I am not sure where hot housing begins and ends these days. We go to the library and choose books and videos that could be considered "hot housing". Like Ancient Civilations, or the Wildlife Conservation Society "I Can Read" books. (we are talking for a 3 year old)

She likes them and wants to read or see them over and over. We also go to the Musuem of Natural History and the Hall of Science. We go to the Very Young People's Concerts that the Philharmonic puts on. She watches the ballet of Peter and the Wolf instead of Clifford the Dog. Maybe Clifford is a good show, it somehow doesn't appeal to me.

So is this hothousing a 3 year old? I think we have options to get puzzles, etc. and expect more from our children. Especially when they do show exceptional capabilities.

When she asks me how many subway stops, I answer 5 and mention we are at the third and she calculates there are 2 left, is that hot housing? Her preschool friend's mother does it and her child is not what I would call gifted and the parent intends to send to general education, so is she hot housing also, despite not worrying about GT programs?

When I was little, we had cast off dresses and shoes from our mothers for dress up. My daughter and friends have Disney princess gowns with matching shoes. She has a Cinderella computer and I got her a small mouse for a cast off laptop because she does all those pbskids games. These are mazes and spelling games. Is that hot housing?

I think it is the nature of today's environment. Last week was holiday week from preschool. We went to Rocking Horse Ranch and my DD3 rodes horses, skied, played in the bouncy tent, swam every afternoon. No puzzles, just bonfires and roasted marshmallows. We do not have that naturally and pay for a lot for it, city living. In April I booked a week Land/Sea Disney package. Just dinner with princesses and Mickey and pretending to be a pirate with Captain Hook.

Just like we have the Internet and expect instaneous responses and information, our children are growing up in an environment where hot housing is how we live.

Ren