I am a nanny, and have been for quite some time. I just started watching a new child who is almost four, and I must say, I'm scared for the child. His home life seems to be decent (his parents are separated, but they both spend time with him, etc) but this child's behaviour is starting to concern me. He is constantly talking about monsters, ghosts, mummies, haunted houses, spiders, etc, which initially I thought was normal. Then I started really listening to his stories. They usually involve death, pain, suffering and scaring people. Now, being as I AM just his nanny, I have been trying to push this aside, because there is only so much I can do. However, at his mothers request I have been trying to get him ready for preschool by going over numbers and the alphabet.
 
Now I'm really getting to my point, I promise, but this kid will not learn. He refuses. When I try to teach him (no matter how sneaky I am or how fun I try to make it) he flat out tells me that he is NOT interested in learning. Usually he goes into one of his truly frightening rants about death and monsters instead of paying attention to me. He lives completely in a fantasy world, and will rationalize not listening to me with ghosts. His other little behavioral issues are fairly normal (hyperactive, for example) and I can usually handle it. It's just the trouble with learning, and the fact that he frightens me a little.
I know I'm just the nanny, but I do try to do well at my job and I'm a little lost on this