Oh yes! Absolutely, I teach a class full of 3 year olds to write every year with no problems.
Begin with building finger strength through threading, play dough and construction. Add in drawing and once they have some pencil control teach the letters. Teach a couple at a time, or teach them by patterns. All the round ones, all the long ones etc depending on how familiar your child is with the letters already.
We always start with learning to write their names as all kids seem to want to know that. Then mum, dad, I love you, to and from cover a lot of letters.
Beginners work well with a little lap sized whiteboard and whiteboard markers and it saves a tonne of paper while they practice

Oh that's fabulous! Welcome to the world and to the delight of Ell Maximillian! I though he must be born by now. congratulations. How are you coping with two? I am glad Alex thinks he is wonderful. It's much harder if the siblings don't.
Oh I bet Alex will outpace he tutor in math before double digits! Lol keeping her math advancing would be an almost full time job!
Oh the prepaid credit card! That's a great idea. I will look into that. It happened again today. I counldnt send one shopping for a broomstick (spariing Bo staff;) ) because I needed the card for groceries at the same time.

Hi Keri! How are you? Bubs? Give Alex a big hug from me!
Your list made me reflect. I realised I am doing pretty well overall. I forget what they do already do when I start to focus on what they don't do! 
They all cook dinner. Two happily, one under thread of starvation. Start to finish no help from me. Including sharp knives now too.
Yesterday I sent the girls to do the shopping while I filled up the car. They had to wait for me at the checkout as we only have one card and I have no cash usually. I might need to get a second card just for them as this is a recurring problem....
Public transport just isn't going to happen. That one I just can't do. I can't see it as safe enough for them yet.
Trip planning- I gave them next Friday- dinosaur exhibition.
Washing- they do that already, no way I could keep up with all the washing without their help actually
Now household repairs! That's pure genius. So onto that one! What needs fixing? Doorstop, toilet roll holder, drawer front, stove light....they could do all these independently yippee! I hate this stuff!
Great ideas. Thanks!

I hink it was a couple of things combined.
Firstly we read a lot of non fiction picture books when she was around ages 3-6. I also looked for picture books that taught about nature. This idea is  called living books if you want to hunt for some more info. We got all these books from the Libarary. Over time she would spot some big encyropedia type picture books in the book shop full of animal facts and we collected quite a few of those.
Secondly I like animals. We have pets (chickens, leaf insects, dogs fish ATM) we hatched tadpoles had turtles, ginea pigs and many short term pets around for a while. I always encouraged her to touch. We picked up insects, spiders, worms, bugs anything safe. I went out of my way to find interactive zoos and shows with animals in them knowing she would like it.
The key is to open their eyes to it all young. The micro biology is a natural progression from there. Interestingly it was her rather clean freak nature reguarding germs and a black light germ on the hands display at school that got her interested in the microscope to begin with. Once she knew what it could do she asked for one for her birthday.

 I didn't used to be free ranging at all. It's a new concept for me. Helped immensely by my kids growth in maturity.
My kids stayed home alone for 10 minutes for the first time at age 9. I was one street away picking up furniture and they didn't all fit in the car so I left two at home. Other than that one time it's only been this year with my oldest at age 11 that I even considered it. And I checked the neighbours were home first. 
If I go out they automatically come with me. Even if it's just to get fuel or bread. It's jsut the way we have always done it and these habits are hard to change. I am happy for them to tag along for a few years yet but I want them to develop these skills too. It's a delicate balance I tell you that! I do think you will KNOW when the time is right. I certainly did. It did kind of creep up on me still but I knew.

Way too many hours researching what to buy and a hefty shipping free from America to Australia There is no way I could have got anything even remotely good enough from a store here. Ebay or Amazon were the only options. In store purchases here wouldn't show as much as my macro lense on my camera! As a "I have no idea mum" buying a microscope it will take me another year to figure out if I got a good price or overspent. But we are very happy with the quality of the viewing and the microscope is very sturdy. It had excellent reviews on Amazon and I bought the USB microscope attachment so we can hook it up to the computer and view as a group.

 So far she has spent HOURS looking at preprepaired slides (also purchased of ebay) an I keep forgetting to order her blank slides so she can make her own specimens. So here is a tip for you get it all at once so you don't have to listen to them nagging for live pond water slides LOL

Yes the laws are certainly not clear are they! I did ask a policeman about the laws. He told me they were guidelines aimed at keeping children safe. He said any child who is being well cared for, with reasonable safety precautions taken and left in no immediate risk would not raise their interest at all. He did say every child and every family are different and some 18 year olds should never be left in charge but some much younger children can be quite safely. He wouldn't commit to an age because he said there isn't one cutoff age.

Had you asked me about this last year I swear to you I would have said "no way! I just wouldn't do it! They are far too young" but something in them has changed and I am quite comfortable with it. We do have well loved neighbours who are around should they need an adult and I think that certainly helps. They can go to the neighbours if they are bored or lonely too. We also live in a acreage estate and that definelty helps! But most of all I know they are ready. I do think this comes down to individual kids. Anyone who met them would agree they are much older than their years. My 9 year old babysits toddlers, their mums are around but everyone is perfectly comfortable if they both go out of sight together, even in busy public places. My 11 year old runs a taekwondo class- full of kids her age! And my son is very easy going and independent. Even I am shocked at how much my views of them have changed in the last year. Still I don't think it would be fair to do it full time. (I don't work an 8 hour shift but I do work 5 days.) They need a holiday too. So a few days here and there perhaps. I might even get the neighbours or babysitter to pop by while they have lunch. Still if hubby doesn't approve I won't do it at all, even though the kids are ok with the idea.

Thanks for the ideas. Yes some apply. No one would let an 11 year old babysit here...except me letting her watch her brother who really can look after himself. 
Shopping alone I can do. Sometimes they do milk and bread but I think they could do more. No one would bat an eyelid over it here either. That would be socially acceptable because they would assume I am waiting at the door. They really can't walk anywhere for a purpose (we live in the country) but they could walk alone more around the block. (Hubby won't like this one...it will need meatloaf or cheesecake to get him on board  )
I am considereing leaving them alone for the holidays while I am at work but although I feel comfortable doing this I am questioning my sanity at feeling comfortable! Go figure.

Oh wow! This will be very popular I think! I think I could learn Vietnamese with this one!

  you are fabulous   !   
       absolutley fabulous!

I have been reading Free Range Parenting and have decided some of my parenting choices are holding my kids back. Can't have that now!  so I am looking for ways to increase their independence. I rad that in Australia we naturally are pretty protective of our kids in this generation and I have to agree. I was much more free range as a child than my kids get to be. I also read that other countries are much more likely to let their kids do things I wouldn't consider. I want to know what you do that you think helps your children develop independence. What do you shake your head at at that silly Westerners do to bubble wrap their kids? My kids are 7,9,11 and I want them to be fully functional adults before they'd turn 16.
Some things I tried this week
Let them loose in a zoo
Made my oldest sort out her own doctors appointments, and talk to the doctor directly about her problems
Taught them how to clean the shower, toilet and mop the floor
Organised a payment chart for extra chores. I expect a fair bit for no money but they wanted a chance to earn $$$ too.
Order their own food in a cafe and pay with my key card.
What else can I have them do for themselves? So many things I do every day for them but never stopped to question. Help me question everything I do!

Most interesting. I like the way her mum told her "I am not here to entertain you, you should go out and find the answer" to encourage investigation. This is a graeat way to encourage learning though it might not work on all kids.

Fabulous! Thankyou so much for your insight. I love your ideas. I think I need a science nerd friend.    Actually I probably just need a science magazine publication in the house for ideas. Any suggestions?
She is already capable of learning at a uni level. She had no trouble learning from Holt Biology uni texts (you know that really thick heavy book that cost as much as a small car!  ) but although she is capable I still want her to have some fun. So we will have the uni texts but also use some simpler ones and a lot of living books on nature. This should ensure her interest continues and isn't drowned in facts. I want her to explore ideas and breakthroughs and follow rabbit trails of information. Learn about the people of science (so far she isn't so keen on this particular idea) and how they made their discoveries. I can weave interesting stories into her lab work to pike her interest I think. We have plenty of time so I want to cover the basics solidly while allowing her time to explore her ideas. The basics is where her siblings are at so that helps me too.
Yes math is a priority. She is well ahead there and planning to advance in an accelerated mannor. I am guessing her math skills will outstrip mine in about 2-3 years. I am considering doing the courses along with her to keep up and challenge my lazy brain.

Thankyou! They all sound like great ideas. She has directed a heart before..some how she managed to talk her way into another years science class especially so she could! I hadn't considered adding it to our course though. That's a great idea. I am sure we would have done it randomly at some point but it's always better to plan ahead and have the information (and body parts!) ready.
Love the idea of resistant bacteria! Defiantly adding that one in!

I am planning my daughters biology study as this is a topic she is very interested in I need to get this one right and cover everything. It's likely her life path will include biology in some form. She is a scientific animal lover with a fascination for microbiology. She is currently 11 and will be considered high school next year. Her 9 year old sister will be doing the same course simultaneously. We plan to cover animals (facts, habitats and ?) and classification as an ongoing project where she chooses the animals based around a classification that I might have some say in, over a few years. She would do this anyway so I figure I can structure it to make it more meaningful in terms of her education. In this way I believe life science will be covered in full. Are we likely to miss anything doing this?

Now while she does those animal studies I am developing a more complete biology course to cover everything else. Would anyone like to make any suggestions as to what I should cover in this course? Are their any biologists here? Especially in the micro biology department. We have a great microscope and currently she just spends hours looking at pre prepaired specimens through it. I would love to here your ideas and resourse suggestions. We have looked through a number of highschool and university level text books for ideas but want to bounce ideas around to see what others think is most important. What do you remember from your biology courses?