Originally Posted by ashley
Lack of free, unstructured time is not an indicator of hothousing - most intense, gifted kids that I know are busy doing something structured that they hardly have any free time (I know a few that are very good at violin, chess and soccer and each of them is so busy at a young age).

I think the question is whether you would be doing these things if it was not part of some sort of imposed program.

I know that when I was younger, I had very little interest in any of the activities that I was doing. So, when I was no longer required to do them, I stopped doing them because the reason that I was doing them had precisely nothing to do with the actual activity.

The activity was a means to some other end.