So is it houthousing if a parent buys their child some alphabet books or BOB books or leapfrog toys and talks about letter sounds with their preschooler, or puts them on Starfall (assuming the kid is interested and willing)? Or is that just good parenting? What about math? Is it hothousing to ask questions like "If you have 3 cookies and I give you 3 more, then how many do you have?" Where is the line between providing some enrichment according to the child's abilities and hothousing?

We have some friends who are here on a work visa from India and they comment on how apathetic parents here seem to be about academics. They think the whole sports culture with parents dragging their kids from sport to sport is ridiculous. In kindergarten and first grade (and probably before) the mom made her daughter do math workbooks and by the time she was in first grade she was doing long division. I do also think that child was gifted (or close to it) and ready to learn the material. So is that hothousing? Obviously it's also a cultural thing but kids in Asian cultures do much better in math, so maybe it's not all bad. Is it hothousing to push a kid a little bit if they are clearly ready to learn advanced material?

My own DS in first grade is very lazy but we also have IQ results showing the 141 non-verbal IQ and he can clearly learn things quickly. So if I have him do math at the right level after school (since he gets no differentiated work in school), and he's not asking me for this, is that hothousing? He doesn't fight me on anything but doesn't ask for it either.

Just curious.