Howler--I love your idea, but how does your daughter respond when you give her pop quizzes? I can totally see my son saying, "that is not what I am thinking about right now." And then I'm in the position of explaining to him why it matters to be thinking about that right now. Which is part of the point of my question.
Yes!! Exactly. So... I'll say to my son, "ah, but if you had been paying attention, you could have answered. So, hmmm. Maybe next time if you have the right answer for me, I'll give you ten extra Wii minutes."
Bingo. We have focus.
How does that help (if I'm having to motivate him to do it)? Neuroplasticity (why doesn't spell check like that word? sigh) ...as in, the more often he is motivated to pay attention to his surroundings, the more he'll do it, and the more he does it, the more synapses/pathways/whatever are established for that cognitive activity. I'm just a layperson, so to the neurologists out there: please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong...
