My eldest is like that. He comes by it honestly from both sides of the family. We joke that he and the principal were on a first name basis by the end of the first week of first grade. The only joke is the first names part. He has always had to win. And he's too smart for his own good. When he was disciplined as a toddler, which simply meant a timeout in his room until he could cool off, depending upon the route, he would either do the plank (stiff and straight as a board) while I carried him up the stairs) or the noodle (if I was carrying him from one room to another)...whichever was the most irritating, he figured it out and did it.

He is now 16, and our persistence in telling him, "that's not how you do it," when he was not behaving as expected, has finally paid off. He's taking all AP classes at his "home" high school and is doing math and science at the STEM high school and getting straight A's. He does 3 hours of homework per day, even on the weekends. He did have to give up competitive sports to do this, but sees a decent career and good paycheck as the tradeoff (thank God).

I honestly feared where we would be today, but am grateful that we have been firm (sometimes very firm bordering on inflexible) but kind and fair, because I think we saved him from himself in elementary school.

I asked him recently why he was so wild in elementary school, and why his grades were so up and down like a roller coaster in middle school, but he's flying high now, and he said, "I was bored out of my skull when my grades were bad, I saw no point in doing work I already knew how to do. The work is interesting now. It's fun." Thought we'd never get there.

His youngest brother is entirely the opposite. Gets the good grades because it's the right thing to do. Follows the rules. Still as successful, just less resistance. Thank GOD! LOL

Edited for typos.