Hi

Daughter went through 11 plus and is starting yr 7 in Sept. Son is yr 4. For my daughter we used a popular west midlands based companies program with 5 tests a week in year 5. Son is showing some interest and we have walked through some 10 minutes tests from Bond books. He likes them but experience of homework shows he gets easily distracted.

How did others alter a strategy for an easily distracted boy?

The same as you would for an easly distracted girl, I guess.

Small, bitesize, small rewards (don't have to be expensive - could be 30 minutes on his favourite computer game, or a pudding after dinner etc) Reward effort not necessarily results. Short periods where he can concentrate better than long periods where he will faff.

I love the idea of a food reward. You'd get mine studying all night

My experience of working children with a short attention span is to have small manageable tasks: 10 minutes VR, 10 mins vocabulary work, 10 mins on a single maths topic etc. Start and finish with a game. e.g. Triomnos,Yahtzee,dominoes,Uno. Great for relaxing children and building fun into studying

Thanks both.

I like the idea of starting or ending with a short game.

Z

I think using food as a reward is quite a bad idea. At GS the workload is heavy and journey times may well be longer. You could establish a habit of comfort eating that a child could easily fall into.