Our goals are a bit different but similar. Firstly I want my son to know how the world around him, and his body works. But mostly I want him to know that science is everywhere and all around him. We do a lot of science. Now that he is a competent reader but still too young to have the motor skills to write well we focus on math and science predominately. We discuss science informally a lot. As we are going for a walk we will discuss the water cycle or the rock cycle. We will talk about how the systems in our bodies work. Or we will talk about how things work by the use of simple machines and forces. He is an inquisitive boy and asks questions a lot! We read several books a week about science. And we read those more than a few times. My son loves science shows. He watches Peter Weatherall several times a week. He also loves a few of the science series on Discovery Steaming. We don't have regular TV. I believe that the biggest hurdle in science during the higher grades is vocabulary so we focus on using the real terminology in our every day language. We do use a science curriculum because I also believe that science builds upon itself, and I love having all that thought out for me. I love BFSU. I know many parents find it daunting, but I read through it and it gives me the information I need to be able to discuss science with my son. Generally we don't do the labs. We are weak on labs. I am just not a big fan of the fiddly stuff. Although my son loved the last lab we did. So I think we will be doing more of those just because it is something he begged again and again to do for fun.

Doman also has a baby program. A bit more intense though. But he has some really neat stuff. And an interesting read. In fact he has several books. How Smart is your Baby is a good one to start with.

I would look into her state's public school virtual academy if one exists. K12 is usually called (state abbreviation)VA. It is OHVA in Ohio. It is secular, and there is option for acceleration. But it is rigorous, There is teacher assistance. And it is open and go. Perfect for a work at home parent.

Are you familiar with Blues Clues? I would leave several clue indicators and then leave them around the house to see if your child can figure out why they are all connected.

If you are in the US we now are adopting Common Core Standards. This is the authority that decides what a child should be doing in all grades and subjects such as Language Arts and Math. Most good teachers will let children work ahead. But their focus is to get every child to meet the minimums requirements. http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards

Learning letter sounds is about spot on for the 3rd-5th week of school. It is only the start if the year. Reading about 100 sit words and deciding CVC is pretty much where many (not necessarily all) kids will be by mid year. But the end of the year they will be writing, experimenting with spelling and doing basic math.

I wouldn't give up on phonics. Perhaps try an online program like www.readingbear.org. I love preschool Prep products. They have phonics and sight word videos.

Personally, I like some of the older sets. The language is richer and more narrative. I have an older '70s set of The Young Children's Encyclopaedia by Britannica. And a set of ChildCraft from the early 80s I think. They are invaluable. When I was a kid I remember reading my mums set from the 40s. I loved it.

Human Biology is my son's favorite. He is only 3 but he has learnt so much from it. And yes, they do use some anatomically correct terms. Might be a good option to screen some of the clips (ahem... Digestion) if you are wary. We go for walks and talk about the world around us and I try and explain something to him. He just rolls his eyes at me and tells me that he knows that because Peter Weatherall taught him.

Rhyming is tough. And I am not sure the real benefit if one is not using word families a lot. My son has been reading for over a year. He reads well using a balanced appoarch at a 3rd grade level.... And he still can't rhyme.

Earlier this year I read the book Who Own's the Sun to my 3 year old son. It is a beautifully poetic written story about slavery. It was able to open up a dialogue for us. And he was able to come to his own ideas about it being right or wrong without my impression of it. http://www.amazon.com/Who-Owns-Sun-Stacy-Chbosky/dp/0933849826

As soon as I started reading I realized you could be describing my son. He is 3 years and 9 months. He detests the magic school bus. We watched one episode and there was too much absurdity for him. Keri nailed it though. Peter Weatherall is the way to go! His videos are amazingly in depth and well explained. Human Body is my son's favorite. My non musically inclined son loves the songs almost as much as the explanations. Yes.... I know that Peter Weatherall is not a book, but I haven't yet found the perfect book series yet.

I would keep things simple and 2 things daily. Read to her. Point out the words. Talk about the pictures. Discuss the books. Talk about her thoughts and feelings, her predictions etc. And do math. Read math books, count, measure things when cooking. Play games. Show her 2 stuffed animal and have 3 more join them and now she has 5 stuffed animals. Talk about bigger, smaller. More, less. Etc. nothing formal. Just part of day to day life stuff.

Sure. :)

Each schools reading system differs. I am familiar with the 100 book challenge system and the Reading A-Z system (RAZ). Neither system relies in just ghe child knowing their sight words. The 100BC has word lists which children need fo define. They also have to show competency before moving on. It is a balanced system and focuses on phonics just as much as whole word reading. I love how RAZ does their bechmark assessments. I would have mentioned them before but they are available by subscription and are more invovled than just using the book wizard. It checks comprehension and fluency. RAZ has a phonics path for teaching reading and a more traditional sight words path. The letters for the RAZ program are similar to the Fountas and Pinnell but not the same in higher grades. Scholastic guided reading program is the same as Fountas and Pinnell. 100BC is very different and confused me until I learnt the system. http://www.raz-kids.com/main/ViewPage/name/help_chart

I second BFSU for science. But I am forewarning. It is harder to implement. It is not perfectly scripted and it is not linear. However each topic builds upon each other. So you can't skip around. It goes off in tangents. It is best to read the chapter on Sunday night, take notes and spend the week discussing the lessons, watching YouTube clips, reading books and doing the experiments on. It is very flexible and doesn't need any writing unless you want to.

The Biscuit books are simple. But my son still enjoys to read them. I really like Usborne books. My son was also obsessed with their FarmYard Tales. I had to put it up because it was getting well worn.

The books you have mentioned above are about a grade 2 reading level with a 360L-500L Lexile level. You can go to the following link and enter in current books. http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/l It is not a complete assessment but it wil give you an idea. And it is free.

I would look for sight word readers for her. We loved the Preschool Prep Readers. Once my son could read about 2/3 of those he could read pretty much any early reader in our library system. I just gave my son a lot of opportunity to read. If he came across an unfamiliar word I would show him how to sound it out. And eventually he was doing it on his own. When he turned 3 I did go through and make sure that he did have some phonics instruction. But he really didn't need it. If you feel eventually that your daughter needs phonics instruction you can choose a spelling program like LOE or AAS. OR check out www.readingbear.org.

We do play outside during the summers. Even when it is humid and hot. We take extra caution. We play in the shade in the evenings, with water. Even if it is just me squirting the kids with the hose. We have easy access to ice water also. I grew up in the tropics and was acclimated to much worse than TX heat. I now live in the northern US. Winter is harder for me to get out. So we do hibernate a bit. But I bundle us up and try, even if it is for a short stint. And spring is often wet, not my cuppa tea. But my son loves rain walks and puddle jumping. And Beth, I agree with your friend. You have to right to ease up on yourself. :) My pregnancy was rough, so I know how bad it can be. I know people who do a lot more than 2-3 hours of TV. So in the grand scheme of things, it could be way worse. If you still feel the guilt nibbling why not try and screen for the best high quality educational content. My son watches Math and science shows. He also loves this show about grammar that he is learning a lot from. We don't have cable TV but use discovery streaming or library DVDs mostly.

Yes! It is a very recent development. And I feel something that is a little pushed upon us by toy companies. Yes there are metits go play. But i also believe kids play best when they are making their own rules and not being entertained. My mother was not ta playmate mother either. She did stuff with us. Taught us things and was a stay at home mum. So she was there all the time when we needed her. And I think she was an awesome mum and role model. I do play with my son.... But not really in the ways that people think of with dolls and cars and stuff. If he brings me a pretend meal that he cooked I will pretend eat it and comment. I will play interactive board games. But mostly I will use toys are teaching aids. We go for walks together, we cook together, we clean the house together. That is how we hangout and "play" mostly. I am his mother, not his playmate. There is little distinction now. But I don't want there to be confusion as he gets older. We only have simple toys in our house, we avoid batterie operated toys. And I give my son a lot of free, by himself, playtime. With no background TV. I would ask if he wants to listen to some music while he plays and he will tell me that he just wants to enjoy the birds chirping outside. So fun I have never had to deal with him being bored or needing my attention.

Our schedule is a little off to most because my husband works second shift. So we do everything later than most. I only have a 3 year old. And sometimes a 1 year old I watch. Times are approximate. 9am: Get up and give my son breakfast. If he is awake before 9 he will read or play by himself until I get up. We shower. 10am: About 3-4 days of the week we do an activity out of the house. Be it StoryTime, gymnastics, science class or just the park. The activities are only an hour or so long. But we walk there and home, that takes at least another hour from our day. Walking times are filled with a lot of discussion about what we read, how we conduct ourselves in public by using manners. Observing the world around us. The days we stay home I will put on a math or science show and we cuddle up and watch that. Then we do an activity relating to that show. My son recently watched some shows about mammals and did an "essay" by dictating. But most of the time I am lazy in the mornings. And the TV stays off and he plays cars or trains or puzzles of playdoh or he build contraptions. 12pm: Daddy wakes and my son and him play their special games. Legos, trains, cars, hiding, monsters dun dun hands? Weird stuff. :) . They go for a walk and pay outside for a bit. 1pm: We have lunch. Sometimes at home, sometimes out. 1:30pm: We have reading time. This is often an hour or so long. We read about a lot of subjects. We are able go over history, geography, grammar, science and more durning this reading time. We read many picture books, living math, fairy tales and poetry too. My son reads quite well so I don't really need to instruct him anymore. And if i do i explain the phonetic rules as we read. We take turns reading aloud to each other. Just because he can read does not mean I let him read everything himself. I should note he will often read by himself urging his free play time. 2:30pm about this time my son goes down for his nap. It is extremely rare for him not to nap. If he doesnt, he gets an hour quiet time in his room. Now I get time to do chores, set aside activities, cruise the Internet. Do any prep for dinner. Most days I watch my neighbor's 1 year old boy and he comes over at about this time and stays until late in the evening. 5pm: My son wakes up. When I have 2 boys. We play outside. We have dinner. After dinner I let the kids watch some nursery rhymes, while we have out little dance party and do a little music lesson. When it is just my son, he helps me cook dinner. He reads the recipes, helps with any measuing, cutting. Then he helps me clean up. He wants so badly to wash the dishes and i promised he can start heling me do that this week. We bake scones or bickes once a week. We also run a mile together after dinner has settled. Have a shower when we get home 7pm: Learning Time, quiet time. I focus on teaching a few things to the littlest boy if I have him. Shapes, colors, body parts, letters, numbers etc. Then we read books. My son reads to the little one. We sing some lullabies. 8-9pm The Little one is in bed. This is our more intense learning and PRT time. And a little bit of seat work. We do math instruction and work on handwriting. Coloring, cutting, etc. We play board games a lot during these times. 10pm: End of the day another hour or so of reading, cuddle time. And then my son goes to bed. And my neighour picks up her boy at 11pm. If my husband isn't working late (very rarely) my son gets to read with him before he goes to sleep. 11:30pm: Me time! I turn the TV on and stream a few shows, I do a short intense crossfit style work out. I read and research a lot! I plan activities. I chat with online and real life friends. And I am in bed by about 3am when my husband goes to bed and we go to sleep. Voila!

I am familiar with 6 school districts 2 different states and all of them are willing to accept a child, who missed the cut off and was homeschooled for K, to enter as a first grade student. As long as the child met academic competency. Which is a meeting and a test. I KNOW that is not all school districts. But it is certainly worth trying in each case. Good luck SKL.

I did get to thinking about this and that depends on the district I think. I did "homeschool" a child who didn't meet the cut off for Kindergarten. She did Kindergarten work for a semester. I don't really consider it homeschooling, but by the district's terms she was accepted into K as a transferred homeschooled student. Same district that denies her early entry at the beginning of the year.

This is a mixed one for me. I would say technically when they are required to register here is it 6. But you can register a 5 year old for kindergarten. Then on the other hand, what if a two or three year old is doing grade work where they are working through curricula? How is that different to if the child is five or six doing the same work?