Beautiful analogy, Grinity. I always appreciate your unique angles.
My DD did learn to read very effortlessly very early and so I got to be "lazy" about many things. She somehow learned octogon and trapeziod and so forth by one visit to grandma's where grandma named shapes. I wasn't one of those parents who was always saying things like, "There is the RED ball. There is ONE ball. The ball is ROUND..." I remember meeting a lady at the park like that and I wondered if I was dropping the ball (pun intended) by my less conscious approach. Many friends were using workbooks and flashcards and were dumbfounded that I never used them. It wasn't that I was such a purist. My DD would just not have any part of it. I did buy flashcards once when she was two and starting to read because I was excited by it, and the first time I showed them to her, she knew every word and so that was it for us. I waited until she was almost five to try something a little more structured since we were preschool drop outs and I felt we should try a little something. In general, she learns best and most from reading books and asking questions, so that is what we do. I am still lucky and still get to be lazy because she gets most things with very little exposure. As for math facts, it was a brief time of practicing them, which simply meant I would write down problems or ask them aloud, for short spurts every other day. I am not sure most people would call it hothousing but in many ways I felt like a closet hothouser because this wasn't her activity of choice. Now that she has many math facts mastered, she doesn't mind it as much and we don't do it as often.
