I think my son is already starting to underachieve.
He is four. I know that is really young, but as I have posted before, we have really found his behavior is heaps better if I do some sort of school with him. He needs the routine and he needs the stretching. We are homeschooling. Every so often I see him really excited in a quest for learning, but those moments are already getting further apart. He doesn't seem to want to do anything that involves challenge.
An example is reading. We were out at a place we had been to fairly often before and I was stuck outside with my younger boy, so I sent DS inside to get a toy. He came back and said "It won't let me in there." I asked what wouldn't and he said the door. I didn't know what he meant, but when I finally got in there, there was a sign on the door saying that "Children are not allowed in here without adult supervision" So he had read the sign - or at least nutted out enough of it to understand something - yet he insists he can't read. He will insist he can't read words like cat and dog.
He can do addition with counters, but he will guess wildly instead.
What makes this tricky is it is very similar to the behavior of a close family member and it is not a path I'm keen for him to follow.
The options seem to be either I am aiming too low and he is taking that a vote of no confidence or too high and he really can't do what I want him to do. Or both in some weird way
