How much do you teach your children at home?

[bubbleandsqueaks]

I always thought I would be a parent that taught my child how read, write, do maths etc at home.
Before she started nursery I taught her to count to 10 and the usual things such animal noises etc

However with the birth of dd2 five months ago, PT work and a house to run I don't do half as much teaching as I thought I would.

We read every day and I do the normal day to day activities park, swimming etc
But formal learning only happens when she comes to me for example if she says she wants to write her name I will show her how to form the letters until she gets bored (about 5 mins later normally!)

Should I be doing more or is it ok leave this to her nursery and later her school?

I don't do much more than that with DS (3.5). He's interested in letters and their sounds so we do a bit of writing and talking about what the letters are called and what sound they make. He can write a few letters. I'm trying to get him to form his letters properly as I don't want him to pick up bad habits. I did buy a writing workbook that I found in the £1 shop but we haven't got round to looking at it yet...

He loves the Cbeebies and Peppa Pig magazines and they've usually got a few activities in for early literacy.

That's about it for the formal stuff (well, as formal as you can get with a 3 year old anyway!)
We read a lot and I try to incorporate letters and numbers into what we are doing i.e. spotting the right bus by its number, looking at letters on signposts. And I encourage him to count things.
We do all the other normal things - lots of park at the moment because of the sun, some crafts, play dough, drawing, cooking. He's just got into playing board games like Snakes and Ladders which are brilliant for counting.

They're little sponges at this age! If I tried to sit DS down to do formal learning, he'd get bored very quickly but he picks up a lot just by doing all the normal, everyday activities, especially if we talk about what we are doing.

I think I'll get down our snakes and ladders!

I would not worry. Your dc will pick up stuff when they are interested so it'll happen naturally.

When they start school it's more important that they can dress themselves, follow instructions, use the toilet alone, make friends, eat lunch themselves, and all that other daily/social stuff. It doesn't really matter if they don't know the more 'academic' stuff.

We just talk a lot, and encourage questions and discussion.

I also had it in my head that my boys would read before they started school, as I was reading Enid Blyton at 5. Just didn't happen like that in the end - DS1 knew a few words, couldn't hold a pen properly, and could just about write his name when he started Reception. DS2 starts this September, and is slightly ahead of that, but is not doing a huge amount of formal learning.

We are however having endless discussions about the exact difference between silver and gold, who exactly is Prince William, and whether the nursery rabbit has died or is on holiday, as he "wasn't really very old".

Other than that, it's a bit of colouring/drawing/writing when he wants to.

We just talk about everything DD (2.5) shows an interest in when we are out/in, she constatly asks questions and wants to know and talk about stuff. Swimming, drawing, playdough, puzzles, reading and reading, counting, singing (we also have song and story CDs in the car). We go to museums, playgrounds, playgroups and all the usual places.

DD pretends to read (has a big brother) and knows what letters and words are. Sometimes when I read her brother's 'readers' to her I follow the words with my finger. Wouldn't do anything formal though unless she initiates it.