I taught my grandson to ski when he was four (he looks so happy about it).

Now that he’s nine and we've been glued in front of the screen watching the Sochi Winter Olympic Games, this thought crossed my mind: “Does the little shredder have what it takes to be a future Winter Olympic competitor?”

While it’s true that most parents [and grandparents] think their children are good at everything they do… how would one ever know if their child was that kind of good?

Well here’s what the experts tell us:

Birth Month

Children who start school as one of the oldest in their class are typically ahead physically and emotionally. Malcolm Gladwell devotes an entire section of his book, Outliers, to the success of those children who are born in the right month.

Genetics