"That window can close pretty fast for PG kiddos as they build a self-identity around "knowing" rather than "learning."
Could not agree more with this!
I can't speak that my ds6 is PG - but this is what we are dealing with EXACTLY. He loves to be the 'expert'...he is constantly asking me to quiz him on things he already knows. If I ask him a question he doesn't know during our "quiz" time, he gets frustrated and pouty. He doesn't want to combine his LEARNING with his KNOWING.
Now, he is extremely curious and is receptive to learning new things, but I notice that it is often on HIS terms.
In preschool/preK, we used it for social reasons...but also as a jumping off point for informal "homeschooling". We were able to expand upon a lot of ideas that sparked interest for him at school.
I wish I had the solution for the perfectionism thing. He is in soccer, where he FAR from the best. We were finally successful with swimming lessons this summer in that he didn't give up right away and finally conquered his fear of water (though the whole propelling self through water without drowning thing is a goal for next year...sigh).
We started playing a new challenging board game with ds6 and don't keep score at all. That has been a really nice way to teach ds to have fun, shrug off mistakes, and feel OK with learning something that takes some time.
