When his father bought him a new guitar, my son gave up playing the violin, quit his school orchestra, and devoted himself to guitar lessons. I didn’t really mind. After three years of classic violin, he wasn’t quitting music, he was simply switching to a new instrument. Rather than Bach and Vivaldi, he would learn how to read guitar chords. I told myself my son would still reap the benefits of being an amateur musician. He would know sight-reading, appreciate composers, and continue to improve his math skills. So I switched from paying for a monthly violin rental to weekly guitar lessons. …
Some kids like to play video games on play dates, others like to kick the soccer ball around. But it turns out my middle kid enjoys a good game of chess and practicing phrases from other languages. “Really,” I asked, after he returned from a good friend’s house. “You played chess and practiced learning Russian?” He looked at me as if this was simply par for the course among fifth-graders. Each of my three sons has a distinct personality. The oldest is your typical hardworking and eager-to-please kid, the youngest has an iron will and things come easily to him. But my middle kid was probably …
