new method of teaching the subject. I think the philosophy of letting the child show their interest is more applicable to babies.

Has anyone tried babysschool software?

These are fantastic!  Thank you!

Does anyone know if there is a site that has mandala that I can print out to use for teaching? Ideally it would be the same pattern with color and without color so that I can show the one with color to my child, then ask her to add the color to the one wthout.

At what age do you start each of these activities?

Another thing you might try is to teach your son to have quiet time where he plays quietly by himself. That may allow you some time to take a nap during the day.

The track is just meant to be a safe place for her to learn to crawl. If she is already crawling on the carpet then there is no need to continue using the track. It will be much more interesting for her to crawl around your house.

music - Mozart, or anything else that is soothing

Thank you ShenLi. I have been trying to find information like this.

You have motivated me. I am also going to read 1500 books to my girls over the next year, starting today. Thanks for the idea!

Hi Sarah & Mandy, I am also South African, living in Chicago. Also from CT, a UCT grad.
I have followed Doman's program - with modifications. I wonder if Tweedlewink offers anything more?

Here is my list for my 19 month old. I revise the list each month. I don't do everything every day, but try to get everything in the course of a week. My list was pretty similar at 16 months.

1. Physical - walk, run, climb, stairs, park, kick, throw, chasing daddy around the garden (90 min per day)
2. English vacabulary - introduce 2 new more complicated words every day and use them repeatedly through the week
3. Spanish - LR, music, internet sites, class (Spanish on Mon & Tue)
4. German - LR, music, internet sites (German on Wed & Thurs)
5. Afrikaans - LR, reading books, music (Afrikaans on Fri)
6. Reading - at least 10 books per day, LR, flash cards, powerpoints, Readeez, YBCR, story time at library, reading labels on everything - milk carton, cerael box, etc.
7. Math - LM, counting, adding, subtracting
8. Music - solfedge, pitch training, playing on keyboard, rhythm - playing with drums, maracas, etc., listening to a variety of music, flash cards with composers and facts
9. Knowledge - I pick a different topic each week or month and get library books in that theme. This month we are doing Spring (flowers, trees, leaves, birds, butterflies, insects, animals), with trips to the local zoo, duck pond, walks outside to explore, etc.
10. Art - drawing (circles and squares), writing (I have her trace her name and other family names), play dough, stickers
11. Memory - card games
12. Tactile - puzzles (I get new ones from our library each week), blocks, cutting, threading (eg. putting pasta pieces through a whole in a plastic lid)
13. Bible - reading stories
14. Behavior - in addition to general teaching I focus on a few specific skills at a time, this month we are working on learning how to be gentle with a new baby and how to be mommy's helper
15. Potty - this is daily work

I had a nanny starting when my daughter was 3 months old and I was VERY specific about how I wanted her to spend her day. I put together a daily checklist of activties that I expected her to do with my daughter and had her check off each activity that she completed and I would review it each evening. I revised my list each week as my daughter grew and different activities became appropriate. Things I included on the list were - Reading books, flash cards, balance activities, kitchen utensils (my nanny liked to cook so each day she picked a different kitchen utensil and showed it to my daughter and told her everything about it - how it was used, what can be made with it, etc.), household items (same thing - name it, eg. chair - talk about what a chair is used for, where you find chairs, different types of chairs, famous chairs, etc.), walks (while walking point out what they see and talk abou it - dogs, birds, trees, leaves, etc.), laundry (name each item while folding it and talk about what body parts it relates to - eg. this is a shirt, it goes over your head and covers your arms, chest, back and tummy), trips to the library, park, duck pond, etc. - all while explaining what they see, listen to specific pieces of music and tell her what she is listening to

My daughter is now 19 months and I no longer have a nanny, but my list would include: LR, LM, German, Spanish and Afrikaans powerpoints and music - one other language per day, classical music, keyboard, memory games, counting, alphabet, puzzels, shapes, building blocks, play dough, drawing, reading books, running, climbing, kicking, throwing, ... the list goes on.

The key is to prepare the material for your nanny and make it easy for her to follow. Checking off a list worked for mine, and it now works to keep me on track during my days.

My daughter loves taking things out of and putting them back into containers. I started expecting her to put her toys away after herself as soon as she was able to crawl and take them out - at around 7 months or so. I never punished her for not doing it, but I was consistent that before she started a new activity she had to put the toys she was playing with back away. I made it into a game, gave her lots of encouragement, and clapped when she did it. Initially I had to point out each toy one at a time - see the blue block, pick it up and put it in the box, good job, now see the yellow block, pick it up and put it in the box, etc. I had a great experience when she was 11 months and we visited family and she put all the toys away after herself - totally impressed them. She is now 18 months, and is more opinionated, so it is a bit harder for me to always get her cooperation, but I'm still consistent in what I expect. She may not begin a new activity until the last one is put away.
Regarding manners I model what I expect of her. Every time I hand her something I expect her to say "thank you" and if she doesn't then I say if for her. I also expect her to say "please" whenever she is asking for something. When she forgets I say it for her and she usually copies me and says it.  When she wants to get out of her chair instead of saying Out! she has to say "please may I be excused". I started by having her repeat one word at a time after me. Now if she forgets, then I tell her that she needs to ask nicely and she says the whole sentence.  She recently had me laughing because she got stuck on saying the alphabet in the middle of her request to get out and said "Please may I be c d e excused!" Too funny!
I tell her what I expect, I model the behavior I expect, and I am consistent. It has worked so far.

At some age the child's motivation becomes more important that what the parents teach or expose their kids to. Some children want to excel, while others are lazy.