Your son sounds similar to my six year-old: he can read Homer unabridged but would rather read Nate the Great. We split the difference and he reads fourth grade-ish books for his "challenge" reading time (he's doing a chapter a day of Trumpet of the Swan right now), and whatever he likes for his quiet time in the afternoons and before bed. That way he gets the benefits of both the more challenging material and the speed-building from the easy reading. In math, he can add two double-digit numbers in his head, but after four or five his brain starts to melt. I've split the worksheets I know are going to tire him quickly in two, and on days that he normally has a math game instead of a formal lesson he'll finish the worksheet, if there's one that needs doing. If your son is interested in multiplication, I'd go ahead and introduce the theory with a lot of manipulative work, but I wouldn't start on multiplication facts or written work until he has the addition and subtraction facts backwards and forwards. These guys are still pretty young, and the concepts are there but not all of the maturity. I remind myself daily that it's a solid foundation we're building, and the concrete is poured but will dry at its own pace.

We've always gone by the instruction in the book to do "Two Review and One New" everyday, flagging the ones that aren't mastered for daily review. I've also found that they tend to make fewer mistakes when reading words in sentences than they do when reading isolated words, so to use your example, if they could read the word "hug" correctly in context, I'd prompt them for the correct vowel sound but not give it another thought past that if they read it as "hig" in isolation.

For DS6 it's stamina in mental math (adding two double-digit numbers in his head). He can do four or five without trouble, but then he starts getting tired and can't keep track from one step to the next. He has no trouble with the concepts, it's just the stamina. I've decided it's a maturity issue and am spreading the worksheets I know will tired him out over two days instead of one. For DD4 it's focus, maybe? During reading lessons she gets distracted between each word, by whatever's handy. But she *is* four.

My son never did K math; he started RightStart Math B at 5.5 and it was a perfect fit. My daughter started K when she turned four, and the slower pace and shorter list of topics in RightStart A was a better fit for her at that point. Everything covered in A is covered again in more detail in B, so there's no worry about missing anything if you start with B. The only reason to use A first is if you're starting with a very young student, or one who other reasons for needing a lighter introduction to math.

Here's ours. The times at which we homeschool vary daily because other activities, so there are no times listed.

That's pretty much exactly what we did, and we also did museum field trips.

We used RightStart A, and I considered adding in additional worksheets from Math Mammoth because the approaches are very similar, especially the whole-part circles. I didn't end up doing it because I just didn't feel like it, but they're a great combination.

So cute! I think they might, actually, if only because when I was in school, at least, kids tended to make 2-4 "best" friends with whom they socialized almost exclusively. In my experience, homeschooled kids tend to have more friends but fewer "exclusive" relationships, possibly because the school culture encourages the creation of "second families". Homeschooled kids are always with their families, and maybe don't feel the need to establish such incredibly close relationships with people outside the family until they're older. Or maybe I'm making things up. ;)

I'd been meaning to put together a post on what we did for kindergarten, and I just put it up here. We focus on the basics for kindergarten, the better to build the foundation for first grade.

We've been using Spelling Workout, but are switching to AAS.

My situation is a little different, because we're a three-parent family: Ex-Husband R, Fiance B and I. B and I are both undergraduates and R works 1-10pm Thurs-Tuesday, so we all have responsibilities outside the home and work together to make the homeschooling happen. I do all of the formal academic teaching, R takes them to playgroups, morning classes like science and spanish, and teaches the art history, and B does art projects with them and includes them in his woodworking and electronic projects. In terms of household chores, B does most of the cooking, takes care of the cat litter, does some of the dishes, and some of the laundry. I do most of the dishes, most of the laundry, and all of the ironing, meal planning, and the researching and planning of the homeschooling. Once we've graduated with our undergraduate degrees and B's in grad school, though, I'll take over all of the rest of the domestic arts (and I'm truly weird, because I'm really looking forward to it). R will also get back to a normal 9-5, M-F schedule at work and I'll do all the ferrying and teaching.

My son will be 6.5 next month and just finished first grade, and my daughter is 4.5, just about to start first grade, so they're both in the same neighborhood as your daughter. I just posted our schedule today here, and our current curriculum line-up is here. I think that sticking with phonics games for a phonics-phobic child is a great idea, so it seems to me you're doing fine with those and the free reading.

I concur with all the previous suggestions regarding reading everything you can get your hands/cursor on and avoiding making any investments until the time draws nearer. I'm also in the camp that has radically changed educational philosophies over the years, and I think a lot of it had to do with the way I felt at each development stage. For instance, when mine were babies and toddlers I was very into attachment parenting, which lent itself very naturally to a combination of the unschooling, Montessori and Reggio Emilia styles of education, and I expect that to be the case when I have one more baby someday. I read WTM when my oldest was four and because I was still in the "little ones" mindset I found the amount of structure very off-putting, and was totally resolved to unschool and make up my own unit studies. A year later, however, partly inspired by my beginning a more rigorous part of my own education and having less time to prepare my own material (I'm working on my BS), I read it again and thoroughly appreciated it. It was easier to imagine creating that level of structure once I had experience with a five year-old than it had been when he was four, even though when I read it the first time it was only with an eye to the future, not for the present. So my advice is to not decide, when you only have very little children, "what kind of homeschooler you are," because it could make you less receptive to all the many, many great options. As far as what we did, if you're still looking for suggestions: absolutely zero "instruction", just play. We have an extensive collection of wooden toys, puzzles and blocks, and loved almost everything that came from companies like Melissa and Doug. We read, and read, and read some more, mostly with a focus on the picture books that have stood the test of time but not exclusively. I highly recommend Jim Trelease's Read-Aloud Handbook, and the Caldecott award list, as well the tried-and-true "Give the kids a bag each and set them loose in the library" method for finding good books. On a distinctly less classical note, both of my children learned their ABCs and numbers from Sesame Street's Alphabet Jungle and Great Numbers Game, and Leapfrog's Letter Factory and Numbers Ahoy DVDs (almost the only screen time they had). And then just watch for interest and the ability to sit through a lesson. My oldest knew all his letters and numbers at three, but wasn't ready for formal instruction until he was 5.5, and then he raced through kindergarten in two months. My daughter didn't learn her letters and numbers until she was almost 4.5, but she was ready and eager for formal instruction. Her learning trajectory is smoother and more continuous than his was, though it began later than his did, but she knows more at a younger age than he did at this point. So just pay close attention, I suppose, but if you needed to be told that you wouldn't be here. :) So just have fun!

Likewise; ours has been on the shelf since Christmas without more than the odd glance from me. Thanks!

Mine have the Macmillan Dictionary for Children, which claims to be aimed at ages 8-12, but mine are younger and have had no problems with it. It was a gift, but after a quick look at the reviews from Amazon I'd probably have chosen it over any others anyway.

We switched from unschooling to classical when my oldest would have started kindergarten last fall (he was 5.5), and he started FLL at that time, no problem, but he was way beyond ready for a more formal curriculum and raced through kindergarten in about two months. We skipped the "enrichment" activities at the ends of the lessons. My daughter is just finishing kindergarten now (she's 4.5), and since she was almost a year and a half younger when she started, we focused on letter recognition and sounds (Leapfrog Letter Factory took care of that), number recognition (Leapfrog Numbers Ahoy) and beginning math skills (RightStart Math Level A). She loves workbooks, so I had her fine-tune her motor skills with those in preparation for beginning penmanship. Once she had the letter sounds down we started OPGTR. We only just started FLL with her last week, when she'd acquired most of the first grade skills. So long story short: it depends on the kid and their development. You can always try it and see if it seems to be going well; if not, hang it back up for a while.