Homeschooling a Two Year Old?

I've been interested in homeschooling our kids before Alan and I were even married. After all, I consider my education at home some of the better parts of my learning years and with all the moving we might be doing until Alan finishes school and settles into a good job, well it just seemed logical.

So I started to peruse websites for information on the best time to start, how to start, what to do. I suddenly realized that like being married, homeschooling doesn't just flow naturally from a person. Yes, some claim that it can (like those brave and confounding unschoolers) but I don't think I have it in me to teach through life circumstances alone.

On the other hand, think of all a child learns without ever being formerly taught: how to walk, speak, sing, pray, conform to certain social patterns. These things take teaching but there is generally no carved out twenty minutes each day when you instruct your child on speaking, lessons on good eating habits-- these things usually come organically, even for the child who might have special needs and require more focused attention sometimes.

So anyway, I am at the point of gathering materials. Our generous relatives showered Lucy with educational toys per our request and I now have a shelf full of lacing cards, alphabet magnets, tanagrams, puzzles, play money. I've acquired math manipulatives, miniature animals, and a felt board on my own. So right now on odd days Lucy plays with these things in succession, sitting at the table. I'm hoping we are at least setting up the habits needed to get a lesson done in the future. Because while many things are learned through everyday life others will require more focused times of learning. Maybe it is less about starting Lucy down the right path and more about training myself to teach!