DD is 4.5yo and we've been very loosely hs'ing for a little while now. We've been doing the usual stuff; books daily, color, cut and paste, paint, cook, clean, role play, puzzles, games, etc. I recently added a cute little wooden, change-the-day calendar in the kitchen.
A little background on dd; She is easily bored and gets rather "out of hand" or "off the hook" when not adequately stimulated. This usually leads to dd pretty much bouncing off the walls, acting out, throwing tantrums that are far beyong a "tantrum", and ds 1yo tends to get hurt. I've been seeing a bit of this lately and I'm considering kicking things up a notch in the hs department.
I'm not sure where to begin because dd is clearly developing at very different rates in different areas. I realize this is typical however, she sat down with an old math work book of older ds's and was able to manage some math well beyond her years and is nearly reading. Although, my mother says she caught her reading and I've witnessed her read some but am not totally convinced. Lately dd has been rather rambunctious and I realize it's winter and we just had a ridiculous ice storm so we've been in the house but this has been going on for weeks. We did some more intense hs'ing for a few weeks and dd slept great, had very few tantrums, didn't get too out of hand, held it together, and ds hardly had any bruises from being bumped into things or knocked over. lol
So, I'm wondering where to go from here. Obviously dd needs more stimulation but I'm not really prepared for full time hs'ing. I think I'd like to get prepared to do a little more hs'ing in the coming weeks but where to start? What level and in which area? How would you attempt to assess your dc under similar circumstances so you aren't boring them with nonsense nor starting too far ahead?
We did check this  out for reading readiness but what about math, etc. Any suggestions as to where to begin?
I'm not sure what I'm expecting from you all, maybe book suggestions or suggestions for flexible curriculum that I could use with ds in the future but would allow me to bounce around with dd, or maybe even sites similar to the one I linked above that might help me assess dd's math level?
Actually, now that I've typed all of this I think I'm wondering most about math. I don't want to scare her off by starting too far below or above her level. I didn't realize until the other day that dd could add and subtract and that she knows her left from her right. Right now I'm thinking about getting some unifix cubes and maybe an abacus but I'm also considering just ordering right start or the like.
I'd really love your suggestions and opinioins.
TIA!
Cate
