Manda, thanks for your support. Thanks also for your advice re Soft Mozart, but isn’t it rather (as in ridiculously) expensive? While we put a lot of money into our homeschooling, I don’t put down significant money for things I’m not convinced work very well. When its author showed up here touting it, I am afraid I was just turned off–but never did try it out or learn enough about the software, and I wound up ignoring the threads that discussed it. What would be the best thread for learning about it? Or maybe you can explain why you’re excited about it, or why it’s better than simply using books and practicing a lot? I haven’t found any general introduction video or even any textual description that summarizes and argues for the method. Self-teaching and addictive are good, though!
Tanikit, we don’t do as much as some others–I am sure not as much as several people here on BrillKids. We just study at almost every meal, and otherwise have many good habits, and it adds up. Sometimes, lately, I’ve felt like a unschooler…and I do think it’s important that kids be interested in and preferably excited about what they are studying. So if he starts getting resistant, just as was the case when he was two, we stop and take a break. We also don’t do everything every day. In fact, the last few months, it’s been a rare day when we did absolutely everything: Latin before breakfast, reading at all three meals, Supermemo review in the morning, geography and chapter book reading in the morning, math and writing (in the afternoon), at least two five-minute piano lessons, another Supermemo review before bedtime, history and chapter books (read by Papa) before bedtime. We always drop a few, and that’s OK. I’m sure H. really would get worn out and rebellious if we tried, so we don’t try.
How did we get into the hour of daily reading (Monday through Friday)? I’ll try to remember. He had been taking a nap, so I offered him the deal: read for an hour (or did we start with 30 or 45 minutes? I forget, maybe), and then you don’t have to take the nap. So he was very enthusiastic about that for a few weeks, until he discovered that sometime, he might not want to take a nap or read. So there was a period, not that long, in which I had to threaten him with the corner if he didn’t read. I made it easier for him by letting him read whatever he wanted, really easy books he has already read, whatever. Also, when he started out, he read out loud, not silently. He read very slowly when he read out loud, and when he chose to read silently, he was much faster. At first I tolerated reading out loud, but once he was “broken in” and accustomed to the habit of reading daily, after a few weeks, I started to insist that he read silently. Anyway, all that was about a year ago. When I tell him it’s time to read, he most often just heads over to his chair and picks a book and is often reading before I set the timer. He often goes over the timer because he’s so interested.
Still, he isn’t that enthusiastic about his hour of reading, I’m afraid. He’s resigned to it, but he sometimes complains. On the other hand, he does read easier stuff, and stuff that he happens to be interested in, on his own. An example would be yesterday, when he started an iPad recorder app, opened up Tales from the Odyssey (which is pretty easy for him, particularly since he’s read it to himself recently, I read it to him a year ago, and we listened to the audiobook twice) and recorded 25 minutes of it before breakfast.
If I thought that, by giving him a stack of library books or newly purchased books, and nothing to do, he would plow through a bunch of books, we’d do that, like, all the time. But I think that couldn’t work with H. Left to himself, he plays with Scratch, Legos if available, often writes, illustrates, or builds (usually involving tape and paper) something related to his latest imaginary project, etc. I’ve left him with nothing to do, even without reading to him at mealtime, for a few days in a row. The result, the two or three times we’ve tried that, has been a disaster. He runs around crazily (literally), has much less discipline than usual, and even if I tell him that he can continue without any school responsibilities only if he does some reading and writing on his own, he doesn’t. So, while other people’s kids might be different, H. really does seem to need a schedule.
“Papa, I’m having some fun. I’m playing chess with Mousie,” he just told me as he came in the room.
Have you also looked in to Beast Academy??? At the moment I am using mep, math in focus (singapore math) , math mammoth, 
Actually having read as much as I have about H I think he would really love softmozart. If you deside to ramp up the piano definately check it out. Its very much self teaching and addictive!