I think you get at intrinsic motivation through modelling. I try to remind myself to be outspoken in reactions to things I encounter. Like "That was too easy, wasn't much fun." or "Ooh that's a good problem." or "I will defeat the evil crosssword puzzle writer, muahaha."
It seems there is a catch-22 and mixed message as the other day when I asked DS7 if he had fun at school that day and he said: "Naah, everything was too easy." So, we want to reward effort, but most of us have our kids spending 50-100% of a 6-7 hour day without opportunities to put in meaningful effort.
And then if I only praise an area that requires effort (in our case writing,) then what's the message? And wait, if I praise the effort and perseverence it takes to grind through a math sheet of over-easy problems is it interpreted as support for less mental work or support for the perseverence or a shout out for conformity or??? Eghads.
