I am not a homeschooler and Ella is only 28 months old. I work full time while Ella goes to daycare at my place of work. But since we started on this path of early learning, Ella has developed a great love of learning and she is thriving! I did not want her to lose her momentum so I decided to supplement her learning at home. This is currently what we are doing. We do reading in English and in Chinese everyday as well as Math, and Music. Then she gets to pick one other “subject” for each day of the week (Art, Science, Social Studies, Life Skills, Spelling and Language, Critical Thinking, etc.) I try to guide her choices so that she chooses an activity from each topic at least once a week but sometimes she gets obsessed with one thing - like the Human Body for the whole of last week. Her schedule is in no way regimented and I try to make each activity as fun as possible. These are the materials that I have found useful/effective/fun:
Reading in English - We have graduated from YBCR and YCCR long ago and are currently on the last month of LR semester 2. She is now reading comfortably at a 2nd grade level so I am now focusing more on reading comprehension, reading fluency, and increasing her vocabulary. We read lots and lots of different books for this but her current favorites to read by herself are: Ladybird Read-It-Yourself books, Usborne First Reading books, I Can Read! Level 2 books (Frog and Toad, Harold and the Purple Crayon, Little Bear), and ORT Stage 5 and 6 storybooks. I have also started reading chapter books to her starting with E.B. White’s 3 books. To check her reading comprehension and phonemic awareness, I use Carson-Dellosa’s Home Workbooks for kindergarten/1st grade phonics and reading comprehension - the activities are just right for her attention span. I recently started to teach her spelling and we are using letter stamps and homemade spelling puzzles for this, sometimes SpellingCity when I remember.
Chinese - She is reading at a 1st-2nd grade level. We are working on recognizing more chinese characters using LR, reading comprehension, and increasing vocabulary words. It is hard to find a Chinese curriculum to adapt to a toddler’s level so I just use graded readers from Wo Hui Du, Reading Lads, and Taoshu. To improve her conversational and listening comprehension (I am the only one who is able to speak Chinese to her on a daily basis), I like the Qiao Hu 巧虎 DVDs, CDs, and activity books. And I use LR to teach her to memorize 1-2 Tang Dynasty poems per week.
French and Spanish - We do not speak either French or Spanish at home so I am using a lot of technology for this: Little Pim DVDs, Whistlefritz, Professor Toto, Muzzy, music CDs, etc. (not all at once but one at a time). She brings leveled French and Spanish readers to daycare for her teacher to read to her. I am planning to get Babybit in French and Spanish soon, and probably Rosetta Stone later on when she is older.
Math - I am currently using a combination of Singapore Math and Jones Geniuses curriculum with her. I think they are complementary to each other and emphasize different but equally important aspects of math. JG Matrix 1 focuses mainly on learning math facts and mastering addition and subtraction. Singapore Math starts off with concepts like comparing, contrasting, sorting, patterning, etc. So far, she seems to like both approaches equally well. Some days, she likes doing the matrix dots more, and on other days, she chooses the singapore math workbook and completes a couple of pages. It really depends on her mood and I just go with the flow. I am taking it easy and not rushing her in math (or anything else for that matter) since she did just turn 2 years old. She has finished about 1/3 to 1/2 of the Singapore Math kindergarten textbook and is able to do the addition/subtraction JG worksheets. We are currently working on finishing the Singapore Math textbook and mastering addition/subtraction (being able to answer 100 addition/subtraction problems within 20 minutes). We use a mix of math manipulatives from Lakeshore Learning and Montessori to supplement.
Music - She is currently able to identify about 30-40 pieces of classical music by 10-11 different composers from different periods. We have the Themes to Remember curriculum but I am not using it now since I can’t find the time for it. Basically, I just let her listen to my collection of the top 100 masterpieces and identify the title and composer of each piece for her. I wasn’t sure how much was sinking in until a few days ago when we were in the car and her dad happened to tune in to the classical music station on the radio. A piece of music was playing that her dad and I could not identify and Ella piped up from the backseat: “Papa, Mama, it’s VIVALDI!” It turned out she was right! :biggrin: I have also just started the Soft Mozart program with her for learning to read notes and play the piano and I am following the Soft Mozart 1-year curriculum.
EK - We use Tweedlewink and the Doman picture dictionaries. I don’t have time to make bits and Ella has never really liked flashcards. So I am gradually transitioning her to the Montessori method - we are starting with the pin maps, nomenclature cards, and 3-part cards - they are like bits only smaller and have a hands-on component, which I think is a better fit for Ella’s learning style. I love their geography and culture cards and materials.
Life Skills - We are working on learning the days of the week and months of the year. I use the Learning thru Music CDs by Hestia and type the lyrics into LR. After that, we will be learning to tell time and money. For this, I printed some homemade books and made matching puzzles. I also got the Money Sorting Cash Registers from Lakeshore Learning that she just loves playing with (choking hazard alert!).
Problem Solving/Critical Thinking - Ella loves jigsaw puzzles and is now able to complete 36-42 piece puzzles easily. She usually gets them all by herself on her 2nd try. I am going to challenge her with 60 piece puzzles soon (some of her Christmas presents) and also introduce her to Lego building sets. I am thinking of getting either the Logico Piccolo set or the Fun Thinkers set from Grolier for her as well.
Science - I am following the Earlybird Science curriculum (which are published by the same people who publish Singapore Math). I let her watch the Peter Weatherall science music videos depending on which topic we are currently discussing. I also use lots of manipulatives - life cycle puzzles, human body models and sticker books, animal sorting cards, etc. I chanced upon a whole lot of Scholastic Science graded readers on ebay covering Life Cycles, Animal Habitats, Weather, Human Body, Solar System etc. that I plan on gradually reading with her. They are a little too advanced for her now but I couldn’t pass up the bargain. lol
Art - We usually do this on Saturday mornings since the projects tend to take more time. I use Usborne’s Complete Book of Art Ideas and the Usborne Art Treasury adapting them to her level. I supplement with LR art presentations and Montessori art cards. I read Anholt’s Artists books, the Katie art books, and Art Up Close books to her (these are still a little too long for her attention span - I just stop when her attention starts to wander).
Then every night before bed, we have Journal Time - she tells me something about her day and I write it down in her words in her “journal.” Sometimes, she scribbles a little or draws something to accompany her “journal entry.” I got the idea of doing this with her from another mom’s blog and from Doman’s Teach your baby to Write. This is followed by reading a story from the Beginner’s Bible and, soon, I will be getting the Nativity and Noah’s ark felt sets from Mother of Faith to supplement our bible reading time.
Wow! When I write everything down like this, it sounds like a lot / too much for a 2 year old! But, really, when I am doing these activities with her, most of the time she’s actually playing and not realizing that she is learning. Plus, most of the day, she is actually in daycare playing, climbing, running around like the rest of the kids there. She actually looks forward to these activities with me because she will start telling me in the car while on the way home, "Mama, today I want to do human body… " lol
I hope you get more replies, MoF. I would love to read about what other moms are using! 
