Um, hoo boy. We are now being pretty assertively courted by the chess team coaches, who are suggesting we consider hiring a private coach and strongly advocating for entering him in tournaments.
I don't know if I have explained that the school's chess team is pretty serious. They have a history of winning some big championships, and regularly travel. So this is cool, on the one hand, but also kind of overwhelming. Again--he's 5. And he's an emotional little mite.
JMO, but I think with chess you're right to be cautious - chess is such a competitive world and children sometimes seem to spend *so* much time on it... The skills seem less transferable than maths competition skills (not that they're devoid of things that are no use outside competition) and less capable of bringing pleasure to people around than music - two comparisons that seem relevant when thinking about what my kid should spend time on. It seems like a better thing to do if you're *not* going to be very good at it than if you're in danger of being sucked into the whirlpool... But if your DS wants to and would enjoy it, tricky. I don't know how possible it is to stay moderate.
