I periodically write in sharpie on each hand:
Love of Learning &
We've Got Time
There is NOTHING that I'm going to be teaching my son, or that he will be learning, that we will not be coming back around to. Even colors are gone over in more depth as children age (both color wheel and color spectrum/wave length... my favorite color is in the 380-420 range), and numbers are gone over again multiple times (verbally, visual recog, writing, math, telling time, calculator, roman numerals, hash marks... and that's to say NOTHING of "real" subjects like ancient greece).
We've got time goes double with toddlers. Think about it... even when in preschool... an average "start" for 3yos is 4 hours a day 3 days a week. More than half of that time is spent playing (lunch, snack, recess times), and of the 2 hours left they are broken into chunks of story times, choose your own works time, art, music, etc. VERY little is actual "seat work" or things that "look" like school. LEARNING even in K-6 takes very little time. Doing "school" two hours a day with my 8yo and we still get through 1-3 years worth of curriculum every year. And that's pretty standard. Awayschool kids spend a LOT of time in their 8 hour day not actually doing anything. Lining up, waiting, eating, recess... then there's library, art, music, pe. The average day for an EIGHT year old can be accomplished in under an hour (to keep pace with the public school)... imagine how little time for a toddler. So SERIOUSLY, don't stress.
As a toddler we'd do things like count steps as we went up and down them, count jumps, sing the "20 more reasons to go to disneyland!" song from the 80's, and "rock around the clock". Use measurements while cooking. Addition and subtraction while doing most anything (in the grocery cart was super common 1 can of stewed tomatoes, and 1 can of stewed tomatoes, equals 2 cans of stewed tomatoes). Write in the mirror or sliding glass dooR with our fingers in shaving cream. Write with paint brushes, crayons, rocks, chalk, etc. Kiddo would play a LOT on www.starfall.com (without me there... the trick on that site is to NOT be sitting with them, because a toddler will happily hera "Tuh! Tiger! Whoa! Look at his teeth! Whoa." 50 times and it will be just as fun for them each time, and the people's voices are just as excited every time the toddler clicks. A parent, on the other hand, usually has a finite amount of time they can hear the durn tiger. It's almost impossible not to say "What about the letter A?", and it IS impossible to keep your body language to yourself. I used the time he was on starfall as personal time. I kept him in sight/hearing, but it was a blissful hour a day where I got to have some peace and he got to play. ) We'd curl up and read books. We'd sing songs about the body system (blood! ba boom ba boom ba boom! Kidneys! Ureters! Bladder! Zwoooooop! GOTTA PEE. Urethra. Sigh. Toilet!) We'd sort laundry into colors. I'd send him on missions for certain things (Can you find mommy's RED shoes?).
We would DO tons of stuff. Go to museums, parks, concerts, zoos. Dance, gymnastics, sports. See how water always flowed downhill (and try and make it flow uphill), build dams, bridges, put drops on pennies and play with surface tension. Put a flashlight on a globe, follow directions to make treats, etc., so forth, and so on.
We'd watch and listen to tons of stuff (the BBC's "Walking With Dinosaurs" series is mind blowing, btw, as is H's "The Universe", and National Geographic just about anything... but also super fun are thing like Zaboomafoo & In Between The Lions. Then for social learning... stick with the Brits. Thomas the Tank Engine, Angelina Ballerina, Fireman Sam, etc.)
Now that kiddo is 8... Our school "blend" is about 40/40/20. 40% montessori, 40% Charlotte Mason, 20% Whatever -aka things like computer games, conversations in the car, unschooling, etc. I can't recommend montessori highly enough, especially for preschool, but also for older grades. The "problem" with Montessori materials is that by and large, they're designed to schools to use with thousands of children over decades. So they tend to be pricey (Neinhaus is the holy grail as far as montessori materials, they're simply gorgeous, but also uber expensive). It's more than possible to make your own (especially 3 part cards... 3 part cards are just card stock and a printer and a papercutter... I used and use preexisting ones as templates and make my onw), and there are entire message boards for making your own materials as well as parents who sell their used neinhaus, adena, R&D mterials as their children outgrow them. Charlotte Mason, otoh, is essentially a FREE curriculum... as are many others.
WHY am I bringing up curriculum when you're asking about "listening"? Because, in my experience, 90% of listening is tied to whether the curriculum is a good "fit" for your child. (I've come across a LOT of curricula / approaches that are great for ME, but lousy for my son). The other 10% is simply that kids get into funks where they DON'T listen. You could be doing backflips on a pony, or doing subtraction by eating cookies, and you won't get their attention. Those days just happen. They happen while homeschooling, and the happen in awayschool. Heck... they even happen to adults. If they're happening consistently, then something isn't working. One of the BEST things about homeschooling is that you gt to adjust to things that aren't working by changing things.