How to challenge a 4 year old....

My 4 year old son is a wonderful ball of energy, he brings so much to joy to my heart.  He is also the real life version of "Curious George"....VERY creative!  I frequently leave the room for 1 minute and come back to something very "interesting" going on....like piles of salt all over the living room floor or butter smeared on the white couch (ask me about that sometime.)  I was sharing these stories with a woman recently who suggested, "Maybe he is just bored.  Why don't you try challenging him a little?"  What a thought!!!!  So I went home that night and ordered some curriculum to work with him on.

Right now his favorite show is "Umi Zoomi", which I absolutely love because it is an interactive, educational program.  They have little math kits, so ordered this:

It came with an episode to watch, a book that tells the story of the movie, 2 work books with topics such as adding, counting, coloring, patterns, and shapes, also a stack of "mission cards" with activities you can do around the house to encourage math and learning, 2 pencils and an eraser.  

I also went to the Library the next day and checked out: 

My sister in law, Heidi, told me she read this to her daughter when she was 2.  I figured I would wait a bit for Drew- being a boy and having a shorter attention span, and so we are reading it at 4, he is doing great.  I hear that if you read to them above their reading level it increases their vocabulary.  Thought that was interesting.  Next we are doing "Mouse and the Motorcycle."

So we have been reading Charlotte's Web and doing his "work books", and I have noticed the "interesting incidents" going down.  Who would have thought challenging a child would help take away the desire for mischief?  So those are a few ideas of challenging a 4 year old, I would LOVE to hear your ideas!