I get what you are saying and I do agree with you BUT I'm afraid DD's lack of wants has more to do with her perfectionism. Going back to the reading: All of her learning was self motivated. This was the kid at 6 months bringing book after book over to me and asking what's this? and what's that? I certainly had no plans to teach her the abcs but if I didn't answer her or when I tried to engage her in something else it never worked. She had a drive to know and I answered her questions. Then around 15 months she learned the sounds of all the letters. And between 18 months and before 2 years she was recognizing all the store names and many words in the books that we were required to read to her over and over. Our day was all about books. This kid would have been happy with just books. But when we showed excitement about her abilities she freaked out and went into hiding. She dropped reading immediately and I left it alone. Once and a while when she showed interest I would attempt to 'teach' her but learned really quickly that it wasn't a good idea. I finally decided that when she is ready she will let me know and she did, but I think the reason she wasn't ready was because she wasn't 'perfect' at it. The minute she makes a mistake she clams up and has nothing to do with it.
So without forcing them or using incentives which doesn't work on DD; how do you get them to try and accept that you have to practice? That is the big question that I still haven't figured out.
