Children's future, Parenting children: Identify and develop children's talent

I always look for ways to rouse the children's creativity. One way is by encouraging them to join various activities.
My eldest child had a quite long history of trying almost everything since she entered primary school.

She tried music once. She started with a vocal lesson, then swiched to drum and quit not long afterwards. A few years later, I asked her if she would try a music lesson again, she answered firmly: "No".
She made a lot of sketches too, mainly about characters she saw in Japanese animation films. Therefore I sent her to a manga class to see if she was really into drawing or painting. I found out that she wasn't showing much interest during the class sessions.
She wasn't interested in any kind of sport either. Every one would agree by looking at her petite figure. She occasionally swims, though.
She tried a writing course that didn't last long either.

Finally she finished primary school while keeping these three things going:

1. Her interest in learning foreign languages. She speaks English fluently and has a plan to learn Japanese or Mandarin language. Hopefully she can start in the middle of 2009.
2. Abacus and mental arithmetic lesson. Ninta joined this course 7 years ago. The course was run by our neighbor, affiliated to a Malaysian organisation. She graduated recently though she had to take 2 to 3 month breaks for several times in between. I urged her to complete this course as it's not only improving children's mental arithmetic ability, but also other abilities like the ability to memorise, concentrate, listen and process information (which is linked to intelligence). It's a kind of investment that I could proudly add to her CV.
3. Blogging. As I was somehow certain that she had a talent in writing, I encouraged her to start blogging a year ago. Now, every time we plan a trip out of town, I always tell her that the trip is not for free but she has to write something special at her blog otherwise we are not going anywhere.

I actually had regrets every time Ninta failed on some lessons that she had joined. So much money was wasted. However, I had a good feeling too. I did my responsibility as a parent that was to help identify and develop children's talent.