A family I know "hothouses", as far as I'm concerned. The kids begin doing "homework" for Mom at age 2 1/2 or so. They are bribed with candy and/or playtime to do their work. The primary purpose (according to their mom) is to have them immediately accelerated upon entering Kindergarten. So far the school has done that, even though IQ is barely in MG range but achievement is high. It burns me up because there are so many HG kids that have not been "prepped" for acceleration. I can only believe that the reasons for this is for the over achieving parent to feel better about themselves?
I know a family like that too. It really is fine if the kids love it, but that isn't the case here as well. The mum says that when she yells at her son, he becomes really good at math
. Maybe deep down, I'm a bit jealous cos my son will never be so compliant - he'll probably yell back, and louder too.
One other thing about people like that - they tend to be very competitive. The mother "spotted" my son at a homeschool gathering and was very insistent about playdates with her son. She was extremely nice at first (the lure!) but her son kept letting the cat out of the bag. "I know what you're doing for math and I'm going to beat you cos my mother says I'm smarter than you!", he says to my son. Or "I'm smarter than you so I'll be your boss one day!" Not self-created thoughts at 5yo, that's for sure!
