Last year my now ds5 was also very turned off. He was so curious and tenacious about learning from about 1-4 years of age but when he reached 4 he didn't want learn or do anything slightly thought provoking or challenging. If he felt like we were "trying" to teach him anything he would protest or just try to get away somehow. We didn't want to force anything though because he was just 4 and we didn't want to push him and "hothouse" him (I don't think we ever did but we just didn't know). We left him alone and he spent the year in a play based preschool. It seemed that he spent that year becoming more social and learning life skills. This year he is a self-contained gifted program. He really whined and was reluctant at the beginning of the school year but now just relishes the extra challenge and work. In just 2 months of school he is back to the kind of kid he was before. Perhaps it was the school setting or perhaps it was a phase but ds did go through a "lights off" phase. At that time we did worry about it and we will never be sure why this happened so I guess I'm just sharing our story.
