Activities really are the main source of "learning" for DD so I hate to cut down but they are time-consuming and expensive.
Music comes very naturally to DD so she gets a lot of compliments and praise every time she performs, and I try not to let the positive feedback get to us one way or another but it's hard. When she started refusing to go to piano lessons, I have to admit, I started having thoughts like "But you are five and almost ready to play Chopin. How can you even think of giving that all up?" but I had to put my ego aside and determine why she suddenly was refusing to go to lessons when she still loves music. I thought she was feeling over-scheduled or things were getting "too hard" but it turns out she needed a different approach.
She is an over-scheduled child during school days. She is already exhausted by the end of school day but she has lessons after school three days a week plus Sunday. She also has to practice once she gets home so we make sure she has at least two hours of downtime everyday. Thankfully, her school doesn't give homework until fourth grade so we have several years before we have to worry about that even if we stay.
