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We read to our kids pretty often (my wife does so more than me since she's a stay-at-homer). We've gotten them a variety of "building" toys such as Legos and Imaginex which they love. Our oldest is 5, and he's gotten pretty darn good at building stuff, and his patience has increased a lot, too. Then again, he also toilet-trained himself and, just this week, taught himself how to ride a bike without training wheels, much to our shock. Our middle child flat-out refuses to even try going without diapers....an example of the fact that all kids are different.
Our middle child is picking up what the oldest has learned since they spend so much time together...and the youngest (1) is still in his own world. They see the oldest one looking at books and coloring, so they do the same.
We play counting games with them, so they're learning the basics. The 5 year starts kindergarten next week, and he's already learned to write his name as well as the names of the rest of our family. Encourage the behavior that's desired (i.e., stuff that's geared to learning) and kids will develop an appetite for it.
My wife was an elementary school teacher before staying home with the kids, so she does a pretty good job with them.
skysooner: My 5 year old has already played organized basketball, t-ball (two "seasons") and soccer ("two seasons"). They're not really competitive, but they're organized by the YMCA and get the kids accustomed to the concepts behind the games. Plus, it's a great way for the kids to meet friends. We didn't push him to play...we just asked him if he wanted to.
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