Dear Calizephr,
everything you say above sounds so reasonable, but
If the child is young (prepuberty),
justice-loving (pay an extreamly high emotional price to do things that don't make sense) and
working years behind readiness level,
doing an action to 'learn a good habit' is an uphill battle that the child may not be developmentally able to take on. KWIM? Sure if your child is willing, it's a good idea, but I'm not sure I would fight a child over it until they show signs of readiness.
Hey my son, now aged 11.5, and just starting to show the physical changes, blew his hair dry last night, to see if it would look good that way. I would say that once a child is willing to do something so meaningless as spending time primping, then they are ready to show their Math work 'for practice.' Globally I've noticed that he really has a whole new appreciation for doing meaningless things just to 'not make waves!' Yippee! I wouldn't have guessed it would ever happen, but yes, they do get boosts from physical development from time to time.
