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I'm now at the same point with my second as I was with my first. They hit five and wake up to the world of academic skills, zoom through and hit the third grade wall, where no materials are interesting to a child under 8 and you have to wing it to find the intersection of interesting and challenging.

I think there are kids you can homeschool and kids you can't, and that I have one of each. Have you done much reading about different methods of homeschooling? And teaching pedagogy and stuff? We afterschooled for a couple of years so I read quite widely. There are a lot of really interesting techniques and ideas and it helps to look beyond arithmetic and reading to all sorts of learning. You can learn a lot from something as simple as that experiment where they gave children a toy and either showed them what it did or said "I wonder what this does?". The ones who were shown didn't discover any new functions. The ones who got a question found lots of new stuff.

For example if he likes chemistry experiments teach him to bake. You can learn about yeast and rising agents, how they make gas bubbles (cool balloon experiments), how flour feeds yeast, but sugar even more, salt hinders yeast but tastes good in small quantities, baking powder works in any mix, baking soda only in acidic mixes. What about sourdough? Wild yeast? Yoghurt? Explore yeast breads, pancakes, scones, bannock, pikelets, crepes and make a big wall chart.

Then you can learn about gases and breathing, gases and plants. You can buy a molecule set and make molecules. You can expand on the acid base theme and make some red cabbage indicator and explore the liquids in your house. Layer oil and water and molasses in a jar. Not all five year olds get conservation of volume so you can have some fun with that. Mix food dye with shaving cream in a ziplock. Make gak from borax and glue.

I'm really into simple machines at the moment. A building kit of straws and paper and tape and foil and string and paperclips and a book about simple machines combined with some rube goldberg videos and apps (casey's contraptions!) could make a great independent activity. In fact, now that I say that, I'm going to use the idea over summer. You can also use magnatiles and straw and string and pattern blocks to explore lot of geometry. There's an app called foldables which would be fun.

How about maps? You could print out a map of your area and fill in information, like playgrounds, the routes of walks. Draw a map of the kitchen. Have scavenger hunts. Go geocaching.

Use the socratic method to help him think scientifically and creatively. What do you think will happen? Why did that happen? What will happen if we leave this out? Why? Can we replace it with this?

Time-wise, in a kindergarten class that's in school from 9-3 they spend an hour eating and playing outside, and hour doing art or PE, an hour in transitions to and from various things and arriving and leaving. So really, there's about three hours of academic instructional time in a day, almost none of which is one on one or tailored to the child's interest. So long as you're aware I wouldn't worry about not having six hours of intense academics.