DS5 has been struggling a bit for the past few months with social anxiety, especially around entering groups of children he doesn't know. We've been working on it with him, and he overcame it last weekend to participate in his first-ever chess tournament! It was a friendly tournament run by our local chess club for about 20 kids, so not too intimidating, but we were very proud of him.

He also did well in terms of chess. The other participants ranged from 7-13 years old, but DS5 still managed to come in 4th overall and 2nd in the under 9 category. This is despite spending a good deal of his time looking around the room, observing other kids, and basically paying attention to everything but the chess board (after all, he is 5!).