Do you read at bedtime? Both of my kids love books and reading because we read to them every night. When reading began, I used BOB books and when reading, pointed at sight words in books to have them figure out the next word. Once they could read, we had them read books like Dr. Suess Hop on Pop or One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Phonics is really important to reading!
As for amount of time afterschooling, DS6 is now in 1st Grade. The school requires daily homework, but we have permission to determine what that homework is. We probably spend 30-45 minutes a day. My son is a slow writer, so whenever the work has a lot of writing it takes longer. We only do 1-2 topics, like a math day and then a spelling and reading comprehension day. We do the Brain Quest Workbooks which makes it easy to choose by subject. IMO, I think it is important to cover multiple subjects, things the child is good at and some they aren't. Focus more on what they are good at then what they aren't though, because if it isn't required, then it should be fun to do.
